Bipolar ii symptoms and conditions

I am taking the generic Bupropion at 300mg per day. I went up in dosage to 300 last month, I'm about 1 week in to my 2nd refill on the 300mg. I am having TERRIBLE side affects right now. At this moment I'm at work trying to concentrate on even saying the right words on the phone - I have no sick time left so I can't go home - my hearing is jacked up. Things fade out and then come back so loud. I feel as if I'm drifting off to sleep and things get quiet and then WHAM someone will say something to me and it's so loud like someone woke me up from a nap. My vision is a little blurry, and I can't remember things. Fortunately I can get away with this for another day at my job, I started feeling like this yesterday, just today started thinking it was my med. I'm not on any other meds. I'm dizzy too. The worst part is I can't remember conversations. At the time of, I know what I'm saying though slower, but if I'm having a lengthy conversation I will probably forget what you said at the beginning. The confusion is what makes me the most upset. Things that I know, little things like someones phone extension, I can't remember and have to look up. The weird thing is all these symptoms come in waves. I'll have a moment of 'normalness' and then right back into the symptoms. I'm even having trouble typing right now. - I'm not hungry and after reading this site I now know why I'm itching all over.

I got on this website looking for a 'quick fix' like eating a big meal, but see I'm going to have to rough it out another day here in la la land. Wellbutrin was working for me in the beginning, 150 mg for 2 months, increased energy, good attitude etc, then wore off a little so we uped it to 300mg. I'm going to go dwn in dosage, try taking the 150mg tomorrow and see how I feel. I hope this wears off!! I am curious to know if you can cut the dosage of 300mg pill Buproprion to 150 by cutting it in half? I just got that refill so I was wondering. Today is going to be so rough! I went straight to bed yesterday after work and guess I will be doing the same tonight. Oh great, my coworker just asked if I was "ok" because I'm being so quiet. Yikes. I've read this email about 5 times to make sure I don't repeat myself since I can't remember!

Hello. I just finished the one month starter pack of Lamictal for depression. I've been noticing some strange things going on with me lately but did not make the connection to the Lamictal until I spoke with my pharmacist (while picking up my official prescription). Mainly the info warned of dizziness, sleeping issues, heart racing and sinus issues. I have had ALL of these. Two weeks into taking the medication I can't sleep well at night. I wake up and my heart is racing. I have to go watch TV to settle down. Plus, I'm extremely EXHAUSTED all day. And finally, the worst symptom is my sinus issues. I have constant mucous in my throat and pressure in my sinuses. I have the worst headaches. I'm popping Advil to deal with my sinus pressure. It's agony. Plus, I'm not motivated and I think I'm a little depressed. I'm going to discuss getting off this medication with my doctor tomorrow.

Hey, am I glad I ran across this. I too had BAD experience with Lamictal; anything over 75mg gave me depressive / fatalistic dreams if I took it at night. Doctor suggested taking it in the morning, that helped, eventually up to 150mg. All this for *suspected* bipolar II. All that really happened is that the med flattened me out too much- I didn't care much about anything, no passion or motivation. Optimism? What's that? Then the OTHER fun part - coming OFF the drug. Whoooo boy. Wasn't so bad coming down from 150mg to about 75mg. THEN I got hit with a LOT of anger, anxiety, insomnia, tremors.... I wound up going into a Partial Hospitalization Program for 5 weeks. I am now 100% OFF Lamictal. Thank God.

I have been on Lamictal for Bipolar II for a little over two years now. The first side effect I really noticed was that I had zero desire to exercise anymore. I used to be pretty athletic, loved to go on hikes, now I could care less. Also, my brain is mush. I am a former honors/ Dean's list student; I had one professor in college tell me I was the only person in class who would ever be able to write professionally, and I have been trying to write the same novel for three years now. I forget how to spell words and how to formulate sentences. I can never find the right word. I forget what the plot is, what I wrote in the last chapter, so I am constantly re-reading what I wrote. I started to think that I had ADD because I couldn't focus on anything, and I couldn't remember if I had always been this way or not. Granted, I think I have always had a bit of a problem with executive functioning- organizing, prioritizing, completing tasks- but it has always been more of a problem with keeping my house clean, etc, NEVER with writing. Also, I have always been very good at remembering names, dates, events in history- the random sort of information that makes a person stellar at Trivial Pursuit- and all I can say now is, 'Uhhh... oh, man, I KNOW THIS.' Also, I am becoming incredibly antisocial, which I think probably has something to do with the fact that I no longer know how to talk. (A sidenote: I'd say chances are good that I have Asperger's; socializing has always been a challenge for me. My point here is that I'm wondering whether Lamictal is making the things I have problems with worse, ie, executive functioning, socialization..., etc. I used to be able to overcome these impairments intellectually; now that my brain doesn't function the way it used to, it's way harder to compensate.) I had a conversation with my husband the other day about all of it, whether he thought Lamictal was truly helping me. He told me that I no longer seem interested in doing anything anymore; that I am no longer sharp like I used to be; that I lack the vitality I used to have; that I no longer get excited about anything anymore. Now I know that Lamictal is a mood stabilizer, that I am on it to stabilize my moods, so obviously there are no longer going to be the highs that there once were. But now I feel so flat and dumb I just don't know. By the way, I have worked my way down to 75mg at night from 200mg. (Which is an improvement, I'll give you that- before I was scared to drive because I'd practically forget I was driving, that's how crappy my short term memory was.) Just so you know, I don't feel depressed, so it's not that my dose is too low and I'm experiencing depression. I just don't feel much of anything at all anymore.

I feel like I should share my positive experience with Lamictal to balance the negative reviews. I am on it for bipolar II. I sought help because of a mixed state that was causing me to deteriorate to the point of seriously considering suicide. I titrated up on Lamictal from 25 to 50 to 100 and now 200 mg. I started the 200 mg last week, and suddenly yesterday and today, it's like a cloud has lifted. I feel like myself again.

I've had very few side effects. I have the relatively-rare yawning issue--I yawn every few minutes even though I'm not tired. My dreams have been especially vivid, which I actually enjoy. My facial acne seemed to be a bit exacerbated at first, but it's calmed down. I have a couple of small blemishes on my chest and shoulders, which is unusual for me, but it's minimal and responds well to benzoyl peroxide. My weight has stayed the same.

My bipolar has affected every aspect of my life, and I feel more stable now than I have in years. I'm sure there are still rough times ahead, but the relief Lamical has given me is a huge gift. I feel hopeful for the first time in months.

Also, it seems to have increased my libido. Like, a lot. I'm not complaining about that!

My doctor prescribed lamictal after I reported hypomanic symptoms from prozac. The first couple of days on lamictal I thought it was the miracle drug; it really eliminated my mood swings. But as the days progressed, I began to have the following disturbing side effects:
- terrible insomnia (waking in the middle of the night and can't go back)
- horrifying violent dreams (of animals and people being hacked to death with machetes... interestingly, I reported this to my doctor and her response was, that just means your brain is adjusting to the chemicals...easy for her to say, she's not waking up with terrible memories of these disturbing dreams)
- weird pains and stiffness in my neck with swollen lymph nodes in the neck
- increase in anxiety and feelings of panic
- increase in feelings of anger and agitation
- feeling of detachment
- thoughts of suicide and the meaninglessness of life
- carbohydrate cravings and weight gain of nearly 4 pounds in 2 WEEKS!!
(weight had previously been stable for years)

These symptoms all appeared after taking the lamictal after only 2 weeks. Even though my doctor recommended actually INCREASING the dose of lamictal and/or adding prozac, I decided to wean off the lamictal (I was on the smallest dose of 25 mg) as an experiment to see if the symptoms would go away...
YES they did!! Every single one of them went away and were COMPLETELY gone after the second day of discontinuing the lamictal.

I know that this medication is being touted as the new miracle cure for bipolar II especially, but I think more clinical studies need to be done on lamictal. This experience was a very scary one and not unlike that reported by others on this site.

Everyone's body is different and reacts to every medicine differently. After experiencing depression for some years i was finally put on an antidepressant (cymbalta). My dosage was continually increased because I wasn't feeling any better. Eventually I changed psychologists and she diagnosed me as being bipolar II and said that anti-depressants have an adverse effect on people who are bipolar. so for about a year and a half i was on 200 mg of lamictal. It worked wonders and i felt no negative side effects other than if i forgot to take my second dose during the day. Eventually i took myself off of it (slowly, in the same fashion that i had started it) and was off of it for about a year. Getting off of it was hard, but eventually i felt ok. Then a year later i felt i needed it again. So after a 3 months of being on it again my doctor took me off of it because i experienced extreme head pressure-to the point that i felt like my head was going to explode. i had a checkup at my regular doctor and nothing was wrong. once i had the lamictal out of my system i felt fine again. well now a year and a half after that, i started the lamictal again in hopes that it would work like it did the first time for me. Unfortunately that has not happened yet. As i write this, my head has so much pressure. I ve experienced headaches on and off for the past 4 days. This is not a common side effect so im not sure whats going wrong.. Has anyone else experienced this or know why that is happening? Anyways like i said the first time i was on lamictal for a yr and a half and i felt fantastic. I would tell people i "loved it"---which sounds silly but when you go from absolutely miserable to feeling alive again and having motivation, that phrase doesnt sound so silly. so take everything you hear with a grain of salt. experience it for yourself because everyone's body is different and who knows, maybe you will feel better on it. I however am stopping this drug tomorrow because of the rare head pressure i experience while on it!

I have been on Lamictal for about five months for bipolar II. I has been increased slowly over these months and I am now up to 300 mg a day. I have a tendency to sometimes forget things but remembering numbers has never been a problem for me. In fact I can look at someone's tag number driving down the road and remember it for days. Phone numbers of people I have known for 20 years would stick and I wouldn't even have to call them on a regular basis to know the number. However, recently while trying to use my bank debit card at the store I was asked to enter my PIN number and totally could not remember. I tried it several times but it never came to me. I felt like a fool!. At this time, that was three days ago and I still cannot remember it!

This is very, very distressing to me. I feel like something has been wiped clean and that I will never get it back.

My Lamictal dose has been increased in the last couple of weeks and I thought maybe Lamictal or one of my other meds could be making this happen so I started researching and found this site where other people were complaining of memory loss while on Lamictal.

Headaches are another common side effect for me while on this med. It has really helped me emotionally and I need to know if the memory loss is just going to be a temporary thing and it will get back to normal or if I will be forgetting more and more over time. PLEASE HELP!!!

I had the Mirena coil removed a week and a half ago and let me tell you I have had the worst week ever!!
My reasons for getting it removed were the same as most people, very bad mood swings,always snapping at my boyfriend, depression, always bleeding, severe stomach cramps all the time, anxiety, hair loss, low libido and the list goes on... I never had any of this before the mirena.. I never realised the mirena could of been the cause until I decided to google it one day and found thousands of women had the same symptoms, everything then made sense...

I made the appointment to get it removed and immediately started taking Vit B6, Primrose oil and I have ordered 5HTP on the internet cos I cant find it anywhere... day 4 I started getting very bad anxiety and horrible suicidal thoughts, I have always been a happy person and couldnt understand what was happening to me... the whole week at work was a blur and each day was a struggle to get through.. I was continuously crying and I had these horrible thoughts in my mind that wouldnt go away!! it has been a nightmare.. its like they are stuck in my mind and I cant think of anything else but these horrible thoughts! (The weird thing is I had the same thoughts when I had the mirena inserted 2.5 years ago but they werent as bad as now and they eventually went away) I saw my doctor on Thursday morning and explained these problems and she prescribed me valium tablets to take away the anxiety... later that afternoon I had a anxiety attack and landed going back to the doctor because of these horrible suicidal thoughts in my mind... My doctor reffered me to a phyciatrist which I saw yesterday, I have never had to see anyone like this before so it was very scary for me... the shrink I saw said that there was no ways the mirena could be doing this to me.... she gave me more valium for my anxiety and now I have to see a special therapist once a week until these thoughts are cleared from my mind!
I find it very strange that all this started 4 days after my mirena was removed! I know this is all happening because of the mirena, the only thing that is keeping me going is reading everyones posts and knowing that this will go way once my hormones settle, I know im not going crazy even though it feels like I am!!
Every doctor I have spoken to will not agree that the mirena could cause any of these side effects! It makes me so mad that so many women are going through this and the doctors think the Mirena is the best thing since slice bread! How can they have no idea!!??
If anyone is thinking of getting the mirena.. DONT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!

I think a very, very important thing to keep in mind is how differently medications will work for different people. While it seems many of you have had horrible experiences with it, I surely don't think this is the case for everyone, including myself. I've been diagnosed with bipolar-II and have been on Lamictal for several months, currently at a dose of 150mg. I've found it had dramatically brought down my rapid cycling and decreased the severity of my depressive episodes. Though I still have mood swings, they are less frequent and less intense/disabling.
As far as side effects go, I've never been one to experience many side effects from any medication I've been on. With Lamictal I've begun having headaches and also difficulty with focus, concentration, and short term memory. I'm much more spacey than usual and often will get distracted while having a conversation with someone and forget what we were talking about. My psychiatrist believes these indicate ADD and has prescribed me Ritalin, which I refuse to take because I'm convinced that these problems are side effects of the Lamictal. I've experienced weight loss, but this also may be due to the 200mg Wellbutrin I am also taking.
Although I've experienced more side effects with Lamictal than any other drug, for me I'm willing to continue giving it a try because of its effect on my moods.

My son and I have both taken Welbutrin. I didn't really notice a lot of side effects. I know that it did not effect my sex drive which other meds did. I lost weight, lost interest in drinking alcohol, lost interest in smoking. Had more energy,
My son has had some different things happen to him. He gets real sharpe headache pains in the left top of his head. They come and go away within about 30 seconds. Has anyone ever had that problem? He tried getting off of the meds and experenced all these body pains. It drove him nuts so he went back on welbutrin. The body pains have gone away, but the head pains came back. The doctor said the head pains would go away if he took his meds regular.

I am bipolar II and began taking Lamictal on top of my usual cocktail of Wellbutrin and Zyprexa following a suicide attempt. As everyone else has reported, it took a while to get up to a theraputic dosage; once I got there though, I felt the best I had in years (no exaggeration) - I literally felt completely freed from my illness. This freedom came at a cost, however. During my college days (I am a recent graduate) I was the top student in my department and routinely completed tremendous projects in unusually short amounts of time. Since reaching my current dosage of Lamictal, however, I have begun FAILING a Spanish course I am taking as I am both unable to retain anything I learn from studying (especially flash cards, which as everyone knows are the key to learning new vocabulary words) and, more importantly, feel no motivation to correct the situation. I am currently preparing to take two GREs as well as apply to eight graduate schools and have gone from obsessing over the issue to not caring whatsoever. I have also begun a new job recently and have extreme difficulty waking up each morning due to how exhausted I feel (it's notable that I didn't have this feeling upon switching to a large dose of Zyprexa.) My doctor has instructed me to lower the dose and monitor my mood accordingly to see if I can have positive psychological results with minimal side effects. I am upset about potentially having to give up the radical change in how I feel every day, but the side effects are just too severe (at the current dose, that is.) It still remains to be seen whether a lower dose will have sufficiently positive psychological effects with minimal side effects; I will make a followup post after this one once I can assess that.

Depression! I've been medicated for Bipolar II for years, and it's always been well-controlled. Having recently contracted Lyme, though, I'm on doxy for six weeks and all I want to do is sleep and cry! Yikes!

Took mostly for seizures, but have been informally diagnosed with Bipolar II.

Had tremors at night, almost immediately, marked anxiety, weight loss, strange heat flashes, severe headaches (already have a migraine problem), complete w olfactory hallucinations (could have been breakthrough simple seizures, or headache auras).

Felt detached from myself and others. But the most disturbing symptom of all was auditory hallucinations. I have no history of psychosis and this only happened after starting Lamictal. Basically I could hear a constant chirping sound, subtle, but loud enough at night to keep me from sleeping unless my radio was playing to distract me from the sound. Could it have been a new form of seizure? Maybe, but regardless, the sounds started at the time I started this drug. Plus, according to a psychiatrist, I had no signs of psychosis, just the unexplained phantom sounds. One last possibility: Maybe an inner ear problem. Still would like to look into that.

People are right when they say this is still an experimental drug. If I had known what I was getting myself into, I never would have tried this drug to begin with. If any of you have had auditory hallucinations on this drug, without a history of any sort of hallucination or psychosis, PLEASE respond here and let me know about your experience. Thanks!

Took mostly for seizures, but have been informally diagnosed with Bipolar II.

Had tremors at night, almost immediately, marked anxiety, weight loss, strange heat flashes, severe headaches (already have a migraine problem), complete w olfactory hallucinations (could have been breakthrough simple seizures, or headache auras).

Felt detached from myself and others. But the most disturbing symptom of all was auditory hallucinations. I have no history of psychosis and this only happened after starting Lamictal. Basically I could hear a constant chirping sound, subtle, but loud enough at night to keep me from sleeping unless my radio was playing to distract me from the sound. Could it have been a new form of seizure? Maybe, but regardless, the sounds started at the time I started this drug. Plus, according to a psychiatrist, I had no signs of psychosis, just the unexplained phantom sounds. One last possibility: Maybe an inner ear problem. Still would like to look into that.

People are right when they say this is still an experimental drug. If I had known what I was getting myself into, I never would have tried this drug to begin with. If any of you have had auditory hallucinations on this drug, without a history of any sort of hallucination or psychosis, PLEASE respond here and let me know about your experience. Thanks!

Hello.

I have been taking topamax for bipolar II disorder. The first week or so, I experienced some very unpleasant side effects. I would become very disoriented while driving and get lost in locations that had previously been very familiar to me. I would also lose track of my thought process mid-sentence. An avid runner, I was unable to exercise for about a week. However, these side-effects have since subsided. I do experience a decrease in appetite, which is fine for now, but I'll have to see how that pans out in the future.

One thing I'd like to point out is that I would imagine topamax to be very unpleasant for somebody who does not have a mood disorder. I feel that it truely restrains my impulses (I suffer from impulse control disorder), and it has worked wonders for me in terms of my mental illness. I believe that topamax is a great alternative to some of the other medications for bipolar disorder in terms of weight gain. On the other hand, I think that those who do not require psychiatric attention would be better off with a drug that does not serve as a mood stabilizer.

That's just my opinion. Good luck!

I, too, am finding my normally thick hair is showing up more in my brush and on the floor. I am a 46yo woman with Crohn's disease on top of being bipolar II rapid cycling. The only thing I can attribute the hair loss to at this point is the Trileptal because I began having this symptom only after I started it. I have a very strict diet to control my Crohn's disease without meds and that hasn't changed. Besides going off of Trileptal, does anyone have any countermeasures for the hair loss?

I started Lamicatal May 19th, 2005. I was warned by my doctor of dangerous rash and itching. If so, stop taking medication, call him if not too bad that I need to call 911 to go to the hospital. On my print out from the CVS pharmacy is clearly stated: Serious (sometimes fatal) skin rashes have occured while using this medicine. Immediately notify your doctor if you develop any type of rash. If this medicine is the cause of the rash, the medicine must be stopped. Even after stopping this medicine. It is still possible for the rash to cause permanent or life-threatening scarring along with other problems.

Possible Side Effects:
drowsiness, trouble sleeping, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, muscle aches, double vision, blurred vision, fatigue, weakness, headache, shakiness, or clumsiness.

Symptoms of an Allergic Reaction include:
rash, itching, hives, fever, swollen glands, swelling of the lips or tongue, painful sores in the mouth or around the eyes, severe dizziness, or trouble breathing.

Symptoms of Overdose:
may include unusual dizziness, serve headache, unusual sleepiness, involuntary eye movements, and loss of consciousness.

I starting itching really bad the second day on the medication. To the point I had huge bruises allover me. I got a spurt of energy that I have not had in several years the second night but not since then. I can't go to sleep at night. Even taking 6 Tylenol PM and a Klonapin I don't get sleepy until around 9 to 100am in the morning and then I sleep all day long. I have started to have frequent headaches, suspious bumps around my mouth area. My muscles ache, too. It is Memorial day weekend so I can't call my doctor but I am going to on Tuesday. I have (MDD) Major Depression Disorder, Manic Depression, (TRD) Treatment Resistent Disorder. Nothing I have taken thus far has helped me with my depression.

Does anyone have first hand knowledge on ECT treatment? I am seriouly considering this procedure. I am desperate but I have no insurance or money because I haven't be able to work for 9 years now. This is the only thing that has kept me from getting the ECT treatments, is money! I have contacted every Talk show, hospital, clinical trials and no luck in finding free help with ECT.

Any ideas, guidance or suggestions would be most appreciated, I am dire to get help soon or I won't make it.
Sincerely,
Lost Hope

I have been taking topamax for about 5 years. I was off for about 18 mos. to have a child and nurse, and have been back on for 3 years now. I have been prescribed for bipolar II disorder. My main symptom has always been irritability, they say it is mixed episodes. I have no mania, really. My doctor believes that topamax is most effective at high doses, so I had been taking 1200 mg/day, and he only took me down when I complained about the confusion, word-finding, (general abscence of a brain), so now I am at 600 mg/day and have been for some time.

The tingling hands/feet does go away. The diarrhea does go away. Even the weight loss will stabilize. However, I have been in a severe depression for at least a year. I have incredible fatigue (I sleep 15 hours a day), I am very moody, and I have aggressive irritability. I am incredibly ditzy, and numbers confound me (can't add 2+2). I have chronic back and neck pain and have now developed chronic headaches. I sit and think, something is majorly wrong with me, I'm dying. I even have constantly plugged ears, ringing in the ears, excessive sweating (I never used to sweat and now no anti-persperant works) and body odor.

I have felt like a hypocondriac going back to my Dr. reporting these things to have him go hmmmm, I have no idea. Until I started to research Topamax and saw all of these things listed on the side effects, and realized exactly how high my dose was. Looks like I need to find a new Dr.

jerkiness of arms and legs, headaches, hair loss and thinning (as in thick to fine), brain fog - have trouble remembering simple things like someone's name, my sleep is all screwed up, have been taking 450 mgs Wellbutrin XL for several years, decided to go off. Also take Effexor XR and Lamictal - may go off Effexor too, Lamictal helps with mood swings (I am Bipolar II) - not sure if it is causing any of the problems or not, only been on it 6 months - 100 mg. Any one else on this combinatio? The hair loss is what concerns me most, I'm only 54 - not ready to look like my grandmother!

I am 26 and on Neurontin for sciatic pain, bipolar II, and migraines. Since taking it, I have bad chest pains and trouble breathing when I lay down. So tired but afraid to sleep. Advice?

I am taking Neurontin for Bipolar II. I have had great results thus far going into my 3rd month of being on it. I am however, taking 1200mg in the morning and night. I am experiencing brainfog, but I feel more stable than in my whole life (42). I should add that I am taking 37mg of Paxil as well. So, what are the side effects of Neurontin? Long term and short term! I had no idea this drug was being taken for other health issues than seizures.