Stabilizer symptoms and conditions

Reading over some of these posts and wanted to share my experience w/Lamictal. Been on it over 2 year, 400mg/day. Sever bipolar with mixed & rapid cycling episodes. Oh YEA...I have side effects too: blurred vision that comes and goes, super klutziness, confusion, hard to complete sentences sometimes (just can't find the words sometimes for the simplest sentence!), dizziness, prone to broken blood vessels under the skin when bump into something or carry loaded grocery bag over my arm, jittery, short term memory loss, feeling really stupid like my brain isn't working sometimes. BUT...I will stay on this med because it rally works for me and the above effects are and bad, just frustrating. It took me a good 5-6 months for the meds to work as they should. Be aware that it won't make things perfect, mood swings and even moderate episodes can be expected. I am pretty much in a constant state of mild/moderate mania (2 hr sleep/night, hi energy, talk to fast, mind racing,etc), which is fine for me, as it really curbed the depression (maybe only 1 day every 2 months now and its NOT a BAD downer) I have found the drug is a good "stabilizer" keeping me mostly in a normal to moderate swing...never any severe swing. If the side effects are not unbearable, stick with the med, just be patient. It sure works for me. Learn to laugh at the klutziness and stupid moments and understand its the med and you. GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!

I have been taking dilantin as a stabilizer for bipolar disorder. I was told that it would cause me to feel sleepy, which is fine with me because that really helpful with the whole insomnia thing. I just take it before bed. I noticed that at first I felt like I was walking through a perpetual fog. But that seems to have stopped now. It seems to be working ok. My problem is it seems to have increased my appetite and caused me to gain weight.
I was wondering if anyone else had noticed substantial weight gain (3-10 lbs in 2 weeks!! :( ) . I've read that a lot of people experience weight loss with dilantin, i was wondering if the opposite could be true as well.