I have been taking Lamictal for about 2 months now. Started at 25...

I think you should seek help from another md. a general doctor i believe help people with bipolar. especially guessing with those medications. i previously was on prozec, that caused me extreme hyperness and anger. i was taken permanently off antidepressants for the time being. lamictal is a mood stabilized. do you take those at the same time? i feel a lot better on the lamictal alone. like i said speak to a good psyc doc they can help figure out what will be in you best interest.
camille

Please see my posting about severe headaches while on Lamictal, posted Apr. 4/08. My headaches are so debilitating, I'm starting on a special vitamin and mineral supplement to see if I might be able to reduce the Lamictal and/or get off it, along with all the pain medication I have to take related to the Lamictal headaches. Good luck with your pain and other problems; it's not easy, that's for sure.

Rosslyn

1hybernator, if I were you I'd seek another opinion and here's why. First, SSRIs are only one class of antidepressant (I think at last count there were 12 different classes of ADs), so serotonin just may not be the cause of your depression. Second, antidepressants can actually CAUSE irritability, agitation, and anxiety, both in bipolars and in people who are not bipolar.

I went to see an MD for some mild depression. I had just watched my mother go through major quit-my-job-and-lock-myself-in-my-bedroom-for-6-months depressive episode and I wanted a pill because I was scared it was going to happen to me. The first AD caused irritability, anxiety, and agitation. We switched to another. And another. And another. Over 4 months I tried about a dozen different meds, with rapid changes in med or dosage and the anxiety and other symptoms got worse and worse to the point where I felt totally out of control.

At that point my MD sent me to a therapist, who tried a few more ADs. Then he and a psychiatrist gave me a diagnosis of bipolar disorder type II plus GAD and a couple of other things. But I didn't have bipolar symptoms (the anxiety and irritability and agitation they were calling hypomania) until I went on the AD merry-go-round. They diagnosed me based on the symptoms that were side effects and not for my original problem.

I spent 4 years of hell on meds I didn't need, nearly lost my spouse and kids, went on disability, and generally didn't live because I was misdiagnosed. So if you don't seem to have any OTHER symptoms of mania or hypomania besides those that could be AD induced, see another doctor. See if they will take you off all the ADs for a few weeks and see if everything goes away except the depression.

Believe me, I consider myself as having been bipolar because medication-induced bipolar is a valid diagnosis (bipolar type IV), but I am no longer, thank goodness. I have talked to a whole lot of bipolar people of all demographics and I definitely believe in it as a valid diagnosis. And I definitely believe in meds for it when you find the right combination. But it is also definitely possible to be misdiagnosed. It never hurts to get another opinion.

I do still have anxiety problems and take Xanax. I have hoped the anxiety would disappear when I got off all the drugs I shouldn't have been on, but it didn't. And I still occasionally have depression. So does my mom, although hers is much better controlled now on medication.

There is no pill to help all of your current symptoms, but if some were medicationally induced, you may not need a bunch of pills.

I do have a good friend who has been on Buspar for a couple of years and she says it keeps her on an "even keel" and she has no side effects from it. Good luck hon.