Lamictal and 5 months

I have been on Lamictal for about 3 and a half yrs now for Bipolar 1. Overall, I have had a really great experience with the drug. I started with 100mg and then went to 200mg after a year and a half. Now I take 225mg as of a month ago. For about a year and a half I had the acne on my chin and then it went away suddenly (thought it was cutting out dairy from my diet though). I have been extremely fatigued for awhile now. 7hrs of sleep is not good enough for me so I end up taking long naps when I have the opportunity each day- I always want to sleep. I feel stupid and lack focus and motivation. I use to be a social butterfly and now I feel so exhausted when entertaining. I am a personal trainer and am in the business of making others feel better, but I seem to be feeling worse. I have experienced weight gain as well and that is hard for me since I use to be bulimic and have always had poor body image issues. I was on the NuvaRing for 5 months and it made me sooooo depressed so I finally got off that and feel better- don't mix those 2 drugs.
I am going to ask my doctor to take me off of it this week because I am ready to trust God with my mental health. I have a great support system to help me through the tough times and if I want to get pregnant, I have to go off it anyway.

Has anyone experienced Melasma with this drug? I am trying to identify if this is the cause of my melasma, because it worsened when we increased from dose from 150 up to 250mg a day.

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.

I've been on Lamictal for about 5 months now. I recently have had some horrible side effects. I've had the acne, brain fogginess and weight gain all along. About a month ago I was hospitalized for having a blood phosphorus level of 0.6 which is dangerously low. The symptoms around that day were nausea, feeling like I couldn't breathe, hyperventilation, heart rate of 120-130, tingling sensations from my nose to my toes, diarrhea and almost blacking out. Of course, the ER doc thought I was having a panic attack and told me to breathe into a bag and try to breathe slowly. NOT from a panic attack. Granted, I was panicking because I was scared. Has anyone experienced this low phosphorus problem?? I will be coming off of Lamictal in the next week. Hasn't made my depression, panic attacks or sex drive any better. thanks.

I'm taking Wellbutrin and Lamictal (150 mg for both) for at least 5 months now, as a mood stabilizer. Like many people have said on here don't let these bad reviews scare you away from trying it, at the very worst you will take it and not like it so you can stop. But for me it was amazing how it stabilized my moods. I didn't expect it to be so noticeable. I had tried Topamax right before but it was terrible for me- it made me sooo out of it and I had a very hard time talking (finding the right words, pausing in sentences frequently) Lamictal didn't do that to me. I have started to get acne on my jawline like many others have posted, I didn't think it would be related but I've NEVER had acne on my jaw and cheeks they are really tiny bumps of acne, but a lot of them. The reason I started to look at this site for people's side effects was now I have terrible neck soreness and stiffness. I mean BAD. It's slowly working it's way to the middle of my neck as the day goes on and feels like it's going down the middle of my back as well. Very weird, I haven't exercised or done anything in the past 4 or 5 days that would have pulled a muscle, so make what you will out of it but I'm going to stop taking this drug. It's unfortunate because I really did like it and am worried how my moods will be after stopping it. But TRY IT, it has been at least 5 months of me being more stable so that alone is worth the clarity. Also, I'm a woman with usually heavy periods but didn't have that side effect with this drug and I lost weight didn't gain any with this one either, but I'm sure that had a lot to do with the Wellbutrin which is notorious for weight loss rather than weight gain. Also, if you start to feel good at a low dose as I did DON'T INCREASE IT! I hate hearing people say their doctor's wanted to get them to the "therapeutic dose" even when they felt good, your more likely to have neg. side effects if you go higher than you need. Everyone is different in how their body metabolizes the medicines. Do your research and hold your ground, make sure you have a doctor that will listen to you, that's key.

I was on 100 mg Lamictal for about 3 months and all I can say is this medication was a nightmare for me. I do have a history of depression, and have recently been diagnosed for Bipolar 2 (which by the way I believe I am not bipolar and that what I had was extreme stress and anxiety from a high pressure job), anyway the medication put me in the hospital. I was at work feeling OK and next minute carried out on a stretcher into an ambulance. I experienced confusion, more anxiety, hair loss, tremors. I also had seizures at work during the few months of taking the medication. My eyes were rolling back and forth. How scary! I also had sores in my mouth and my doctor said it was probably an infection or tooth problem. I never had these kinds of mouth sores before and surprise surprise they (and all other symptoms) went away after I stopped the medication.

I am only feeling normal now and it has been about 5 months after my hospital incident.

The hospital was very scary as well.

I have two children and I do not need to get all messed up on medication.

I am taking another path now and feel much better these days.

No more Lamictal or any other "Mood stabilizers" for me.......

I HAVE BEEN ON THE LAMICTAL FOR 5 MONTHS NOW( FOR MINOR BI POLAR EPISODE). AT FIRST I FELT A LITTLE "SPACEY" AS I HAVE INCREASED MY DOSAGE EACH TIME I NOTICED VERY PAINFUL MENSTRUAL CRAMPS, WORSE PMS, EXTRA LONG MENSTRUATION CYCLE, JOINT PAIN IN THE HIP, FORGETTING EVERYTHING( LOSS OF SHORT TERM MEMORY), AND EXTREME TIREDNESS IN THE DAY AND NOT SLEEPING AT NIGHT. I HAD BEEN ON 75MG A DAY ( 2 IN AM, 1 IN PM) AND THEN UPPED MY DOSE TO 100MG(2 IN AM, 2 IN PM). THE SIDE EFFECTS ARE WORSENING, ESPECIALLY THE JOINT PAIN. I HAVE ALSO NOTICED PANIC ATTACKS AND IRRITABLENESS THAT I HADN'T HAD BEFORE. WORST OF ALL, IS THAT I HAVE GAINED ABOUT 27 LBS WHILE TAKING THIS MED. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD ANY OF THESE SYMPTOMS? PLEASE REPLY TO TELL ME THE BEST REMEDY.