Lamotrigine

It's good that you are reporting back.

I am experiencing a lot of what you are talking about. As a Bipolar I (net says that means full mania whereas Bipolar II has less mania called hypomania), I take Lithium for the mania and Mirtazapine for the depression. Again, if I am correctly dxed as a bipolar I, and I don't take two meds, the anti-depressant will send me into mania and possible panic attacks. However, the Lithium treats the mania and stops me from going into mania.

You are saying you take Lamotrigine (which webmd.com says, "Lamotrigine is used alone or with other medications to prevent and control seizures. It may also be used to help prevent the extreme mood swings of bipolar disorder in adults."
And Abilify which net says, "It may also be used in combination with other medication to treat depression."

You say, "I have noticed that I am gaining weight ( 17 lbs over a 3 year span )and starting to have breast....I am hungry all the time but I have been able to control my food intake (at least ,most of the time )...I go to the gym three times a week.... My doc tells me that gaining weight is a side affect of lamotrigine on some people and that I do not have much choice.I do not want to go on lithium ( nor does my doc want me to) so, I seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place . Does anyone have any advice ?????"

On the net I have found both negative and positive as to does Lamotrigine and Ability cause weight gain.

I think keeping a record is the best way to determine that, and you say, "I have noticed that I am gaining weight ( 17 lbs over a 3 year span )and starting to have breast....I am hungry all the time but I have been able to control my food intake (at least ,most of the time )."

I have gained weight, also, on Lithium (mood stabilizer) and the anti-depressant Mirtazapine. Concerning the latter, it says, "Increased appetite" just as you said, "I am hungry all the time."

Taking medicine keeps me going and it seems some pills have side-affects. If we don't take the pills we can have the original illness. If we do take the pills we can have side-affects.

I think by being positive, we can see the good side that the pills are doing: keeping us going and functioning.

There was an era when there were no pills, you just didn't function.

I try to be thankful that I can function.

You say, "The meds are doing their job and I feel pretty good "

That is a huge bonus.

Thank you both! I have been going to the gym for about a year ...Last week i started a specific program for my knee. Wish I could do something about the abilify but my doc ( G.P.) says,if it works do not fix it ! The weight gain does not help my knee. .Will give you feedback !

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

We don't know how lucky we are to live in the era of modern medicine.

My grandmother was Bipolar but she didn't have the benefits of modern medicine, or any medicine. She would go into people's medicine cabinets looking for relief from her mania and depression. There wasn't any.

You noted in your first post on 6/5/2022,

"I am on 350 mg of Lamotrigine and 2 mg of Abilify..i have been feeling rotten the last 2 weeks and It is hard to get an appointment with my DR. ( a GP ) .Almost impossible to get an appointment with a psychiatrist ..My family Dr thinks that 350 mg of Lamotrigine is about the top that I can take and he does not want me to go on Lithium."

You noted in an earlier post, "The meds are doing their job and I feel pretty good "

You noted in your latest post, "my doc ( G.P.) says,if it works do not fix it !"

So, that's a lot of progress.

You went from rotten to your medicine is working. That's a big step.

That leaves a lot of hope for others. Keep us posted on how this is going.

I looked through the net and under NAMI.org it said about Lamotrigine:

“Lamotrigine is a mood stabilizer medication that works in the brain. It is approved for the treatment of bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) and certain types of seizure disorders. Bipolar disorder involves episodes of depression and/or mania.”

So it sounds like a good medicine. The net also says they can increase the dosage.

I would stick with your therapy and your medicine.

As I mentioned, with Bipolar I, I have been manic, and without medicine, my anger can be through the roof.

For borderline, one website said about medicines for that:

* Ativan (lorazepam)
• Klonopin (clonazepam)
• Xanax (alprazolam)
• Valium (diazepam)
• Buspar (buspirone)

I take Mirtazapine for the depression, and Lithium for the mania.

One thing that has helped me came from a column that I read in the newspaper.
It was talking about problems and was saying that a good step towards doing that was to be positive going into the problem that you could solve it.

This opens up your mind, both conscious and unconscious, to looking for answers. We don't know what's in our mind right now, especially the unconscious, nobody can see that. So to go into a problem not knowing what's in our unconscious is a hazzard.

For all we know, it's set on negative, from childhood training, so we'll be working against ourselves, just as we were taught as children. Our unconscious will be saying, "You loser! Of course you can't solve this problem because you're an idiot" just as we were told as children. And because we were children, we believed it because we thought our parents were telling the truth. Right.

Now, our unconscious is set on negative and is working against us. Is our worst enemy.
We want our unconscious to be working for us. Looking for the answer to our next problem.

Our unconscious will do whatever we tell it, even listen to our parents when we were children. Can you believe that?
So if our unconscious is so stupid that we listened to and believed our parents when we were children, it will believe and follow anything. Even ourselves as adults.

So, we have to retrain our unconscious. Yeah, I know, in three weeks. No, in five seconds.

The column said to believe you can solve it before you start thinking about the problem. Why? Because your unconscious, which is so stupid we believed our parents, will believe us when we tell it to think positive. How stupid is that?

In addition, our unconscious is a follower. It believed our parents, it’ll believe us if we tell it to think positive as we go into trying to solve our next problem.

Before I go into a problem, I say to myself or out loud, “Think positive, think positive, think positive.”

I’m minesweeping my unconscious because I don’t know what’s in there. I can’t see it.

By saying that a few times, I’m restructuring my mind. 50 years of believing the wrong thing wiped out in 5 seconds.

Once I’ve said that, my unconscious then starts working on the problem instantly.
Only after I’ve said that do I start to think about the problem.

How do I know this works?

My first attempt at trying out the newspaper column about being positive, I had a problem and couldn’t think of a solution. I then reread the newspaper column, and by the 4th paragraph I thought of the answer, all by myself. What did the column say in the 3rd paragraph? “Think positive going into a problem that you can solve it.”

Who came up with the answer? Me? No. My conscious? No. My unconscious. How do I know that? Because I was still reading the column when I thought of the answer. I wasn’t thinking about the problem. My unconscious was.

You know that same element I was calling stupid a little bit earlier? It wasn’t. I have one of the best brains around when I allow my unconscious to think positive. If I will just let it.

So, we all have a lot of problems. But we don’t need to keep bringing ourselves down with negative thinking.