# Starting Lamictal



## Angela2006 (Jan 20, 2006)

I have been on Celexa (40 mg.) for years and 5 mg. (sometimes 10 mg) of Xanax for years. These two drugs aren't cutting it. I am struggling! I know a lot of people have added lamictal to their cocktails. I've started with 25 mg., but actually I have tried it twice before over the past 10 years and stopped it - though I don't remember why. If you are someone who is on the SSRI, benzo, and lamictal cocktail, could you please let me know what does of all you or on and if it has helped. Dreamer - I've seen your mixture. Thank you for always being so thorough and informative in your posts! Angela


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## aloof (Nov 18, 2008)

I have tried lamictal several times as well, never got past 50 mg.....just dont like the feeling i get from it. sort of agitated and far away feeling. not good obviously.plus it is a seriously goofy drug as you have to titrate up sooooo slowly and it may be hard to find the sweet spot. for a mood stabilizer i keep coming back to trileptal....very transparent- no side effects, no real noticeable mood lift either, but it does keep me more even, less distraught about my DP.


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## Guest (Dec 11, 2009)

I've been on 25 mg of lamictal for about 3 weeks. I tried going up to 50 mg and after the first dose it made my dp super bad so I went back down the next day. It has been giving me this super awareness of everything to the point where it feels like my thoughts and movements are being screamed at me. It also has been sending me into massive changes in my perceptions and during these periods I also have super intense dp/dr. Even though I am on the lowest dose, I have decided to taper off by cutting the pill in half. I will do that for a week and then see if I can come off of it.

Lamictal did help me reconnect with reality though. After about a week on it I had all of my memory restored for before dp and then last night I connected with reality for a couple of minutes. Today, after taking half the dose, I connected with reality for a couple of hours. I could just feel that I had shifted over some line. Then my husband made me go to Ikea and all of the chaos shot me back into dp but, still, being connected to reality for a few hours was awesome. I am hoping that it has helped my brain along enough that once I am off of it, I will continue to connect with reality. Even if I don't, I can't deal with the above mentioned side effects.


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

Up to 10 mg of xanax a day? That's some hardcore tolerance right there.

I'm one of the people for whom Lamictal works. My advice is always to titrate slowly; I, and a few others, respond to low doses. Don't feel pressured to follow a strict med increase.

And good luck.


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## Sketch2000 (Nov 10, 2008)

Lamictal doesn't respond well to everyone, and it is a "dangerous drug" as it can cause some life threatening side effects. Nonetheless, I would recommend to titrate VERY slowly! At 25mg intervals over atleast 2 week periods!

** I remember feeling very weird for a while, but now feel fine.
I am on a combination of Luvox (SSRI), Klonopin, and Lamictal (and will be beginning Naltrexone tomorrow).

I'm curious about your decision to use Xanax and not klonopin.
This may have been a bad decision by your Pdoc. 10mg of Xanax is VERY HIGH. And XANAX is very addictive. You are going to have trouble getting off of it (if you ever plan to) and transition to klonopin; but that would be my recommendation.

Chris


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## Angela2006 (Jan 20, 2006)

Thanks for your responses. Sorry, I misspoke about the Xanax. I take .5 mg or 1.0 per day, not 10 mg. Wow! I would be the walking dead. The reason I don't take klonpin instead is because I have tried it on three different occasions, and it made me feel worse. I'm still at the .25 of the lamictal. It has been a week at that level, and I plan to stay at that level for at least another week. I've been feeling a little bit worse since I started the lamictal, but that could just be my imagination. Thanks for the responses. Angela


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## Brittany329 (Dec 13, 2009)

Hey Angela, I'm Brittany.
I also tried klonopin and it made me feel worse so I stopped. I saw a psychiatrist 3 months ago when it started horribly for me. I'm on Paxil started on 20mg a day and went up to 80mg a day. It has really really helped me throughout the past months. I'm not as bad as I used to be. And Paxil I was told by her is the longest SSRI to get inside your bloodstream so the full 60-80mg's aren't even in my system yet since it takes about 6-12 weeks she told me for each dose that I upped. I'm also on xanax. .75mg about 2 times a day to get through it and 1.00mh to sleep at night.


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## Angela2006 (Jan 20, 2006)

Thanks Brittany. I'm still holding at .25 on the Lamictal until after Christmas - then I will go up to .50 and see how I feel.


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