# Lamictal SOS



## Guest (Dec 13, 2009)

I feel like Im going brain dead. I have no connection to myself or emotions right now. I cant even feel panic. Its like dp ive never experienced before. Im seriously thinking about calling 911 because I keep sort of blacking out mentally. I go somewhere else and dont remember where I was. Im really sleepy but when I close my eyes its just darkness. I tried peaying but cant connect to my inner dialog to pray. Not even sure how Im typing this. All day ive had massive shifts in perception. At one point it felt like i kept switching between different personalities and i dont have multiple personalities. all this from trying to tapper off of lamictal.


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

Stop tapering off your lamictal and *take your normal dose*. Unless you're doing this with the express order by a physician you should not be fucking around with your dose.

Call emergency services if you believe you are an immediate threat to yourself or others. Barring that, go to an urgent care clinic or see your prescribing physician. An ER won't do you any good.


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## Tommygunz (Sep 7, 2009)

how long have you been on the lamictal?


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## Guest (Dec 13, 2009)

Tommygunz said:


> how long have you been on the lamictal?


3 weeks and am on the lowest dose, 25 mg. I decided to take 12.5 to taper off because of the side effects but after the hell I went through yesterday I just took my normal dose last night.


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## Tommygunz (Sep 7, 2009)

could it really be affecting you that much after only three weeks? i don't mean to question you but, i know most medications take four to six weeks to start having a noticeable affect. do you think that you could be mind fcuking yourself because you know that you changed your dose. i only ask because in the past i have had some intense anxiety attacks from taking things i wasn't totally confident in. not too long ago i took a ginseng pill and was really nervous about taking it. i let the anxiety build and build after i took it until i was super DP'd and having a full blown anxiety attack. at first i thought it was the ginseng, but realized the anxiety started right when i swallowed the pill. so it couldn't have been the ginseng because the anxiety started before the ginseng took effect. i realized that i mind fcuked myself into thinking the ginseng was making my DP worse. the next day i took the ginseng with confidence and fought off anxious thoughts and felt pretty good all day. i've been taking the ginseng for two weeks now have been getting great results out of it. in fact i don't even have anxiety anymore because panax ginseng is well noted for it's anti anxiety/anti stress benefits. in essence, if you let the words i feel worse or my dp is bad right now enter your head, then you're pretty much telling your brain that thats how you feel and in turn it will feel that way. if you tell yourself, i feel good, im feel in control of my mind, you will feel that way. it doesn't happen over night, you've been reinforcing the DP mindset for a while now, but if you can work on shifting your approach to how you feel, over time it will be that way. about four weeks ago i made a conscious effort to tell myself i was in control of how my mind worked. four weeks later i have full control over my thought process again, no racing thoughts, i can pay attention to people when they speak, i can learn new things quickly and easily, and most importantly i feel like MYSELF again, i've gotten my personality back, my wit, charm and querky sense of humor. all of those we're things i stiil had some trouble with prior to changing my mindset, four weeks of mental training and i'm back. i hope this helps sarah, you deserve to feel better.


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## Guest (Dec 14, 2009)

I read that it takes 2 weeks to reach a therapudic dose and I have been on it for 3. As you know, I tried tappering down to half and went through hell (I actually started hearing voices) so I just gave in and went back up to 25 mg. I've been on that dose for 2 days and the super intense awareness is back today, so yes, it is the lamictal.

I also think that you are right about me just talking myself into a lot of what is going on. It's just incredibly hard because I keep having all of these horrible side effects from the medication. I went to see my psych nurse practitioner today and my perception of where I was changed atleast 3 times in the half an hour I was there. Then at the end of the appointment I started uncontrollably zoning out and nearly bolted from her office. Got outside and everything was like I took lsd or something. Super intense and distorted. I cried on the drive home because I told her I wanted to come off of lamictal and she actually told me no. She said it's the only thing that has "helped" a little so far and wrote another script for some anti-psychotic to try and counter the "weird" effects of the lamictal. I am just so freaking p*ssed. She is just pill happy. I am not kidding that EVERY time I go in there she writes me scripts for two or three new medications to add on top of what I am already taking. I would just stop taking the lamictal on my own but you saw what it did to me at half the dose and I am terrified what would happen if I just quit cold turkey. It just does not seem like the right answer to me to keep me on a medication that isn't really doing any good and then add another on top of it to counter the bad effects of the first one. I mean, so day that they both DO work. What then? Am I going to have to be on them for the rest of my life? How am I ever going to know that my dp is gone for real or if its just the medication and then when I stop, it will come back? You should go look up the withdrawl effects of lamictal. If I stop it, I can have a seizure, even if I've never had one before. I wish I had never taken any of it in the first place because now I feel like I can't stop taking it.


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

You will not have a seizure from withdrawing from 25 mg of Lamictal. you'd have to be at a much higher dose and already be at risk for having one.

As for the symptoms you are describing... they don't sound like the typical symptoms that are clustered with DPD. As much as anti-psychotics suck (they have the most adverse reactions of any class of current medications) it sounds to me like you should take what you were prescribed. I really don't want to write this, but have you considered the possibility that you're developing positive symptoms (ie perceptual shifts, hearing voices) of schizophrenia or a more serious dissociative disorder? I fully understand that all this might be the result of withdrawing from Lamictal, but you were on such a small dose that it shouldn't have made a difference if you took 12.5 mg instead of 25 mg.

Please believe me when I say that I apologize in advance for posting this. I don't want to alarm you, or cause you to worry, but you ought to address these possibilities.


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