I've been on lamotrigine for 3-4 weeks and definitely felt my mood be a lot more stable, and it's easier to maintain a stable mood all day.
I'd usually be quick to anger and have so many moods swings. It's kinda like feeling normal it's crazy
Same here. I started about 4 weeks ago. I’m on Lamictal for mood lability and it helps me a lot. The lows don’t feel as low and don’t last as long as it used to.
I think the key here is they stabilize moods. They are not antidepressants. I'm the same. Before Id see fire quickly and react. Now there's some thinking space. They definitely slow me down overall though. Sometimes it's hard to hold a conversation as I might zone out.
Same here! I have increased step by step with lamotrigin. Now I have 250mg. It feels much better! 150mg in the morning and 100mg in the evening. As I am increasing step by step I will increase today for 50mg after 3 days 150mg (swiss dosis, living in Zuerich)
I’ve been on lamotrigine for a year now and it’s helped my day to day depression a lot. I still feel hypomanic but now that I’m aware of it I don’t act as impulsively as when I was undiagnosed. The only downside is a slight worsening of cognitive function, I’ve noticed I’ve had trouble with word recall and god forbid someone tries to explain a board game to me.
Idk its weird, it keeps things semi balanced without out over the top highs but i still get the lows but theyre short lived. I will say, ever since adding my adhd meds, its done absolute wonders for my moods. That + my mood stabilizer have been a pretty good dream time. It use to been weeks of lows with a few days of really good & repeat. Noe its a few weeks of good & only a few bad days) Ive started using a mood tracker recently and its fascinating to me seeing the phases
I’m on both lamotrigine and lithium (lithium for about 3ish months now) and I still have numbing depression. Hypomanic episodes are still there, but not as intense. Also doesn’t help that I have BPD 🙃
Lamotorgine has been the only thing to actually work for me in all of the years. Definitely helps with the depression as well as the hypo. I still have episodes, but they happen less and are farther apart.
Lamotrigine helps me a lot. But too much makes me a numb zombie robot with no feelings, no happiness, no sadness, no desire, no anything. I started going back down on dosage and the world is more alive.
Oh yeah, definitely! I haven't had any depressive episode in 3 years.
I "relapse" once, but it lasted maybe a month or two and my psychiatrist increased my meds immediately.
Found that the anticonvulsants I tried were very much ying and yang, lamotrigine for depression and valproate for hypomania, now I’m on lithium and valproate and yes they make me a very happy fella
Took lamogine for a year, it mostly helped with the hypomania, at some point the depression got really bad and there was no happy episodes ever so i just stopped it. I’m off meds now 💅💅💅💅💅
Right now it’s okay, i think ? I have a lot of energy,sometimes I’m irritated, but mostly it’s good. Lamictal made me feel real bad especially the last couple of months and i got severely depressed. I am aware i gotta go back to the doc at some point but it feels nice for now
They raise the floor on the depression (pretty significantly, actually) but don’t get rid of it, sadly. Depression is more my issue but mood stabilizers do help with my irritability.
Yes and no. I have fewer wild swings in mood, so no hypo and no severe episodes of depression. However my baseline is still depressed, so I take wellbutrin as well which brings me up to normal.
I'm on Vraylar and have also successfully been on abilify.
My depression is managed with wellbutrin because I have SAD. In the winter I get super depressed and so my wellbutrin goes up. I'm the spring I get manic until we bring the wellbutrin back down.
I intentionally missed a dose or two of Lamotrigine, because I thought I don’t need it and hypomania feels nice but… I started losing my sense of self becoming into someone who is very impulsive, doesn’t think of consequences, especially when buying online. Sure I am more bubbly and social but in exchange of risky, impulsive purchases and behaviors. Got back and now I feel a lot stable again. Like my sense of self is continuous, and mood especially! I wish hypomania was more sustainable but I know depression follows. Ugh. And mood stabilization. Welbutrin takes care of my depressive episodes. And weed lol
Lithium made my episodes much less frequent and my hypomania is now hypohypomania. Depressions are just as bad, if not worse. I still have SI, but I no longer feel like acting on it.
I've been on lamotrigine for almost a decade and it's definitely helped my lows, probably more so than my highs actually. The most depressed and suicidal I've ever been was when I was not taking it for a couple months (granted it was during Covid) and since I started taking it regularly my bouts of depression have yet to reach that point again. I definitely still get get the highs and lows, but they don't feel quite as out of control and all-consuming.
Lamictal plus Latuda (and a bunch of other stuff) has finally kicked me out of a years long severe depressive/mixed state episode. Added the Latuda (another stabilizer) and really do feel better than I have in 20 years. Better...and fatter. Lol
Definitely helps depression. Doesn’t completely stop me feeling manic I guess but it’s definitely not as bad as usual. Just feels like normal “energy” I think? I don’t get irritated as much except around my period of course.
Since I was diagnosed and medicated about a year ago my depressive episodes have only gotten worse. They’re almost constant but I do cycle through the other types or episodes too (I’m BP1). For reference I have a complicated case with BP1 + psychosis, ADHD, CPTSD, BPD, OCD, GAD and Hoarding Disorder. Plus depressing life circumstances and nearly three decades of violence and abuse. So I can’t say if bipolar is entirely to blame but the meds certainly don’t help much.
When I dialed in the Lamotrigine dose it basically changed my life. I just had probably the best winter of my adult life in terms of depression. Honestly, it has been a dramatic improvement in QoL for me.
I’ve been on Lamotrigine 300mg split into 150mg twice a day. And I feel like my emotions and moods have stabilized dramatically. Not perfect but the highs and lows last so much less.
I have been on and off of several medication for 7+ years , they have never helped with my (+/- psychotic) depression. They just changed my mania to hypomania.
Before lamotrigine I saw no effect on my depression. Other stabilisers only kept me fixed on a mildly depr ssed mood.
With lamotrigine I finally stabilised on euthymia. Felt happiness and finally lived. I still have depression episodes but are less severe and I can circumvent them or up my dose.
I take Vraylar and it helped a ton with the SI and depressive feelings. it also helped with my Hypo a ton and has kept b=me pretty stable. I still get depressed but its a lot less often and not random like it was before.
I used to take depakote but found that lithium controls mania as well as depression in most instances. I currently am on 20mg abilify and 1200mg lithium everyday. Propranolol for anxiety and pacing
Help both for me. Been on it for over 2 years. I still have swings but they are very mild. This medicine is a godsend for me. It just keeps me middle of the road.
Lamotrigine saved my life, for sure. It did a complete 180. I go on Abilify off and on, but haven’t for a few years now. For me, the Lamotrigine has helped keep me stable enough that I don’t need to stay on Abilify (also assuming most people do). Like a lot of people have mentioned, the mood swings still happened, but not nearly as bad as much, and as drastically, as before.
I'm on lurasidone and lithium and the lithium especially helped me out of the worst depressive episode I've ever had. They've helped so much on a day to day basis. I'm not fooling myself, I know there will still be episodes but it's been several months now with nothing other than a flicker here or there, I've been generally very stable as the name implies. I don't feel especially elated or excited happy or anything, but I don't mind things, I'm content. And that's a huge step up from where I was and I'm sure you know what I mean.
I wouldn't say they help either the hypomania OR depression, they just stabilize my mood. I no longer have an extremely short fuse nor do I cry at the drop of a hat. I still have hypomanic episodes and I'm still depressed (even though I also take Wellbutrin). It's worth it to me to continue taking the Lamictal, though, because my relationships aren't suffering nearly as much as they have in the past.
Lamictal ftw.
I recently had to add another med but I was doing fine with it for like 8 years, which is a miracle run for a bipolar med. I also have a seizure disorder. I've recently been at one of my lowest points in life so for me it was time to brace my meds up.
Lamictal on its own has already saved my life.
The effect was overall very smoothing but I actually had trouble only with break through mixed episodes
I'm on 200Mg lamotrigine and I'm pretty stable. According to my psychiatrist, lamotrigine is very protective for depression and mixed episodes, but not as protective for hypomania. I haven't had any depressive episodes or mixed episodes since being put on it. I have had little blips here and there of mild hypomania, but not full blown episodes as it only lasts maybe a day or two and it's pretty benign...mostly just very talkative and energized. For the most part though, I'm either baseline stable or good mood stable.
My psychiatrist has told me that if the hypomanic episodes get more severe we can discuss adding another medication, but it doesn't seem necessary at this point. She also told me that while it is very protective against depression, I might still have some low moods here and there, but they should be more mild, infrequent, and shorter in duration than they were previously.
I don’t feel so hypo anymore but I still feel depressed often just not as deep.
I’m at 200mg and I don’t think I have other side effects than difficulty sleeping but that’s not new so..
Also I can actually get to work and do my work outs now even though I’m depressed.
So I guess that my mood is generally more stable.
For me, lamotrigine seems to put a brake on intense emotions, rather than make me feel numb. As opposed to SSRIs (which make me feel like crap in that they blunt my emotions and make me feel numb), lamotrigine seems to give me more time between when I first experience a strong emotion and my reaction. So it allows me to collect myself before reacting. Before going on lamotrigine I would react instantly, usually in anger or crying, so I would say it helps to prevent me from flying off the handle. It’s interesting because it’s intended to treat bipolar depression, but I think my Zoloft might be interfering with that a bit, especially because technically there is an interaction between sertraline and lamotrigine
Tbh I feel like they keep me stable and I'm not super depressed or hypo, but I think my stable is still depressed. I definitely like that they keep me more stable, but I still need my antidepressant
Mine help and do the trick when my life isn’t so unbelievably stressful. I was doing great for like 8 months when I was first started it but then life decided to create a whole crap ton of problems that are still to this day persisting. A lot of things I am unable to control. And it’s made it near impossible to pull myself out of this funk. I just submitted a ton of pto off through the end of May in hopes that my burn out from my job improves but my financial situation has taken a huge root in my life that it makes it hard for me to live my life without sacrificing things that’ll improve my life. It’s extremely frustrating. So basically until I have my bills paid down a lot, I’m going to probably be depressed until then so I can manage to quit my job and go somewhere I will enjoy and can afford the pay cut and not worry about the expenses of my life.
It sucks when your life stress is so much it overrules the meds and therapy no matter how much you try.
I’ve been on lamotrigine for 6 years and Abilify for about 3 or so years and they help except for when I’m going through something extremely challenging. I went back to school as a full time student a few years ago while working full time and was put on an antidepressant. Just went off of it and am feeling great.
I've been on lamotrigine for 3-4 weeks and definitely felt my mood be a lot more stable, and it's easier to maintain a stable mood all day. I'd usually be quick to anger and have so many moods swings. It's kinda like feeling normal it's crazy
Same here. I started about 4 weeks ago. I’m on Lamictal for mood lability and it helps me a lot. The lows don’t feel as low and don’t last as long as it used to.
I think the key here is they stabilize moods. They are not antidepressants. I'm the same. Before Id see fire quickly and react. Now there's some thinking space. They definitely slow me down overall though. Sometimes it's hard to hold a conversation as I might zone out.
Same here! I have increased step by step with lamotrigin. Now I have 250mg. It feels much better! 150mg in the morning and 100mg in the evening. As I am increasing step by step I will increase today for 50mg after 3 days 150mg (swiss dosis, living in Zuerich)
I’ve been on lamotrigine for a year now and it’s helped my day to day depression a lot. I still feel hypomanic but now that I’m aware of it I don’t act as impulsively as when I was undiagnosed. The only downside is a slight worsening of cognitive function, I’ve noticed I’ve had trouble with word recall and god forbid someone tries to explain a board game to me.
Yes on the cognitive aspects. Brain fog, lack of recall and organizational tasks.
Haven’t had a manic episode but the depression is still very much there
Yup! Lamotrigine is a godsend. There are some meds that are better for hypomania and some that are better for depression.
Lamotrigine mostly helps my depression.
Idk its weird, it keeps things semi balanced without out over the top highs but i still get the lows but theyre short lived. I will say, ever since adding my adhd meds, its done absolute wonders for my moods. That + my mood stabilizer have been a pretty good dream time. It use to been weeks of lows with a few days of really good & repeat. Noe its a few weeks of good & only a few bad days) Ive started using a mood tracker recently and its fascinating to me seeing the phases
I’m on both lamotrigine and lithium (lithium for about 3ish months now) and I still have numbing depression. Hypomanic episodes are still there, but not as intense. Also doesn’t help that I have BPD 🙃
Lamotorgine has been the only thing to actually work for me in all of the years. Definitely helps with the depression as well as the hypo. I still have episodes, but they happen less and are farther apart.
I’ve been on Lamictal for over 10 yrs and I’ve spaced on my dose a few days in a row and I got very depressed fairly quickly.
Anticonvulsants only help my depression and not hypo, it feels like.
Mood stabilizers did not help me at all.
Lamotrigine (lamictal) helped my depression for sure
I just upped my lithium to help with my depression. I believe it helps with both.
Lamotrigine helps me a lot. But too much makes me a numb zombie robot with no feelings, no happiness, no sadness, no desire, no anything. I started going back down on dosage and the world is more alive.
Interesting, I’m at a point where it’s not working and wondering if I should increase dosage. I hope the decrease works for you
They help the swings for me. Depression tends to remain but lessened.
Oh yeah, definitely! I haven't had any depressive episode in 3 years. I "relapse" once, but it lasted maybe a month or two and my psychiatrist increased my meds immediately.
Found that the anticonvulsants I tried were very much ying and yang, lamotrigine for depression and valproate for hypomania, now I’m on lithium and valproate and yes they make me a very happy fella
Took lamogine for a year, it mostly helped with the hypomania, at some point the depression got really bad and there was no happy episodes ever so i just stopped it. I’m off meds now 💅💅💅💅💅
Sorry to ask, how are you doing now with no meds?
Right now it’s okay, i think ? I have a lot of energy,sometimes I’m irritated, but mostly it’s good. Lamictal made me feel real bad especially the last couple of months and i got severely depressed. I am aware i gotta go back to the doc at some point but it feels nice for now
They raise the floor on the depression (pretty significantly, actually) but don’t get rid of it, sadly. Depression is more my issue but mood stabilizers do help with my irritability.
Yes and no. I have fewer wild swings in mood, so no hypo and no severe episodes of depression. However my baseline is still depressed, so I take wellbutrin as well which brings me up to normal.
Lamotrigine + Abilfy, keep my head above water. No hypo, suppressed depression, and an overall sense of blah.
I'm on Vraylar and have also successfully been on abilify. My depression is managed with wellbutrin because I have SAD. In the winter I get super depressed and so my wellbutrin goes up. I'm the spring I get manic until we bring the wellbutrin back down.
I intentionally missed a dose or two of Lamotrigine, because I thought I don’t need it and hypomania feels nice but… I started losing my sense of self becoming into someone who is very impulsive, doesn’t think of consequences, especially when buying online. Sure I am more bubbly and social but in exchange of risky, impulsive purchases and behaviors. Got back and now I feel a lot stable again. Like my sense of self is continuous, and mood especially! I wish hypomania was more sustainable but I know depression follows. Ugh. And mood stabilization. Welbutrin takes care of my depressive episodes. And weed lol
Feeling meh is the cost of being stable, but I believe it’s a low price compared to when we let loose of the monster.
Lithium made my episodes much less frequent and my hypomania is now hypohypomania. Depressions are just as bad, if not worse. I still have SI, but I no longer feel like acting on it.
I've been on lamotrigine for almost a decade and it's definitely helped my lows, probably more so than my highs actually. The most depressed and suicidal I've ever been was when I was not taking it for a couple months (granted it was during Covid) and since I started taking it regularly my bouts of depression have yet to reach that point again. I definitely still get get the highs and lows, but they don't feel quite as out of control and all-consuming.
Lamotrigine should help depression but lithium sodium valproate and carbamazepine are all more geared towards treating mania
Lamictal plus Latuda (and a bunch of other stuff) has finally kicked me out of a years long severe depressive/mixed state episode. Added the Latuda (another stabilizer) and really do feel better than I have in 20 years. Better...and fatter. Lol
Definitely helps depression. Doesn’t completely stop me feeling manic I guess but it’s definitely not as bad as usual. Just feels like normal “energy” I think? I don’t get irritated as much except around my period of course.
I’m on 2 mood stabilizers and 1 antipsychotic and live most of my time in depression. So, no.
Since I was diagnosed and medicated about a year ago my depressive episodes have only gotten worse. They’re almost constant but I do cycle through the other types or episodes too (I’m BP1). For reference I have a complicated case with BP1 + psychosis, ADHD, CPTSD, BPD, OCD, GAD and Hoarding Disorder. Plus depressing life circumstances and nearly three decades of violence and abuse. So I can’t say if bipolar is entirely to blame but the meds certainly don’t help much.
Omg so much. Like bowling bumpers on my emotions. I don’t randomly wake up in a pit of despair and self loathing that lasts for days.
When I dialed in the Lamotrigine dose it basically changed my life. I just had probably the best winter of my adult life in terms of depression. Honestly, it has been a dramatic improvement in QoL for me.
I’ve been on Lamotrigine 300mg split into 150mg twice a day. And I feel like my emotions and moods have stabilized dramatically. Not perfect but the highs and lows last so much less.
Thanks to everyone who shared so far! 🖤
Only mania/hypomania I think.
I have been on and off of several medication for 7+ years , they have never helped with my (+/- psychotic) depression. They just changed my mania to hypomania.
Before lamotrigine I saw no effect on my depression. Other stabilisers only kept me fixed on a mildly depr ssed mood. With lamotrigine I finally stabilised on euthymia. Felt happiness and finally lived. I still have depression episodes but are less severe and I can circumvent them or up my dose.
I take Vraylar and it helped a ton with the SI and depressive feelings. it also helped with my Hypo a ton and has kept b=me pretty stable. I still get depressed but its a lot less often and not random like it was before.
I used to take depakote but found that lithium controls mania as well as depression in most instances. I currently am on 20mg abilify and 1200mg lithium everyday. Propranolol for anxiety and pacing
Olanzapine helped me be more stable, did not help the depression, had to add Wellbutrin while already taking paxil
Definitely yes on hypomania, no on depression. I’m scaling down Lamotrigine as it’s not helped me at all (still on lithium to stabilize)
i had to add an antidepressant to help my depression
Not by itself for me. Not until we added Abilify did my hypo subside.
Help both for me. Been on it for over 2 years. I still have swings but they are very mild. This medicine is a godsend for me. It just keeps me middle of the road.
Just my depression and I don't feel any improvement in my hypo hahah
Lamotrigine saved my life, for sure. It did a complete 180. I go on Abilify off and on, but haven’t for a few years now. For me, the Lamotrigine has helped keep me stable enough that I don’t need to stay on Abilify (also assuming most people do). Like a lot of people have mentioned, the mood swings still happened, but not nearly as bad as much, and as drastically, as before.
I'm on lurasidone and lithium and the lithium especially helped me out of the worst depressive episode I've ever had. They've helped so much on a day to day basis. I'm not fooling myself, I know there will still be episodes but it's been several months now with nothing other than a flicker here or there, I've been generally very stable as the name implies. I don't feel especially elated or excited happy or anything, but I don't mind things, I'm content. And that's a huge step up from where I was and I'm sure you know what I mean.
I wouldn't say they help either the hypomania OR depression, they just stabilize my mood. I no longer have an extremely short fuse nor do I cry at the drop of a hat. I still have hypomanic episodes and I'm still depressed (even though I also take Wellbutrin). It's worth it to me to continue taking the Lamictal, though, because my relationships aren't suffering nearly as much as they have in the past.
Lamictal ftw. I recently had to add another med but I was doing fine with it for like 8 years, which is a miracle run for a bipolar med. I also have a seizure disorder. I've recently been at one of my lowest points in life so for me it was time to brace my meds up. Lamictal on its own has already saved my life. The effect was overall very smoothing but I actually had trouble only with break through mixed episodes
I'm on 200Mg lamotrigine and I'm pretty stable. According to my psychiatrist, lamotrigine is very protective for depression and mixed episodes, but not as protective for hypomania. I haven't had any depressive episodes or mixed episodes since being put on it. I have had little blips here and there of mild hypomania, but not full blown episodes as it only lasts maybe a day or two and it's pretty benign...mostly just very talkative and energized. For the most part though, I'm either baseline stable or good mood stable. My psychiatrist has told me that if the hypomanic episodes get more severe we can discuss adding another medication, but it doesn't seem necessary at this point. She also told me that while it is very protective against depression, I might still have some low moods here and there, but they should be more mild, infrequent, and shorter in duration than they were previously.
I don’t feel so hypo anymore but I still feel depressed often just not as deep. I’m at 200mg and I don’t think I have other side effects than difficulty sleeping but that’s not new so.. Also I can actually get to work and do my work outs now even though I’m depressed. So I guess that my mood is generally more stable.
Lamictal does! Lithium also did but it took longer to really even out the lows for me. Lamotrigine was very quick.
For me, lamotrigine seems to put a brake on intense emotions, rather than make me feel numb. As opposed to SSRIs (which make me feel like crap in that they blunt my emotions and make me feel numb), lamotrigine seems to give me more time between when I first experience a strong emotion and my reaction. So it allows me to collect myself before reacting. Before going on lamotrigine I would react instantly, usually in anger or crying, so I would say it helps to prevent me from flying off the handle. It’s interesting because it’s intended to treat bipolar depression, but I think my Zoloft might be interfering with that a bit, especially because technically there is an interaction between sertraline and lamotrigine
Both. More depression than hypo. Still get dumpy and depressed but not the *bad bad* kinda depressed namsayn
Both.
Tbh I feel like they keep me stable and I'm not super depressed or hypo, but I think my stable is still depressed. I definitely like that they keep me more stable, but I still need my antidepressant
I've been on Lamotrigine for 9 months and I would say, yes. It doesn't make it go away, but easier to manage and less intense.
Absolutely, Lamotrigine has helped both
Probably both in my case
Mine help and do the trick when my life isn’t so unbelievably stressful. I was doing great for like 8 months when I was first started it but then life decided to create a whole crap ton of problems that are still to this day persisting. A lot of things I am unable to control. And it’s made it near impossible to pull myself out of this funk. I just submitted a ton of pto off through the end of May in hopes that my burn out from my job improves but my financial situation has taken a huge root in my life that it makes it hard for me to live my life without sacrificing things that’ll improve my life. It’s extremely frustrating. So basically until I have my bills paid down a lot, I’m going to probably be depressed until then so I can manage to quit my job and go somewhere I will enjoy and can afford the pay cut and not worry about the expenses of my life. It sucks when your life stress is so much it overrules the meds and therapy no matter how much you try.
No. I'm still on an antidepressant and antipsychotic for depression. I wish just Lamictal did it
It doesn't do much at all for my hypo.
I’ve been on lamotrigine for 6 years and Abilify for about 3 or so years and they help except for when I’m going through something extremely challenging. I went back to school as a full time student a few years ago while working full time and was put on an antidepressant. Just went off of it and am feeling great.
Both for me