Mood stabilizer proposal du jour
May 8, 2008 by bipolarlawyercook
Depakote? Trileptal? If you’ve had an experience you’re willing to share, I’d appreciate any info you’d be willing to give, either in comments or at bipolarlawyercook @ gmail.com.
Thanks. I swear I’m just going to get certified in Traditional Chinese Medicine and be done with it. (Don’t laugh. I actually find massage and acupuncture healing. TCM’s gotta have something to it, right?)
I wish you weren’t having to figure this all out again
Massage is definitely good and I thought there were at least a few studies that found some benefit to acupuncture. And hey - even if it’s only a placebo effect, at least it’s an effect. That’s really the goal, however you manage to get it.
More power to you!
All my best. Have not done those two. Investigating add-ons would be a pleasant thing.
I’m all about the acupuncture, massage, and . . . Chinese herb tea concoctions. There is a Chinese doctor dude in my town and he looks at my tongue then mixes up a batch of herbs to steep into a tea. It tastes like bong water (not that this is a familiar taste, mind you), or rather what I would imagine bong water would taste like based upon the smell (not that this is a familiar smell, mind you), but it CURES what ails. Maybe I should go in today to have him mix me up some tea to get the taste of cursing Kathie Lee Gifford off of my tongue.
Take care, BLC. Take care.
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I finally faced the facts that I had to stop drinking, and just take my med. I kept it simple. I told my doctor I just couldn’t be on multiple meds and he agreed. I’ve been on Depakote ER for several years now and it like I opened a window to a good world. The side effects were headaches at first and yes, weight gain, but going to weight watchers and doing relaxation therapy helped me so much.
I have a life. And Depakote helped to give it to me. Any questions, feel free to email me.
I’ve tried Depakote, Lithium, and Lamictal . . . all were awful.
I’m on Geodon now and it is like magic. I had no side effects that I was aware of and it has made a world of difference in my moods.
Check out http://www.crazymeds.us
It’s a great site and it tells the good and the bad of a lot of neurological medications.
Perhaps a little off subject, I have no mood stabiliser solutions to propose other than exercise and walking till I drop which usually does the job for me. But now there is another spanner in the works. I have been getting some exciting migraine attacks with very pretty light shows and fuzzy brained aura before hand. Does any one else in the bipolar community have this too or do I have to try and make friends all over again with a whole new set of sufferers!
I was on Depakote for a short amount of time.
Short because it gave me the rage.
I was told that this was not a typical reaction to it and that what I had was like a psychological allergic reaction or something like that.
i WAS ON TRILEPTAL.AND HAD TO BE TAKEN OFF OF IT,IT WAS NOT THE RIGHT MED FOR ME.
Did both. Didn’t really have any luck with either. Trileptal stabilized some of the mania, but none of the depression, and the DepaBLOAT sucked my ass I hated it so. Same thing-controlled most aspects of the mania (bleed through rage however) but I was still depressed as shit. Tried Risperdal at the same time, didn’t help either, and I refuse to go back on anti-depressants if I can avoid it. Likely would have been ok on either with one, but I’m not sure…plus, the Depo at least had a host of side effects I hated-twitching, tons of gastro “issues” (moreso than lithium, which is saying a lot for me)
Sucks that the Lithium isn’t for you-I’m terrified of that happening myself…thankfully my ankles subsided…stupid PMS….
I don’t have any experience with Depakote or Trileptal but acupuncture is life support. I have problems with headaches and stiff neck problems and acupuncture helps every time!
I’m confused and maybe don’t know enough of your story, BLC. Have you ever tried acupuncture and Chinese herbs before for mood stabilization? Or were you just kidding?
They have been life-savers for me. I realize we don’t have the same issues, but I use it for mental, emotional and physical issues, and it addresses the sometimes tangled areas where those threads intertwine. For my depression and anxiety, nothing has worked better. It gets to the root of my particular imbalances.
If I didn’t have a 3-year-old, elderly parents, and a dying cousin and his sister to care for right now, I would be getting acupuncture treatments every single week.
I wish you an easier time figuring out what medicine or course of action is right for you this time around.
You know how much I love Depakote. It’s still a picky med for me, like everything. Depakote CR (regular release) is not effective at all for me; my blood level won’t go to therapeutic. For some reason someone got the idea to try me on ER, which was new, before stopping it, and at a high dose that works for me. My dose has to be maintained at a super-high level at all times, and I need lots of bloodwork to stay here. But it works. It keeps the anger controlled and helps me sleep, some of the most important things.
Trileptal wasn’t good. I have no idea if this was because I was trying it instead of lithium, which wasn’t a good thing for me, but I didn’t last long on it. In fact it was one of the few drugs my doctor didn’t even want to try longer. I know though she didn’t really expect it to work, but it was the last option that wasn’t an antipsychotic and because I’d had a severe reaction to 2 APs and then topped those by getting EPS with Geodon we were trying to avoid those. (Again wishing I had only known how much my body loves Seroqeul). That usually only happens when I’m having a severe reaction. I couldn’t get anywhere close enough a real dose because it made me so, so sleepy. I was cutting pills into 16ths and still not doing well. I wasn’t getting enough med to help, but I couldn’t tolerate the sleepiness. I only lasted about a month on it. About 2 months later I started my current micro-dose of lithium regime which I’ve been much happier about.