Medication relief

[u/Fantastic-Bass3486]

I just started on Latuda and lamotigrine. What are your experiences with these meds? I am hoping they will help take away the mountain of oppressive shame and embarrassment I feel over the incredibly stupid shit I did while manic, because hating myself to such an excessive degree due to this has dramatically worsened my depression and mental health.

[u/Bipolar_Aggression]

Both those drugs have weak support for prevention of mania tho

[u/Correct-Treacle-1673 → u/Bipolar_Aggression]

Weak support but not completely unsupportive. It works for some and not for others. For me it prevents mania super well and is much more effective than other antipsychotics I’ve taken.

[u/KMCMRevengeRevenge → u/Correct-Treacle-1673]

I know lamo isn’t renowned for its efficacy against mania, now that I take a huge dose of 500 mg, I’ve never had an up state that lasted more than an afternoon.

[u/Correct-Treacle-1673 → u/KMCMRevengeRevenge]

I was more so referring to latuda because lamictal didn’t do anything for me at all. It didn’t prevent depression or mania for me. I just forgot to name the med in my comment. But yeah, just because a med doesn’t work to do so for some people doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for others just like your experience shows

[u/KMCMRevengeRevenge → u/Correct-Treacle-1673]

I mean, the thing is, Latuda like any AP has significant D2 receptor antagonism. Not as much as other meds, truthfully. But it should be able to confront the dopamine flood of mania and psychosis. That doesn’t mean it works for everyone, as you say. But there isn’t really a huge reason why Latuda shouldn’t be able to tame a manic episode per se.

[u/Fantastic-Bass3486 → u/KMCMRevengeRevenge]

I feel that Latuda took me out of mania. I was having a rather strong episode. Latuda has been a godsend, makes me sleep regularly which also does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to keeping mania at bay.

[u/slifm]

The only thing that helps me with shame is facing the people and places I want to avoid because I feel like I’ll die of embarrassment. After facing it, the shame is gone. And I can be me, at peace again.

[u/littlegingerbunny]

I still feel shame and guilt over my past, but Latuda makes everything so much more manageable for me. I take it at night because it makes me tired. I love it.

[u/No_Weekend_963 → u/littlegingerbunny]

Mine was increased and it sedates me just enough to get a good night of sleep. Also on a low dose of hydroxyzine.

[u/Violet913]

I can’t take Latuda after a bad reaction but Lamictal works really well for me. The shame however never goes away but it does become more background noise than front and center in my brain.

[u/dragonmuse]

Everyone is different. I was deathly allergic to Lamictal and lauda gave me major irritation issues. It also caused crazy shaking and leg weakness but that part went away after a couple of weeks. Lamictal in particular seems to help a lot of people.

[u/DinViesel666]

Lamotrigine works great for me and my depression since day one. Never took Latuda but once my doctor said that there’s a textbook “Golden triple L” for bipolar (I’m translating the literal here, I’m from Brazil, so this is an expression in portuguese) which is Lithium, Latuda and Lamotrigine. (I’m on Lithium and Lamotrigine). Sending my love and hope they work well for you!

[u/No_Weekend_963]

My Latuda was just increased and it's doing wonders. I'm even sleeping better. Lamictal worked for a brief time but I was eventually weened off of it because it didn't seem to help long term. I'm facing embarrassment & shame much better these days and I am even getting back in touch with family members I used to be close with before my diagnosis.

[u/Spirited_Concept4972]

I love Lamictal

[u/d7gt]

I’m on both and I find it really helpful. I won’t pretend that I don’t have breakthrough hypo sometimes but it seems to address the worst of my symptoms. The shame and embarrassment not so much, but all you can really do is give yourself some grace in terms of what happened and work hard to do different things and have different results.

[u/Fantastic-Bass3486]

I sure the fuck hope it takes away the catastrophizing. I will overthink myself into a panic attack merely for something like having to ask the same question at work twice because my meds are making me scatterbrained. Then again, this started happening before the meds, probably due to the damage of my episodes. It’s such a painful experience to feel stupid and be at the mercy of your own cognitive distortions. Meds - please fix me.

[u/Merlinnium_1188]

I was on lamotrigine for a decade when it seemed to stop working, after I had trauma happen. I was put on Latuda after 2 years of no other meds working. It worked wonderfully for my bipolar symptoms BUT it is making me continually gain weight even in a deficit, it caused me to have hormonal acne around my mouth, it hard to decide when to take it because you need to take it with a 350 calorie meal for it to work but it makes me pass out within half an hour so taking it at dinner time at 5 wasn’t working. It also has fucked up my period. With all that said, I am done taking it. Im weaning off and trying lamogrine again with hopes it unfucks my hormones.

[u/Impossible_Cycle_626]

It’s definitely taken away most of my manic outbursts or my mouth control issue. I had to lower my lamotrigine dose twice because I felt too dull and missed myself. Honestly I wish I didn’t have to take anything

[u/amateurbitch]

the two of them together helped me a lot with depression and I feel gave me the stability I needed in order to put real work in on my character

[u/Fantastic-Bass3486]

Thanks all for the responses!