Okay, I wrote this long post. Rather unorganized in my current depressed state. It didn't post - probably due to my error; hope not because mod's thought in appropriate.
Anyway, going to try not to ramble and be organized. I'm a bit frustrated with my Dr. over my medications. He has told me I have treatment resistant depression. I've done the ginea pig thing with the meds like some of you. When I was taking Effexor he also gave me wellbutrin. The wellbutrin didn't work out so wellwell with the Effexor. However, I found out that the Effexor was causing a reaction called brain shivers or battery head. It is a very unusual side effect. It's googleable if you want to know more about it. Anyway, we finally reached lamictal and it's worked okay for some time (key word okay). My depression is not so depressed I'm not doing anything anymore. However, I see myself spiraling downward, grasping at what resources I have available and can acquire (Wii and it's connected and I love it, considering biofeedback, researching resources for brain scans). Of course, I also talked to him about this at last visit and he ask me to do some research on depakote and to tell him what I thought, if I needed to see him earlier than scheduled time call. If I decided depakote would be something I wanted to try, call him. (We had a long discussion at one point that the meds I put in my body should be my choice doing research and discussing with other doctors due to other health issues, along with his consultation as a psychiatrist.
So I check out depakote and I decided, for many reasons, one of which, it is also a mood stabilizer. It, unlike Lamictal, is not used for Treatment Resistand Depression but for mood stabilizing. Another is the side effect of weight gain. I don't understand the concept of giving someone who is depressed, thus issues with self-esteem.and Rx a medication that causes weight gain. It is exacerbates the self-esteem issue. (I"ve lost 30 of 50 lbs woo hoo). I know sometimes there isn't a choice. Many more reasons I don't want to take depakote (side effects). However, I do think the medication is useful for many, it's just not right for me. So after much research and talking to my therapist who works in a crisis intervention program for people who are suicidal or need transitional housing until they can get in an environment to get to mor intense treatment. In other words, he's familiar with medications. My research yielded information about lamictal usually being augmented by an anti-depressant. So I call the Dr. and he says I didn't do well with well-butrin before and upped the dose of lamictal to 500 mg. Btw that's alot of lamictal and I'm feeling the effects of 100 more mg. The effexor worked well( disclaimer about the definition of well) and in my studies I found Effexor in the same classification of anti-depressants as Effexor (maybe I'm wrong, I do have concentration issues)
I tried to tell the Dr. that I tried the anti-depressant with another medication, not a mood stabilizer. couldn't the effexor have effected how I responded to the wellbutrin. I can't take the effexor as I guess you can say I'm allergic to it. It is a rare side effect to have brain shivers/battery head, which is not pleasant and quite disconcerting.
I also found out that lamictal can exaxerbate some symptoms of depression and as with any medication cause side effects of their own. I have difficulty with focus and concentration I think I can contribute to the depression as well as the side effects of medication. However, it also causes word retrieval issues. That's not a pro
