Lamictal

Hi Jen2882,

I'm sorry no one got back to you yesterday. I'm a little busy this weekend. Welcome to HealingWell and to the bipolar forum. You must be reeling a little bit from the new diagnosis. It's always a little bit scary at first. Feel free to ask questions if you have them.

Lamictal needs to be started very gradually and built up over a period of 6 weeks before you're getting any true medical benefit. After 3 days, there's still almost no medicine in your blood stream yet. I know how frustrating that is when you want to take a pill and feel better now, but most of the time it doesn't work that way with mental health drugs.

Instead, you need to try some alternative diversion techniques to try and keep yourself feeling okay even though your medicine hasn't kicked in yet -- Rely on your support system to help you through the tough times: These are your friends and family, your doctor and therapist, anyone who knows about the bipolar and who is positive, friendly and has your best interest at heart. Talk to them and get some advice about pulling through. Invite someone over to watch a DVD with you. Bake a cake. Go for a walk.

And of course, always get online and say hello to us. We'll be happy to chat. Nice to meet you!

serafena

How are you feeling today, Jen?

Hi teritim,

Glad to hear Lamictal is working for you. Are you bipolar?

serafena

The tiredness will wear off. When I first started my Risperdal I could have slept all day and all night! But it really does take a few weeks to see the true affect of these types of meds.