what is wrong?

Hey Skull,

A few things might be going on. I'm not too familiar with the therapeutic range of Lamictal doses. If you are a large build man, 175mg would probably be considered a therapeutic dose? It is possible you need more or less. Mood stabilisers generally are effective much sooner than antidepressants (if you have ever taken them you may be familiar with the build up time of two weeks or more).

Mood stabilisers are more used to treat mania, not depression but for many people, just a mood stabiliser suffices. Given you have just started with Lamictal, you may want to ask your doctor to tweak your dose a bit more before giving up on it all together. If you are not feeling good in yourself or feeling like the side effects are outweighing the benefits, it might be an idea to talk to your doctor about trialling another mood stabiliser. It is rare for the first drug trialled to be the one to work the best. Even so, sometimes trialling another drug will give you something to compare Lamictal against at least. I have spent years on one drug thinking it was working and for a variety of reasons trialled another drug that worked so much better.

In regard to Mako's thread, I do take your point that I may have been a bit abrasive to you. This was unintentional. There are so many people who come here trying to flog products and mischievous people who come her to play with the minds of vulnerable people. So, yeah I can tend to get a bit "overprotective" when I feel something isn't quite right. (Bipolar can impact significantly on people's sexuality. I myself have an enormous struggle with hypersexuality (but not promiscuity) during hypomania/mania. It IS possible that Mako's wife does love him indeed love him and is working her hardest to manage her symptoms. I just think we just can't know whether Mako is being a sucker or whether once his wife is stabilised, they will have a wonderful life together...

I am a genuine person and I did not intend to offend you. My focus was on Mako. I do tend to focus solely on the issue at hand and discard anything I deem unhelpful, (even if it is another posters genuine opinion). I am genuinely sorry for that - and you are right... my social skills DO need work in that area!

Cheers,

Jade.