Combining Wellbutrin and Lamictal

Answer 1

I was diagnosed at age 48 with bipolar 2. I became pyscho/manic on Wellbutrin at 300 mgs when it was prescribed to me for depression. Nobody realized, including myself, that I was bipolar until then. I was taken off the Wellbutrin and put on the mood stabilizer lamictal. At first I was very afraid to go on it because I read up about the "deadly rash", but I had such a bad experience with lithium I decided I would rather be dead so I at least would give the lamictal a try! Thank God I did! I love it. I am on 250 mgs. and it has stabilized me for the most part. I was slowly tirated up on it and each time I was increased I would get the "lamictal headache" for one to three days, then it went away. Unfortunately, I started heavily drinking when I found out I had a "mental" illness. It really put me over the edge. I spent the next five years gradually drinking more and more, would become suicidal, be hospitalized, try to stop, start again, and on and on it went. This whole time I wondered why lamictal got rid of my mania, but not my depression. I wasn't having deathly, sleeping 30 days straight type depressions like I had in the past, but I had a daily low grade depression and chronic lack of motivation. The only thing I was motivated in doing was going to the package store and coming home and drinking myself into a stupor every day/night. No wonder I was having chronic low-grade depression! How could my lamictal totally do its job when i was drinking? Booxe is ultimately a depressant and only makes everything worse. Well, by some miracle I stopped drinking two months ago. I go to AA 5 days a week. I used to hate the thought of AA, now I love my group. I went to several AA meetings before finally finding my "home" group. The first month seemed like a year long because I wanted my one month chip so bad. After that, I never thought about the two month chip and this past month flew right by...I get my two month chip in 3 days.

Oddly enough, quitting drinking made me feel healthier, but it didn't make me feel happier. I was still depressed! I started on Wellbutrin last month at 100 mgs immediate-release twice a day and now I am on 150 mgs sustained-release twice a day. On the first dose I was starting to clean my house and go shopping. I didn't freak out when someone came to the door or the phone rang. I didn't go manic. I slept pretty well at night with the help of Ambien. When the Wellbutrin was increased I became agitated. I was snapping at my husband. I felt no love towards him. I stopped cleaning the house. I could not focus. At that time I was on 200 mgs of lamictal a day. Two days ago I upped it to 250 mgs. I do not feel agitated today or snappy at my hubby. But I am still not focused or motivated to do anything. I just stay on the computer all day long to pass the time. Part of the problem, I know for a fact, is that I do not work. But when I started going to AA meetings it gave me a small purpose in life and I met new people who had the same thing in common with me. Just getting out to go to meetings made a big difference. Unfortunately, I have not been able to go to any meetings for two weeks due to an illness. I am in my third week of not going and hope to go next week. (I had to ask a fellow member to accept my two month chip for me).

So what I am hoping is that the lamictal (which obviously works as a mood stablizer because I didn't go off the charts manic with the Wellbutrin, now that I have lamictal added) since it has been increased will help me with my agitation and that soon I will feel like doing all the things I did last month and more. Plus I will be getting out of the house to go to meetings which will help. Best case scenario is that the Wellbutrin, within the next few weeks, will start helping me to focus on tasks, become motivated, happier and wanting to go out and also to exercise. I have a feeling I may have to ask my doctor to add a low dose of something like Zoloft because Wellbutrin only weakly affects serotonin. It is more of a dopamine/ norepinephrine anti-depressant. I noticed that when I was on Prozac I became more loving towards my hubby and my pets. I didn't look around my house hating it and everything else around me. But with Prozac it also made me want to drink like a fish, I clenched my jaw at night and had to get up to go to the bathroom 5-6 times a night. So I am hoping that this combo, which I have yet to go on (Wellbutrin and Zoloft) combined with Lamictal will be the cocktail that will get me through the rest of my life as a happy, wanting to live person!