Posted by med_empowered on April 3, 2006, at 12:07:43
In reply to Re: drop the seroquel, posted by CEK on April 3, 2006, at 10:13:14
hey! OK..I don't know what your docs deal is. Any particular reason he won't RX something like Klonopin or Ativan? There are some issues with dependence, but its not that big a deal..besides, in bipolar disorders a lot of times benzos are better than antidepressants. Are there any good shrinks around you could try? I think you should consider seeing a doctor who isn't callous and unimaginative.
Anyway...try not to freak out while you're off meds. You might not need anything right now--just b/c you're off meds doesn't mean you'll "go nuts" or anything. So try to relax a little bit. And...your husband really should back off a bit. If he keeps bothering you, you can always throw away/flush your seroquel tablets each day and tell him you took them. That's easy enough.In terms of replacement meds...have you tried Trileptal? Its usually pretty well tolerated. In my experience, if you keep it @ 600-900 you can stabilize your moods without feeling like a zombie, which is always a nice thing. You might also want to try adding in some alternative stuff--fish oils, amino acids, etc.--to complement the meds you take. It doesn't work for everyone, but some people find that doing the two together means lower doses of medication, fewer side effects, and more benefits from the overall treatment program.
Personally, I'd kind of hesitate to re-introduce Lamictal. Not to further diss your doc or anything, but it doesn't seem like he understands just how **uncomfortable** this situation is for you. Plus, there are so many other options that I'm kind of confused as to why he insists on trying Lamictal over and over again. Keppra and Trileptal would be my 2 top picks--no blood tests, not likely to cause drug-induced stupidity. There's also lithium, depakote, tegretol..those are more hardcore and would require blood work.
I'm really sorry about your situation. I hope all this helps. If you want more bipolar info, there's lots of info on the web to be had...I think psycheduction.org (or something like that) has a lot of info..its run by a shrink.
Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:624274
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060403/msgs/628231.html