Medication
Update: 3/19/10
A.M.
150 mg Wellbutrin
25 mg Lamictal
3 capsules green tea extract and 2 tablets Sudafed (need to lose 20-25 pounds)
P.M.
40 mg Geodon (7 P.M.)
1 tablet Klonopin to sleep through the night
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Update: 3/14/10
150 mg Wellbutrin (morning)
25 mg Lamictal (morning)
40 mg Geodong (7 pm–supposed to be taken with food, but I rarely do–oops)
25 mg Lamictal (bedtime)
5 mg Abilify (bedtime) (supposed to stop this soon, due to weight gain, though the weight gain may just be me, not medication)
1 tablet (not sure of dosage) Klonopin to sleep
Update: 4/27/09
After two days of increased irritability on 30 mg of Parnate (although it could just be me), I switched back to 20. So 20 mg Parnate in the morning and 160 mg of Geodon between 7 and 8 at night. Atavan when I need it for anxiety. 3 Tylenol PM for sleep, when I need it (which is every few nights).
MINE: 3/24/09
Increased the Geodon to 160 around March 1st, started the Parnate on January 9th. I’m trying not to be dependent on the Atavan so I just take it when I’m feeling really anxious (1 mg), or when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep.
This seems to be a fairly decent medication regimen for me. Haven’t felt manic really since I started it, and the Parnate definitely helps with suicidal thoughts.
GEODON-20 mg (7 pm)
Let me preface this discussion by saying there are a few things I hate about myself right now, and I always wonder whether these are being caused by my medications or not: high appetite, bad complexion, poor sleeping habits, bitchiness. Being on Geodon has kept me from having a manic episode for more than two years. I have mixed feelings of gladness and frustration about that. At its best, a certain level of mania has allowed me to have extremely productive phases in my life–saving my son from the clutches of a horrible hospital, producing a benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues and raising $6000 for abused women and girls, creating interestng and thought-provoking lesson plans. At its worst, mania that led into psychosis caused me to behave bizarrely at work and be forced to take leaves of absence. So Geodon keeps me from getting manic–la de da. It also isn’t covered by my insurance and costs about $200/bottle, so if my doctor runs out of samples, I’m through with it. How ’bout them apples?
I’ve taken different doses, but right now I take 20 mg at around 7 pm, which helps me sleep and which doesn’t leave me feeling too groggy the next morning. (NOTE: If I take 30 mg or more, I will fall asleep within two hours, and if I take 40 mg or more I won’t be able to keep my eyes open the next morning to drive my kids to school). This medicine helped me lose the 25 pounds I had gained from being on Neurontin–a medication which was successful in curbing anxiety (I used to pop it when I’d feel myself getting agitated), but which I felt was making me fat. If I take the Geodon late at night–if perhaps I’m going out and don’t want to pass out early in the night–I sleep really late the next day. If I don’t take it at all, I sleep fitfully, waking up all night long. I’m frequently agitated, so sometimes I’ll take Geodon just to kill that; within two hours I’ll be extrememly drowsy or asleep. I hate this medicine, and think that it’s responsible for the decline in my complexion, but I don’t know if the agitation I feel on it is me, “hypomania”, or it.
LEXAPRO-10 mg (bedtime)
I take 10 mg of this at bedtime. I started taking it for anxiety, which I don’t have much of anymore, so I guess it’s working. I don’t know if this med. has an impact on my increased appetite or not.
WELLBUTRIN-150 mg (morning)
I’ve been taking this medication pretty consistently for about twelve years. I’ve heard that it helps people quit smoking, and I used to be a smoker and am not anymore–so I do think it helps with that. I’ve been told it helps with energy–I’d always like to have more–but overall, I rate this medicine a 10 for overall help with outlook and energy.
Ambien CR/Zolpidem-10 mg (bedtime)
I take this medication every night about an hour before I want to sleep. I hate having to rely on a medication to sleep, but if I don’t sleep, I get really edgy (and if I don’t sleep for days, I get manic). If I had to thank one medication for keeping me from getting manic, I’d have to say it’s this one. What used to happen is I’d feel myself getting manic, and then I wouldn’t sleep, so I’d be up all night thinking, and the next day, I’d be off the chart. If I take this medication alone, without the Geodon, I’ll sleep, but restlessly, and will wake up multiple times in the night.
OTHER MEDICATIONS FOR MANIC DEPRESSION
Lamictal
A medicine intended to treat seizures, I remember having fairly good results with it.
Parnate (MAO Inhibitor)
In order to take this drug, you have to be off of all other medications for two weeks prior (and two weeks after). Those two weeks were some of the most miserable of my life. This medication also requires that you follow a strict diet and avoid such foods as aged cheeses and aged meats (among others). Search “MAO inhibitor diet” for more info. This medication did bring me out of the depression that I’d been feeling from being off all meds, but when I started to feel some anxiety, my doctor added Geodon, and I had one of the scariest nights of my life. I went to a movie with a friend, and afterward, while walking across the parking lot, blacked out for about ten minutes. When I got home, I was standing still talking to her, and the next minute I was on the floor. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS STUFF. My doctor told me it can help people who don’t respond to other antidepressants, but my experience with it was terrifying.
Cymbalta
I honestly don’t remember the results of this medication.
Seroquel
An extremely sedating med.
Neurontin
According to my latest doctor, not a medicine that should be used to treat manic depression, though I had some success with it–only one bad episode. Some weight gain, flatness of emotion, good for on-the-spot relief of intense agitation.
Tegretol/Carbamezeprine
I was on this medication for years, combined with Wellbutrin. I stopped taking it because it was ruining the efficacy of my birth control pill. I don’t remember why I never tried it again.
Depakote
Another anti-seizure medication. Didn’t have success with this one.
Lithium Carbonate
Gained loads of weight with this one, felt flattened, emotionless.