How do you know if you are feeling withdrawal or a resurgence of your mental condition?
The only reason i ask is lamitical is i believe a mood stabilizer and wellbutrin an antidepressant. While my friend could probably taper off when he was on a antidepressant and mood stabilizer and probably be fine*(*not a doctor)( (largely he was just a "problem" in class but wasnt to my knowledge depressed or bipolar ect.)
But im on a antidepressant (effexor) and two mood stabilizer (lithium and depakote) because i have depression, suicide attempt, and strong suicidal thoughts for years with hospitalization and hospitalization.
Anyway my point is please be careful changing your meds and doses. I hope the reason your on them isnt for something super severe and possibly life threatening . But if you are i wouldnt try to do it on your own.
It's hard to tell and effectively there isn't really difference, I would say if symptoms return immediately following discontinuation or a reduction in the dose it's probably temporary and caused by withdrawal, if they come back on slowly or suddenly without a change in dosage it's probably the disease itself. I think in my case it was definitely withdrawal 1. because it happened after I cut the dose of one medication and stopped taking another and 2. the symptoms were much more physical than mental. I started getting tremors, shivering, and felt this sort of general malaise that I've only ever felt before withdrawing from phenibut and pregabalin (two seperate times, not taken together thankfully), so even though Lamitcal isn't directly GABAergic, it IS a very potent VGSC blocker, as are phenibut and pregabalin, which is where its anticonvulsant and (to a lesser extent, Lamictal has multiple targets) mood-stabilizing properties come from. I went from 300mg to 250mg for two weeks then down to 150mg because I only have about 40 300mg and 50 200mg tablets, that was evidently too big of a jump. I went back to 250mg and even before starting Wellbutrin again I feel pretty ok. Moderately unstable mood and lethargy that I'd attribute to more to Wellbutrin's discontinuation and the unique feelings of VGSC blocker withdrawal are almost completely gone.
Lithium I know nothing about as I've not had to be on it and not really researched it a whole lot, however Depakote I imagine would have a very similar discontinuation syndrome to Lamictal. Effexor's would probably suck at least as much as Wellbutrin's, maybe more, again I haven't really done a whole lot of research on SNRIs as anything serotonergic has a tendency to throw me into mania over time if I don't take it with an antipsychotic and I flat out refuse to get back on those (no judgement to people for whom they work, they just aren't for me in my particular circumstance).
I am being careful with the whole process insofar as I can be, I asked my old pharmacy to request a refill of Wellbutrin so they can send it to one where I currently live. I'll check tomorrow and hopefully that'll be squared away. I never intended to quit Wellbutrin, I just ran out and I don't have a GP where I'm living as there's a doctor shortage and I don't have reliable transportation to go anywhere else. I still have one, but he's a state over and you have to schedule appointments a couple months in advanced anyway since he's pretty booked up.
The reason I'm quitting Lamictal is because it decreases the efficacy of another medication I'm taking (and vice versa now that I think of, which is another reason why my taper is going slowly, since I already have been effectively lowering my dose), I'd have no reason to otherwise. It's been great for me and has no cognitive side-effects at all and very few drug-drug interactions compared to other psych meds.
