Mental Health Depekote and 5-HTP

[closeau]

I was wondering if anyone could help. I was recently placed on Depekote for my bipolar. My diagnosis and meds have changed dozens of times over the years and nothing's really worked I was ready to try without again but my guilty conscious kicked in and I promised my daughter I would take care of myself so I filled it out of the hospital and have been taking it and actually feel pretty good I'm kinda shocked it's just a mood stabilizer and Latuda at highest dose was my last med the strongest on the market as far as bipolar meds go so I was t too confudent. Anyway I'm on disability and my money is screwed with very little help and Depekote is pretty dam pricey. I know small price to pay for sanity. But even with coupon it's like 75$ a month that's not gonna work for me. My insurance is lapsed and even if I get it back it's a tier 2 which means it may bust it down to 50$ im not sure. Don't have a permanabt shrink right now I'm down at my dads recouping from hospital before I move out west to be with my kids I was there for holidays and have one there. I'm calling the Dr I dealt with back home at hospital Monday to see what to do I took my last dose tonight. I know what can happen when these meds are stopped fortunately all my meds over the years I've never had any issues maybe grumpiness but I'm not nieve. My question till I resolve this next week my dad had some 5-HTP. I grabbed it thinking maybe ityll hold my seretonin over I know it won't control my bipolarclong term but in research it says dontvtskecwith phyc meds. I know most meds leave the body quick so if I don't get a new script for something else in a few days can I take it? Any help would be appreciated I have a post on my phyc forum too. Just wanna be safe but also prevent me running around the golf course naked at 3am. Gonna ask for Haldol was on it couple years ago and it worked well when I was schizoefftive. It's cheap to since it's been around since the 40's. Like 8$ a month. Well see. Thanks yall

 

[sadasaulna]

I've never been very impressed with 5-HTP though have used it a few times recently as I've completely stopped SSRIs and my brain seems to be punishing me for a serotonin fix. 5-HTP only seems to last a few hours for me each dose, and long term is possibly bad for your heart.

However, I can't speak for serious mania, but I do tend to go manic coming off SSRI and I found Lithium Orotate cheap and effective for that.