I cannot for the life of me think how you could get "high" of this, but its been the best mental health drug ever for me. I used to have soaring highs of feeling immensely happy, music would absolutely awesome and I would get obsessed with a subject, sometimes for days. Then everything would come crashing down into the worst depression. So much so, that when I'm happy (like listening to music is making me euphoric) I would get scared a crash was on its way. On lamotrigine, I don't experience such wild highs but I can have the occasional highs but it doesn't crash to full depression, it just levels off to a flatness of mood.
Lamictal (at one time if I remember the Wikipedia article correctly, although it's been edited out since) was considered a narcotic at one time in Japan, and (I think) not prescribed because of it.
Lamictal (when taken in recreational one time doses) for me acts as a major stimulant, but really it does
everything for me.
To be honest I'm diagnosed with Bipolar Diorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Social Anxiety Disorder. I also suffer from Fabry Disease, which causes peripheral neuropathy (nerve pain) in my hands and feet.
At the scheduled dosage the drug helps with my anxiety, and nerve pain, which no other drugs have done for me.
At recreational doses the drug takes the
something I am when not medicated and turns me into
someone.
My social anxiety is obliterated, I'm not a anxiety-ridden shut-in, and I'm capable of being sociable. I normally have little energy, drive, and suffer from avolition (trouble making and settling on decisions). The high gives me energy, drive, "ambition", etc.
The fog and trouble thinking I usually have are gone, and with it the cognitive logjams and trouble in planning and carrying out detailed multi-step tasks. A prime example for me is operating machinery. I'm not great with it but without lamictal
I know the whole "you gotta try this, mannn, it changes everything!!!" trope. But for me it does, and with little to no side effects. Aside from occasional restlessness (and occasionally significant impatience from such) and trouble sitting still, there's almost no side effects.
I know using and condoning it's recreational use risks damaging the image of
all those who take it (especially those taking it as ordered and responsibly so), much as those abusing opiates can cause issues for those taking them strictly (to great benefit) on a medicinal basis. But man, after what it's done for me, I wish there was a way I could introduce it to the people closest to me in life. Hell, I wish I could find a way to bring it to as many others as possible.
And that
does include my worst enemies, because at the end of the day the anxiety, cognitive issues, and nerve pain I suffer from are pure hell and I wouldn't wish it on any of them. I
would wish there's could get better, too.