Increase in trileptal
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| Wed, 10-26-2005 - 9:39am |
Hey all! I saw my pdoc yesterday and after rambling on and on about my obsessions, she strongly suggested that I start lithium but I refused because I've heard about the weight again associated with it and I tend toward anorexia so weight gain would be a huge set up for me to DIET. Cant go there again, I've got my eating issues under control for the time being.
She ended up doubling my trileptal to 300mg per day, taken at bedtime. Today I feel a bit drowsy, but I swear to you the obsession is still there and I'm still not thinking rationally. I can still make myself believe that acting out on this obsession would be okay. At this point, I have to confess, that I'm thinking about acting out on the obsession just to get it out of my head for awhile. Not smart, but I'm getting desperate.
And to make matters worse, H is traveling so I'm home alone with the kids and I have to get up with DS8 every few hours all night long to turn him because he's physically handicapped and he can't adjust himself. And there are a bunch of contractors working at my house today and although I'm at my office now they arrived at like 7 am and immediately started asking lots of questions, smoking cigs (NOT in my house, of course), and talking in a million different languages. And so much of my construction isn't even complete yet and Im tired of arguing with the contractors to come back and finish the work.
Well, at least I'm not in emotional pain today, so that's a good thing I guess. One of my problems is that my mind moves so quickly that I don't really process any of my thoughts, don't allow the emotions to kick in. When I feel sad or in pain, I just move on to any one of the other dozen thoughts floating around in my head.
Has anyone else had a good response with trileptal? Has anyone had a good response with lithium and not experienced weight gain? I'm seeing her again in 2 weeks because I'm still not stable.
Thanks for listening. Love, Mo.


Mo, I know a person IRL that takes lithium and doesn't have a weight gain issue. And she's been on it for a good many years. She swears by it.
Give the trileptal increase some time. It takes a little while for that one to actually get in there and do it's thing. I'm on 900 mgs (down from 1200) a day. So, there's a possibility if the 300 doesn't cut it, pdoc may increase again. I think for me the trileptal and the depakote are what's keeping me on an even keel.
I do understand your hesitation with the lithium and maybe you and pdoc can work closely on it to where if you start noticing an increase, you can switch to something else readily. I don't know, it's just a thought.
Good luck and keep us posted:)
Love & Hugs,
Traci
Hey Mo...
Probably NOT what you want to hear...Trileptal worked pretty good for me for a while, but with me cycling so much, it wasn't so great after a month or two and I had to go up to really high doses, 1800 mgs.
Lithium did work well for me too, for a pretty good while...but I DID HAVE A WEIGHT GAIN of about 35-40 pounds on it...I tend towards anorexia too, was dxed with an ED, and I could NOT lose the weight, no matter what...still can't and I'm off it a month now...Course, I'm not exactly trying!
I know people who DID gain, and I know of a COUPLE of people who didn't.
However, it works REALLY good on hypomania/mania.
It saved me at the time I was rxed it and I am glad I took it for that reason. You have to weigh the two...where you are as far as stability (you seem to be struggling pretty badly lately) and the weight thing...I needed my stability really really quickly (it works fast too). I took it, it worked and I gained weight. There is nothing GUARANTEEING that you will gain weight too. Not everyone does. If you need the stability, you should try it. If the weight gain becomes too much for you, then you can always try something else.
I say go for it...it was worth the weight gain in my case. I'm no longer on it only because it stopped working. If it still worked for me, I'd still be on it, weight gain or not.
Hugs, hon!
Keli