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| Wed, 08-09-2006 - 12:03am |
I've been so tired lately, I've been sleeping around 20 hours a day. How do I know if it's the depakote or depression? I've been on the depakote 2 weeks, 1000 mg. Thanks-
Meg
Meg

Hey honey! All the BP meds make me VERY VERY tired. But, that either goes away, or your body adjusts, USUALLY. If you don't find relief soon, CALL PDOC. You don't have to suffer through this too. There are other options. I've missed you!!
Love and Hugs,
Keli
Hi,
I started on Geodon while I was in the hospital. It made me sooo tired and sleepy!! Once I saw my regular pdoc...she cut my dosage in half. It still made me tired, but now my body has finally adjusted...just as Keli stated. I'd give it a chance...then if it's still making you sleep that much...call you pdoc.
~Renee :)
Meg
My meds make me tired all the time too. My meds have been changed, tweaked, added to so much this past year that my body is always trying to adjust. When I was on Depokote a long long time ago. I do remeber it made me drowsy and lathargic, but it only lasted a couple weeks. I hope the med works for you. If not call you pdoc.
Tina
~ Tina ~
Hi Meg,
When I take my meds, I'm on depakote, lithium, zyprexa, topamax and wellbutrin plus klonopin and ativan as needed, oh and ambien too also when needed. When I was just on the first 5 I was constantly tired and slept as much as I could. But then my thoughts started racing and my rage came back so the klonopin, ativan and ambien were thrown in. Once I was able to get my mind to stop racing I stopped the the 3 "as needed" meds and went back to the daily regimen. Once again I found I was constantly tired and wanting to sleep all the time. My problem is I don't know which med did it or if it was a combination of all of them. At this point I don't even know what all of them are for. I know the lithium is a mood stabilizer and the wellbutrin is an anti-depressant. But the depakote I don't even know why I'm still supposed to be taking it, as witI h the zyprexa. The topamax I know is to offset the weight gain I had with the zyprexa. So right now I have countless bottles of pills that are sitting on my desk and I'm not taking any of them because at the moment I'm fed up with the meds.
All that said, as Keli pointed out, if the symptoms persist CALL Your PDOC! There's no need to suffer through this. She's right when she says they all make us sleepy to some extent, but the symptoms should even out once your body adjusts to the meds. I'm only on 500mgs of depakote when I do take it so I don't know if that's enough to cause the effect though.
hang in there and keep posting. Let us know how you're doing.
Hugs,
Traci
Traci...for whatever reason, I did not know you are on SO MANY MEDS! You should only be taking one mood stabilizer and one anti-anxiety med at a time! Lithium, Depakote, and Topamax are all stabilizers. The Klonopin and Ativan together is a biggie...I cannot believe they are giving you all that. The Zyprexa is a MAJOR antipsychotic and is okay, if you feel you still need it.
They did that to me too...on 50 million meds, and all it did was make me worse.
You need to talk to your pdoc seriously about coming off the Depakote at least. I took Topamax with my Lithium and that's okay, as Topa is a low level stabilizer. And get off one or the other of the Ativan and Klonpin!!!
No wonder you are unstable. I'm sorry I missed that, about all your meds.
Ugh. You have got to be a zombie with no emotions...except frustration!
Love you,
Keli
Thanks Keli. Yeah, I plan on talking to my pdoc at my next appointment. When I first started going to her the plan was to get me off all but 2. But then I went haywire with my moods so instead of weaning me off the depakote, she added the zyprexa, then the topamax, then the lithium, then the klonopin and when all that didn't *work* she threw in the ativan which worked short term but I wasn't sleeping so she threw in the ambien too.
Now that all the court stuff with xh is settled I haven't been as all over the place and haven't felt the need for the meds. The past few nights I haven't been able to shut down though but I refuse to take the meds for that. However, I think I may have to start taking them again until whatever has my mind in high gear goes away. I just hate the meds. I want to be able to *live* and have
I did end up calling pdoc this morning and he said not to increase to 1500 mg (which I did last night anyway) because he thought depakote was causing lethargy for me. Well, I sorta think it's just depression because today I was doing better for awhile and kind of hypomanic and now I'm exhausted again but it could be the depakote OR it could be cycling back into depression. It's just so confusing. I hate this waiting around all the time for a 30 minute appt. in which I forget what has gone on in the past few weeks and end up with STILL no AD. That's all I want. An AD. Is that too much to ask for?
Sorry, rambling.
Thanks everyone xoxo
Meg