Sammyy: Lamictal cold turkey, serious mental problems

[Sammyy]

Hi I am in a very bad place right now and desperately need help from anyone who will read this. This will probably be a very long post because i have been dealing with what I will describe as a complete nightmare for the past 4 months with no help from any doctor.

 

I am a 23 year old Female who up until taking lamictal never had any mental health problems nor has anyone in my family. I have never been on any psychiatric drugs prior to this either. I have had chronic Lyme disease for many years which presented itself in mostly neurological symptoms and heart symptoms. I did have some anxiety, depersonalization, slight depression from the disease but no other psychiatric symptoms related to the disease at all. And I was never diagnosed with any mental illness, only Lyme disease and POTS.

 

I started on antibiotic treatment in October 2015 and was on treatment until December 2018 when this whole nightmare began with the drug lamictal. For some reason my lyme doctor (who is an infectious disease doctor) decided to put me on lamictal to help “calm my brain” while going through antibiotic therapy. This was last February 2018 after I had been on treatment for a good number of years. I have no clue why I ever decided to take this drug but now I’m deeply regretting it. I was very scared to even start it because I read the side effects online and they terrified me so much I literally had a panic attack the night I took the first dose. My boyfriend had to hold my hand and basically force me to take it I was freaking out about it so much.

 

I really don’t know why they decided I needed to be on lamictal after seeing improvements with my symptoms but they insisted on me taking it. They only had me on 25mg rapid release form at nighttime only. I really don’t know if it did anything positive for me at first cuz I didn’t notice anything change in my lyme symptoms which at this point were more stablized and I was living a more normal life. I still had some depersonalization and other symptoms but I was doing better than I had been doing in years.

 

Sometime in May 2018 during a phone consultation with my lyme doctor they decided to change my lamictal rapid release to the extended release version. Their idea was that if I had the drug in my body longer I would see more benefits from it I suppose. At this time I really didn’t notice anything different from taking the lamictal so I didn’t think it was a big deal nor was I really scared of it anymore.

 

Sometime during the fall I began feeling very sick all the time and having fevers all the time for months and severe sinus pain. I had a chest port placed in 2016 for iv antibiotics which was still in my body  at this point and so we ran cultures on my port to make sure the fever wasn’t from an infection in the line. That was clear as well as the sinus CT I had done. It is not normal for me to have chronic fevers or sinus pain everyday with my Lyme disease so I found that very odd.

 

In addition to always feeling sick and run down I was also extremely depressed and withdrawn from my friends and I never wanted to do anything with my friends or go anywhere except for class. I had basically no motivation for anything besides going to class. I then started developing sore throats and sweatiness. In addition to all of this I started having worsening vision issues like double vision and seeing the board in class become difficult cuz I started having a hard time deciphering things far away. Also around 1pm everyday I would start to get what I describe as “sleepy eyes” where my eyes felt so heavy and tired even if my body wasn’t tired I would have a hard time keeping my eyes open. It was very strange and started to mess with my class I had at that time. I was still on my lyme treatment so it wouldn’t make sense how I could just suddenly be relapsing with the disease but I had no clue what was happening to me since I had been doing so well just months prior.

 

Then at the end of November with another phone call with my doctor I explained how I wasn’t feeling well recently but all the cultures and ct scan came back fine but my face always hurt and I had a fever for like 3 months straight at this point. Their solution was to INCREASE my lamictal to 50mg XR at nighttime. I found this to be very bizarre but they claimed it would help with the pain in my face.

 

On November 16 I increased my lamictal to 50mg and literally within an hour of the change I started having pins and needles in my feet which was new for me and freaked me out. By the next day I was having a difficult time walking and moving my right leg and by Sunday the 18 I was having a hard time speaking. This was just 2 days on a higher dose of the drug. I thought no way in hell am I taking the 50mg tonight I was absolutely terrified so I had my mom drop off my old 25mg bottle to my apartment that day and I just took that instead for my nighttime dose.

 

The next day was when things really went downhill and haven’t been the same since. I went to class like normal during the day and then at night when I got home I noticed I was feeling kinda panicky and anxious so I took a shower and then I started feel more weird and I called my boyfriend to hurry over to my apartment. At around 5:20 I suddenly had no memory of who I was or where I was or anything from my past, didn’t know what was happening to me. It hit me so fast just like a wave of total panic and confusion. Everything started to look weird and distorted and I was hot and dizzy and it was really bad. I ran outside and immediately called my doctors office to have them call me back right away. I made my boyfriend drive me around in his car cuz I had to be outside being inside made everything worse. I didn’t know what the hell was happening to me. Everything was very slow and dreamy and bizarre I thought I was in some kind of psychosis state.

 

While in the car it got a little better and the doctor called back and I asked if it could be from changing the lamictal around and she said no way that lamictal is supposed to help with stuff like this? She said it wasn’t from lamictal probably from the Lyme disease (yet I’ve never had anything like that before with my normal symptoms) and sent over a prescription for Ativan!? Wtf there’s no way I was gonna start taking another psychiatric medication after what had just happened. The doctor was no help but at that point things had slowed down a little so we went back to my apartment and I tried to just shake it off and go to bed.

 

I never started the Ativan and I still continued to take only the 25mg of lamictal XR at night and I didn’t have anymore issues that week luckily since it was thanksgiving. I didn’t tell anyone in my family cuz I was so freaked out. I then began to feel off most of the time like slightly different but not like the first episode.

 

The next episode I had was  the following weekend after thanksgiving on Saturday. I had ordered food to go from a restaurant and while standing in line inside I started to feel really weird again like I had the first time but not as intense. Everything seemed to slow down a lot and watching the workers seemed like they were moving in slow motion almost. Things started to look super distorted and my eyes seemed hazy almost. I then had this sudden urge to start yelling at the people inside stuff like “nothing matters” and “life doesn’t mean anything” weird stuff like that. I’ve never been like that before in my life. Waiting for the food felt like forever in there while this was going on in my head. It freaked me out a lot and I didn’t know what was happening to me again. I knew that I looked completely normal on the outside but something was really messed up in my brain. That settled down by the time I got home.

 

After that everyday I just felt weirder and weirder. I began having racing thoughts and intrusive thoughts. I started thinking things that weren’t true. My friend came over and brought me a sandwich and jokingly I almost said “thanks honey” in my normal humor but when I thought about saying that I had a voice/thought in my head go “he’s your husband” even tho he isn’t!! I was so terrified I didn’t speak to him for the rest of the day. Another time in December I was eating blueberries and they tasted spoiled and my brain immediately went into panic mode and thought “these are poisoned” and I was paranoid about the berries. I’ve never had anything like that before.

 

So once this stuff started happening I began thinking I had a serious mental illness or something. I didn’t understand how I could suddenly be having urges to yell at people and thinking things that aren’t true and become paranoid or having that episode where I had no clue who I was. It didn’t make any sense and I never traced it back to the lamictal because my doctor had said it wouldn’t cause issues. I spent all of December totally scared and avoiding everyone and everything unless absolutely necessary.

 

The next symptom I started to get was a weird memory thing where things that just happened or happened earlier in the day seemed like they happened months or years ago. Everything started to feel super spread out. I would go to the store in the morning and by nighttime it felt like that had happened like 3 months ago. It was very bizarre and idk what the word for that is. It wasn’t like true memory loss but just a severe distortion of memory. This was the end of December/start of January and the only person I had told at this point was my boyfriend. I began trying to find stuff online for what the hell was happening to me but still never looked up anything with lamictal.

 

For some reason we become stuck on the idea that I could have a vitamin b12 deficiency because all my symptoms seemed to match it. That wasn’t it though. I started to think I had schizophrenia. By the second week of January things had gotten so bad I felt so awful I was always in bed and just felt so weird and out of it. My body and mind felt foreign. I was supposed to start class up again but i didn’t know how I would be able to go.

 

On January 8 I had another episode exactly like the first one but worse. It happened around 4:30pm this time and it lasted for like 2 hours. It was horrible, I started to feel panicky at first and I had this wave of dread and fear just wash over me and I knew it was gonna happen  again. I raced out of my apartment and began walking around the city I live in with my boyfriend, luckily he was with me this time. Everything was SO strange and distorted and so slow. Again I had no clue who I was or what was happening. If I would turn  my head things would move so slow and nothing was processing right in my head. I felt like I was in some other world. I was seriously confused and had no recollection of anything. When this settled down finally after 2 hours we called my doctors office again and they called back and I told her what happened and asked if I had schizophrenia or some serious issue cuz none of this made any sense to me. Idk if I was having psychosis episodes or what it was. I told her the episodes happen always at 4/5 pm but the memory distortion and feeling  off was all the time now.

 

She asked me what time I take my lamictal and I said 9:30 pm cuz they told me to take it at night. She was shocked I said at night and she said i should be taking it in the morning (they never told me that) and told me that it sounds like the lamictal is running out around the time you’re having these episodes and the lamictal is actually helping these problems but when it runs out you’re having psychiatric symptoms. She said I needed to either change the time i take the XR to morning or take the rapid release version 2 times a day to get fuller coverage of the drug. She also said I could have schizophrenia or a Schizoaffective disorder.

 

So now I’m extremely confused and very upset and scared. I didn’t understand how I didn’t have any of these symptoms before taking lamictal but now suddenly I do and the lamictal is helping them until it runs out in the evening when I totally turn crazy and have schizophrenia or some other mental issue? Since all I had at my apartment that night was 25mg XR I took that and figured I would just change my schedule the next day and go back on the rapid release once I got it from my moms house.

 

The next day the same exact thing happened at 4 PM. The same panic feeling and then not knowing who I am and everything became slow and weird and distorted.   This time my boyfriend said he would have to take me home to my parents house to stay until we figured out what the heck was going on because he couldn’t leave work early and I needed to be with someone at all times at this point. I was convinced I had some sort of serious mental issue that would happen everyday at the same time. Nothing made any sense to me and the doctor didn’t help. When my boyfriend took me home we finally told my parents and they thought I should just do what the doctor said cuz they didn’t know either. No one in my family knows anything about mental illness or psychiatric medication cuz we never had any issues before. So that night Wednesday January 9 instead of taking the XR lamictal I went back on the 25mg rapid release. I figured if it was a problem where it’s running out by the time I wake up in the morning I should be past the time I would have an episode so I’ll just see how I feel all day tomorrow and decide if I need to be on it twice a day or just stick with my nighttime dose.

 

So the next day after taking the rapid release things were weird again like all day weird. Everything was distorted and felt fake and not real. I felt like I was just drifting around in some daze like trance. I started to have more of memory distortion that day I remember too and then I had another episode at night around the same time as the other episodes however this time I had a new symptom: flashbacks. I started to have weird intrusive flashbacks during my episode that night and I literally thought that was what they call “life flashing before your eyes.” I never had this before and I thought i was gonna die that night. I had to go outside in the garage and pace to help try to calm me down because I was so restless. So since it happened again that day and it was worse I didn’t know what to think. I was so scared to increase the lamictal to twice a day because the only time I ever took 50mg was when I had issues walking and talking but I didn’t know what to do because the doctor said I needed to. I decided to wait one more day and see how I felt the next day with only taking one 25mg before bed again. So the next day Friday was the same thing: all day felt weird and then yet another episode at 4pm.

 

Now by this time my family basically told me I have no choice but to try and take an extra dose in the AM to see if that helps anything. So Saturday comes and I take a morning dose at 9am and within a half hour I’m a complete mess. Severe confusion again, everything is severely distorted and slow moving, turning my head things don’t move the same way, no clue where I was or what was happening, everything looked beyond fake and weird. My parents are pissed now because the doctor pretty much didn’t give any answers to what’s happening so they call the weekend emergency line and talk to the doctor and now they are telling us I need to “detox” my body because sometimes with lyme treatment it can create so much toxicity in the brain that you develop psychiatric symptoms and confusion. So we’re like okay we’ll just try that. Do that all day Saturday and Sunday and feel a little better but eventually it all just happens starts happening again the next week.

 

At this point I’m on 25mg AM and PM and still feeling crazy and weird pretty much all day having multiple episodes during different times of the day now. I then start to get EXTREME dizziness after taking my doses as well as itchiness and hives and my throat would feel like it was swollen and my tongue felt huge as well. I honestly thought I was going to die. By Friday things were so bad after my nighttime dose I literally thought I was going into anaphylaxis because my tongue felt swollen and it was hard to breathe and I was extremely dizzy and had a super high heart rate.

 

We went to the ER and I told them what’s been happening and of course they think I’m nuts but apparently in a blood test they did on me something came back detectable for heart damage and they were very concerned I was going to have a heart attack so they admitted me. I think my heart was in such bad shape cuz I was SO stressed from not knowing what was happening. I asked them what the hell the deal with the lamictal is and of course they don’t know. They all found it weird I was taking it without having epilepsy or bipolar disorder though.

 

The next day in the hospital they run a bunch of heart tests and I tell them I want to talk to a psychiatrist because of the issues with lamictal and everything else. At this point I’m starting to think the lamictal is causing me a huge problem and I was hoping a psychiatrist would know if this was normal or not of I could just stop taking it. The psych doctor didn’t know anything, he basically told me all my problems sounded like neuro and I need to get into see a neuro doc ASAP cuz it sounds like migraines? I asked him if I should still take the lamictal and he said to just go back to only the nighttime dose and call my doctor Monday to see if I can just stop it all together.

 

So I stop taking the morning dose that day, get discharged Sunday with absolutely no answers to anything, still feeling awful and have another episode Sunday night. Monday we make a phone appointment for the next day with the doctor and so now the doctor says to just stop taking the lamictal all together and that I’ll be fine since it’s  a low dose and that I need to be on something for my anxiety like Ativan again!! I never had anxiety like this before. I was anxious cuz I didn’t know what was happening to me! They told me again it sounds like my brain is toxic and I need to “really push the detox.”

 

So I didn’t take my night dose and this was the first time I didn’t take any lamictal at all in a year. I WAS SO SICK within an hour of missing the dose. I was sweating, nauseous, dizzy, disoriented. I felt like a drug addict in rehab. I thought well great maybe now I’ll finally feel better if this is my problem and I got the drug out of my system. Boy I couldn’t have  been more wrong. I started to have more issues when I stopped the drug. All day confusion, tremors, speech issues, horrible nerve pain in my feet when walking, can’t walk to the bathroom, severe derealization and depersonalization, hallucinations, stomach issues, delusions, so many things just started happening to me and are still happening 2 months later.

 

I have no idea what the hell is happening or if I have a mental problem. I have researched drug withdrawal and I have a lot of symptoms for benzo withdrawal but I can’t find anything about lamictal even close to the nightmare I’m going through. I joined a Facebook group for lamictal withdrawal but it only made me feel worse because I have much more severe stuff and a completely different story than everyone on there and a few of them told me I need to see a psychiatrist which totally made me feel way worse thinking I have something seriously wrong.

 

I have no one to ask about this since all the doctors here told me it’s not lamictal and I really don’t wanna go to a psych ward and when we last spoke to my lyme doctor in February again they said “there’s absolutely no way it’s from lamictal. She was on too little dose for too little amount of time.” And then they change the story and say my port is now infected because I was having fevers and developed chills as well and I need to get it removed so I had surgery in February and spent another weekend in the hospital for that but i didn’t feel any better after getting it removed.

 

Im still having all the same issues I was having before but now some new things and I really don’t know what to do. I feel like I’m losing my mind every day and I feel so sick and messed up it’s horrible. I don’t remember who I was before this and I have such bad confusion idk who I am or where I am most of the time. I don’t recognize things I should and I’m having delusions and paranoia. I hardly sleep now and if I do I wake up totally confused and not knowing what time or day or year it is. I have such bad derealization I’m questioning everything I see and thinking I’m making up everything around me and thinking I made up my entire life. I feel like a different person in my body like I’m not in charge of what’s going on and all my memories don’t feel like they were really me.

 

I have no clue if I have schizophrenia or multiple personalities or bipolar disorder or if this is considered drug withdrawal. My parents don’t want me to see another psychiatrist or go to a psych ward because they think it’s from the lamictal and I need to heal from it but I really don’t know anymore what to think.  I know I don’t want to ever go back on any psych medicine cuz lamictal felt like it was going to kill me literally

 

I don’t think this is from lyme because like I said I never had these issues before even when I was at my sickest. Something is really really wrong but every doctor says it’s not lamictal. I really need some help from someone because I can’t live the rest of my life like this. Idk how mental illness starts if it happens like this or if it’s truly drug withdrawal or maybe I have brain damage or something. I feel like I’m going to just snap and turn fully crazy at any minute. I really hope someone sees this and reads it all and knows what is happening to me. I’ve never been more scared in my entire life. I am going to list my symptoms since stopping the drug:

 

Severe insomnia

Confusion

Severe confusion when waking up 

Don’t know who I am

Don’t know where I am

Don’t recognize anything 

Severe derealization 

Severe depersonalization 

Nerve pain when walking

Muscle weakness 

Body feels heavy and weak

Stomach/digestive issues

Internal shaking looks like a seizure

Headache

Sinus pain  

Back of neck pain

Time feels SO slow 

Delusions(not sure if these are delusions but when someone else is talking I think I’m them, when on my phone and see a photo of someone I think I’m them, Think my dog can read my Mind, think my boyfriend is going to turn off my brain, thinking it’s Christmas, thinking my mom can read my brain, thinking I’m an animal)

Intrusive thoughts 

Intrusive flashbacks 

Intrusive pictures popping in my head

Can’t walk right 

Severe dizziness feels like the room is spinning

Feels like my brain is moving 

Feel deaf sometimes 

Light sensitivity 

Severe sound sensitivity 

Hyper vision( I literally see everything around me and every little movement)

Hyper hearing 

Severe anxiety

Sweating 

Fear and panic all the time 

Impending doom

Thinking I’m going to die

High heart rate (160 at one point)

Not acting like myself

Feel like someone else is in control of my body and mind 

Seeing myself in 3rd person

Speech problems

Air hunger

Apathy 

Weight loss, not hungry a lot

Nausea 

Akathisia 

Urine changes

Vision is super messed up, feel cross eyed and blurry and double

Will get super hot randomly

Brain zaps

Chills

Brain fog

Get confused when reading on my phone 

Getting words mixed up when reading 

Coughing 

Dry mouth 

Not having emotions sometimes 

HallucinAtions(seeing shadows all the time, saw an extra salad dressing that wasn’t there, seeing lights on tv that weren’t on)

Legs feel like they aren’t there sometimes 

Short term memory problems(can’t remember things that literally just happened)

Mouth tastes weird

Things look like they are swaying even if they are standing still

Racing thoughts 

Paranoia 

Getting people confused all the time

Thinking people are my brother/husband/ son even if they aren’t

Tinnitus 

Crying 

Fight or flight responses 

Scared of drinking too much water to the point where I am dehydrated 

Scared of my potassium level in my blood and that it’s gonna be too low or too high and I’ll die

Scared of my dog thinking she can read my mind (she stares at me a lot)

Scared of my phone case cuz it has Mickey Mouse on it and the face scares me

Scared of tvs 

Scared of using my phone cuz Everytime I do I think I’m the person I’m seeing on the screen or I think I’m at the place I’m seeing on the phone 

Scared I’m going to be like  Norman bates and pass out and kill someone and not remember 

Severe depression and isolation cuz idk what is happening to me 

Not knowing my relationships to people in my life

Head feels like it’s floating 

Eyes feel like they aren’t mine looking at things  

Questioning everything I see and having to double check myself all day

Thinking life is a simulation and it’s all gonna disappear at any moment and I’ll be the only one alive 

When waking up not remembering if something was a dream or a hallucination that previous night 

Can’t remember what I was about to say or do

When someone says my name I can’t remember if that’s me or not

Not able to follow along with conversations 

 

I’m probably missing some stuff but I’m absolutely terrified of the delusions and paranoia and hallucinations I’m having because of schizophrenia. I’m not sure if what I’m having are true delusions or what’s happening but if I think about anything other than being in my aparment I will suddenly believe I’m in that place doing whatever it is I was thinking about and when i realize I’m actually in my bed at my apartment i get scared and confused and have a panic attack cuz my brain thought I was somewhere else. Or if I go on my phone and see a picture of someone I believe I’m that person and that I posted that picture even if I didn’t so I think I’m other people?

 

And yesterday I thought my dog was a human and was reading my mind so I had to lock her in another room all day cuz I was so terrified of her. Normally she lays with me all day. Are these delusions? Is this what happens with schizophrenia and could I have gotten schizophrenia from taking lamictal?  I spend all day in bed since January either hiding under my covers because I’m so scared to look around at anything or staring at the wall all day. My friend is taking care of me and I hardly talk to them or interact with them at all which isn’t like me normally.

 

When I have to go to the bathroom I’m terrified of getting up and walking to it cuz I think I’m going to see something not there or do something bad. I’m frozen in fear and panic all day thinking I’m going to blackout and kill someone or wake up somewhere else and do something bad. I haven’t been out in public except the hospital in months because I feel like I don’t belong in society and I’m a bad person.

 

Another thing I’m super worried about is that I have split personality because I feel like my personality/mind isn’t attached to my body and my body has a different personality. I feel like my head is floating and my body is doing the actions it normally would but my actual mind is somewhere else watching my body. It’s like 3rd person almost. I think my inner voice is still the same but it’s like there’s two different people almost? One is my body and then the other is my head/brain. Is this multiple personality disorder? I can’t remember my life or who I was before all of this and my memories of before feel like they happened to someone else completely. Looking at pictures of myself from before doesn’t even look like me either. There are times of the day I don’t remember at all and I’m always confused about where I am or what’s happening or what I’ve done so could I be blacking out and not knowing and acting like a different person?

 

Someone in the lamictal group has convinced me I have multiple personalities so I haven’t been able to stop obsessing over it either. I’m debating on having my friend set up a camera to watch me so I can see if I’m doing weird things throughout the day. Im so depressed and lonely and I really really need help from someone. I’m desperate at this point. I’m scared to smile or laugh or show any emotion because then I feel like I have mania which means bipolar.

 

Does anyone know about lamictal or if it would cause multiple mental illnesses like this? Does this sound like schizophrenia or bipolar or multiple personalities? Or do I have brain damage? I’m so scared I’m going to be stuck like this forever now with more than one mental illness. I don’t want to have a mental problem   I really need someone to help me but I’m terrified of going to a psych ward and getting on more medicine. Idk what the hell has happened to me but please someone help me

 

 

Edited March 23, 2019 by ChessieCat
changed font size/added space

[Altostrata]

Welcome, Sammyy.

 

It sounds like you started having an adverse reaction to Lamictal, possibly because of an interaction with something else you started taking in the fall of 2018. Did you take Cipro or another fluoroquinolone? They and other antibiotics can have neurological side effects.

 

Were you taking 25 Lamictal XR at 9:30 p.m. when you had this symptom pattern?

 

11 hours ago, Sammyy said:

I told her the episodes happen always at 4/5 pm but the memory distortion and feeling  off was all the time now.

 

What exactly were the cardio tests? Did they find irregular or fast heartbeat?

 

11 hours ago, Sammyy said:

We went to the ER and I told them what’s been happening and of course they think I’m nuts but apparently in a blood test they did on me something came back detectable for heart damage and they were very concerned I was going to have a heart attack so they admitted me. I think my heart was in such bad shape cuz I was SO stressed from not knowing what was happening. I asked them what the hell the deal with the lamictal is and of course they don’t know. They all found it weird I was taking it without having epilepsy or bipolar disorder though.

 

You now have lamotrigine withdrawal syndrome. Reinstatement of a tiny amount of lamotrigine can help and is less likely to have side effects because they're dosage-related. Lamotrigine comes in pediatric 2mg and 5mg capsules by prescription.

[Sammyy]

Yes so the way my doctor treats lyme is using what’s called “pulsing” where the patient takes antibiotics for 2 weeks or 3 weeks MWF only and then has 2 or 3 week breaks. This is done to help prevent antibiotic resistance, help the gut, immune system and brings the bacteria out of hiding in biofilm. The first day I ever had an episode November 19 I was on the first day of my treatment cycle (at the time was 2 weeks ON, 2 weeks off). The treatment for that week was MWF minocycline 2x day, cipro 2x day, and amoxicillin 2x day. I had just taken my cipro and minocycline about an hour prior to the episode actually so that does make sense. However, I have been on and off cipro IV And orally throughout my lyme treatment over the years without any problems prior to this so I’m not sure if that’s exactly the reason. And so when I began lamictal last year I was taking it at 10pm until the fall time I was going to bed earlier because of class so I started taking it at 9:30 pm every night always at the same time. They did an echo and multiple ekgs as well as tropopin blood test that was elevated every time they took it. That test was the reason they were concerned for my heart. My heart rate was extremely elevated like 150-160 and it has settled down now but still get episodes of high HR now. 

Are delusions and paranoia common withdrawal symptoms? Like I said idk if I’m having true delusions or what but it’s very scary to me. Anytime I am thinking about anything other than the present situation, my brain will suddenly think I’m there or doing that thing and I get super confused. Also I will think I’m other people at times? 

[Altostrata]

Your nervous system changes over time and can become hypersensitive from going on and off neuroactive drugs and having adverse reactions to them. Drug-drug interactions can also change the internal environment. You can check for drug-drug interactions with the Drug Interactions Checker https://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.php

 

See What is withdrawal syndrome?

 

Withdrawal symptoms can be just about anything, psychological and otherwise, as the autonomic nervous system manages many bodily functions. See

 

Papers on diagnosis of antidepressant withdrawal syndrome

 

Dr. Joseph Glenmullen's withdrawal symptom checklist

 

Dysautonomia (autonomic dysregulation)

 

If I were you, I would get 2mg lamotrigine tablets and start with half of one, or 1mg, and see if it helps. Otherwise, you'll have to stay calm and wait it out while your nervous system stabilizes. See

 

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms
 
The Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

FYI

 

[Sammyy]

Since the lamictal was causing itchiness and my throat felt like it was swollen and it was hard to breathe could I have an allergy to it? I’m so scared to ever touch it again. So this isn’t typical of schizophrenia or multiple personalities presents?? That’s my main concern is that I have a serious mental illness. If i could know for sure it’s just withdrawal I can handle this a lot better

[Altostrata]

On 3/23/2019 at 5:23 AM, Sammyy said:

I started on antibiotic treatment in October 2015 and was on treatment until December 2018 when this whole nightmare began with the drug lamictal. For some reason my lyme doctor (who is an infectious disease doctor) decided to put me on lamictal to help “calm my brain” while going through antibiotic therapy. This was last February 2018....

 

I really don’t know why they decided I needed to be on lamictal after seeing improvements with my symptoms but they insisted on me taking it. They only had me on 25mg rapid release form at nighttime only. I really don’t know if it did anything positive for me at first cuz I didn’t notice anything change in my lyme symptoms which at this point were more stablized and I was living a more normal life. I still had some depersonalization and other symptoms but I was doing better than I had been doing in years.

 

Sometime in May 2018 during a phone consultation with my lyme doctor they decided to change my lamictal rapid release to the extended release version. Their idea was that if I had the drug in my body longer I would see more benefits from it I suppose. At this time I really didn’t notice anything different from taking the lamictal so I didn’t think it was a big deal nor was I really scared of it anymore.

 

Sometime during the fall I began feeling very sick all the time and having fevers all the time for months and severe sinus pain. I had a chest port placed in 2016 for iv antibiotics which was still in my body  at this point and so we ran cultures on my port to make sure the fever wasn’t from an infection in the line. That was clear as well as the sinus CT I had done. It is not normal for me to have chronic fevers or sinus pain everyday with my Lyme disease so I found that very odd.....

 

Why would you have schizophrenia or multiple personalities? You weren't put on Lamictal because of any psychiatric diagnosis. It sounds like your doctor was experimenting.

 

Since you were taking so many drugs, it's unclear if the Lamictal was causing the itchiness, tight throat, etc., sinus pain, fevers, etc. You might have had an allergic reaction to one of the other drugs or a combination of drugs. Or it could be the Lyme disease.

 

Taking a little Lamictal may alleviate lamotrigine withdrawal symptoms. It is unlikely to cause an allergic reaction. But if you try only 1mg and you do get an allergic reaction, you can stop it right away. The low dose limits the severity of any adverse reaction.

 

The object is to reduce your withdrawal symptoms, not to treat an alleged psychiatric disorder, which it appears you never had anyway.

[puthappinessfirst]

Hi there. Just wanted to stop in and say how strong you are and how sorry I am that your doctors aren't listening to you. You sure have gotten the run around. 

 

I also am dealing with derealization, anxiety, ocd/intrusive thoughts, a fear of blanking out and hurting someone, and fear of developing a more severe mental illness. This all stems from fear and anxiety. Our bodies are not functioning as good as they should be and it freaks our minds out. The feeling of loss of control is a lot to handle. I know all this and sometimes still find it hard to calm myself down. Just wanted to tell you that you're not alone and I hope you start feeling better soon!

[Eastcoastgirl]

Do you take any probiotics or anything to replace the good gut bacteria you are most likely losing from repeated lyme treatment? I know that when I had gut dysbiosis I had extreme brain fog, digestive issues, fatigue, etc. This is just a theory and i'm sure your issues are moreso related to the drug, however gut issues can cause a lot of neurological problems, especially because most of our serotonin is made in the gut. 

[Sammyy]

Is this ever going to end because I really can’t hold on for much longer honestly. My heart rate is super high all the time and I’m constantly in panic mode, nothing ever feels real, idk where I am ever or what day it is or who i am. Nothing has gotten any better and it’s been almost 3 months. I literally think my body is going to shut down soon. No one should have to go through this. I really can’t do this much longer. None of the people on the lamictal Facebook group have anything like what I have so idk what to do 

[Emma7855]

How are you doing nowadays, Sammyy? Wishing you the best.

[Elaine5]

How are you?