Lamictal 100 mgs: Some Observations On Mood and Side Effects

My mood has been much better since titrating up to 100 mgs of lamictal.  I'm having fewer mid-afternoon slumps, and when I do have them they're not as severe.  My cognition, motivation, and concentration have continued to improve as well.  Yay!  I might just get my mood to a truly good place before the Equinox heralds the dying of the light.

The side effects of lamictal have continued as well.  Most of them haven't been too problematic, except for loss of appetite, which can lower my mood if I don't make myself eat.  Anyway, here are my observations in greater detail.  I've put the main points in bold for those of you who aren't interested in the greater detail. :)

My sleep has gotten better, though if I keep all the lights on my my living room it can easily be 2 am before I notice.  But I sleep more deeply, and I don't awaken as often during the night.  If I can get to sleep at a reasonable hour, sometimes I can even wake up before my alarm goes off.

My appetite has gotten worse -- much worse.  For most of the day, food just seems unappetizing to me.  I have trouble eating breakfast and have no interest in lunch.  The upside to this is that I've lost the weight I gained on the cursed NorthStar lamotrigine, and I'm beginning to lose some of the weight I gained from Abilify and Lexapro last winter.  The downside is that if I don't force myself to eat breakfast, my mood can suffer.

I'm not sure why, but my body seems to want salt and fat (maybe it wants fat because it craves calories, if not food?) .  The breakfasts that have been appetizing, that I've enjoyed, have been my really weird omelet, a brunch last week that included scrambled eggs and salmon, and a mushroom and spinach empanada I ate yesterday at the farmers' market.  Not sure what's up with that.  I'd love to hear whether other folks taking this med have noticed anything similar.

(Click on "Read More" for observations on skin and muscle tone)

Lamictal Day 52: Weird Reaction to Sugar

At a couple of points in the past week, I've been at social events where sugary desserts have been available.  Both times they've crashed my mood and my attention span.  It was almost like being drunk, with only the unpleasant parts.

I don't have sugar very often.  I actually don't have a sweet tooth, something for which I am very grateful.  But usually I can handle eating a single goddam peanut butter cookie without it impairing my driving ability!

The only time I've experienced anything like this was several years ago.  I had gone off my meds entirely, and was managing my ADHD symptoms (my mood symptoms were not an issue at that time) purely through diet and exercise.  I completely cut out caffeine and sugar, and wasn't even eating many carbs at all.  The effect was that if I were to, say, eat a piece of wedding cake, the icing would completely end me.  I would struggle to make basic conversation.  My speech was probably slurred, I don't know.  What I do know is that starting Vyvanse for my ADHD normalized me enough that I could have a breakfast pastry or a dessert without losing my faculties.

Is this a lamictal thing?  Is this a lamictal thing at higher doses?  If you're on lamictal, have you had an experience like this?