{"id":6405,"date":"2013-05-30T00:28:19","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T07:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/?p=6405"},"modified":"2018-05-15T09:58:14","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:58:14","slug":"grief-bipolar-depression-and-lamictal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/grief-bipolar-depression-and-lamictal\/","title":{"rendered":"Grief, Bipolar Depression and Lamictal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"question<\/a>I just received this\u00a0question \u00a0from Eileen:<\/span><\/p>\n

Julie,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that I am having a very rough time managing my bipolar type 2 when my life is turned upside down and had to take a temporary leave of absence from work to take care of my Mom and spend time with her in her final stages of terminal cancer.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I am not functioning well at all.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Suggestions ? I am going to re read some of your books that I have but am not going to do everything at once. Fortunately my Mom has 24 hour paid caregivers around the clock and is receiving Hospice care.. Yet, my emotions are all over the wall and I am on a low dose of Lamotrigine at 25 mg and wondered if I should up the dose .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Eileen,<\/span><\/p>\n

First off, 25 mg. of Lamictal is a very, very low dose. That is basically what people start at in order to slowly go up and avoid side effects. I am not a doctor- but I talk to my co author\u00a0 Dr. John Preston regularly. My mother, brother, friend and myself are on Lamictal. Our doses are 125mg, 400 mg, 500 mg, and I take 700 mg.<\/span><\/p>\n

200 mg is the basic therapeutic dose. If you go to the category list on the right, I have many posts on Lamictal and other medications.<\/span><\/p>\n

I doubt very much that 25mg is having any effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

You have to keep going until the Lamictal works.\u00a0This is well known in the health care profession.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think that this is the best place to start.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>I am very sorry to hear about your mother. It would affect anyone’s bipolar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Start with meds and go from there.\u00a0 I think a grief counselor is the best next step.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Julie<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"question<\/a>I just received this question from Eileen:<\/p>\n

Julie,<\/p>\n

It seems that I am having a very rough time managing my bipolar type 2 when my life is turned upside down and had to take a temporary leave of absence from work to take care of my Mom and spend time with her in her final stages of terminal cancer.<\/p>\n

I am not functioning well at all.<\/p>\n

Suggestions ? I am going to re read some of your books that I have but am not going to do everything at once. Fortunately my Mom has 24 hour paid caregivers around the clock and is receiving Hospice care.. Yet, my emotions are all over the wall and I am on a low dose of Lamotrigine at 25 mg and wondered if I should up the dose .<\/p>\n

Thanks<\/p>\n

Hi Eileen,<\/p>\n

First off, 25 mg. of Lamictal [ Read More ]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11373,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6405\/revisions\/11373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}