lamotrigine has exactly the same adverse effect on my husband as effexor did on you .
Can I just say how interesting I have found reading the previous posts in this thread. I have very little knowledge of the drugs and treatments out there depsite having been pushed form pillar to post for many years. I have finally found an excellent psychiatrist - privately I hasten to add, as my previous one told me to go out and get a job since he believed I was just bored!

However, the reason for my posting is that I was taking effexor for appproximately 12 months and increased to an enormous dose of it during the last 4 months of that time. Simply put, I believe the effexor sent me into a HUGE hypermanic state. Not to go into any gory details, I was about to leave my husband and 3 beautiful children and my behaviour was completely out of order. I was, however, having the time of my life

. I was subsequently rushed into a psychiatric unit pronto by my husband. I just wanted to let eveyone know that there may be dire consequences to taking effexor.
I can recognise this scenario so well, but I can not do anything to change my husband's mind about deserting me everytime he goes manic. Nothing will change until his episode ends then he can not believe he acted that way towards me and he is ashamed and very remorseful. He has no insifght when he is high but the menatl health team canot reach him. He is alos very plausible and often manages to convince then he is rational and that there arev just relationship problems. This is not the case at all, and as soom as he is out of the high mood swing he is very happy and relieved to be with me agin, but is also very depressed then too. I have taken him back so many times and never left him myself. Itis alwayys he who leaves. Lamotrigine has been disastrous for him and any antidepressants have the same effect in terms of causing mania to return quickly or over next few weeks. I don't know what to do. I am getting nowhere. The mental health team do respond to my concerns by trying with difficulty to contact him and by offerrin him a appointment but he is in so much denila and so resistant they can not get him to agree to any change in treatment.
I have studied this disorder myself thoroughly, am medically trained and am very aware of what other combinations of medications would help, and have recommended these to the Mental elath services and requested specialist referrals repeatedly, but because he has hypomania rather than full blown mania, even thogh hypomania can be just as destructive indeed, I can not get the mental health team to take any serious action. I really think he needs sectioning or hospital treatment or intensive outpatient reassessment . but he will not coopertae whe high. I also think it is harder to encourage a man into treatment than a woman. I have tried everything to try to get him to see sense and to seek better help but as he has np insight, a banging my head against a brick wall. It is a continual waiting game, and a revolving door. I am at my wits end. He has just written saying he wants to end the relationship with me but offers no explanation and says he won't discuss it, after taking off out of the blue without any upset between us, having only been back together 6 months ( Depressed mood ) after the previous 4 - 5 month epipsde of mania, when he deserted me then too. Does anyone else experience this same pattern of frequent cyclical abandonmenst without explanation or rarely any trigger or fall out before ?
Sometimes ( usually not ) there has been mild conflict before his sudden departure abroad or back to his flat or shooting oof up to London, but the conflict ( Disagreement or upset or mild argument ) never warrants such an extreme reaction. I don't take off when he disagrees with me or distorts something have said or takes offence at soemthing completly harmless ! It is not normal behaviour. He always feels justified in leaving and is filled with hostility , age , aggression, confrontational atitude, argumentative mess, verbal or physical assult, which seems to come from nowhere, and is completely out of character, overnight literally, having been depressed for long periods prior to it, as he is a rapid cycler with no free periods of wellness in between.
Is this recognisable to others, the take offs, the desertion, the ending the relationship suddenly out of the blue then wanting to return immediately the episode has passed, and contacting me staright away to apologise and in an awfully guilty and embarrased state? I feel shocked and hurt every time he leaves me even though I know it is not him but his illness, which is why I always take him back and we jus pick up exactly where we left off, though I have stressed things need to cahnge and he needs to accept more help and reassessment of his treatment, and to let me come to the psychiaitrist with him like I used to in the past until he blocked it when high. I have never betrayed him in any way, though he has come close to cheating on me or is atleast hypersexulally preoccupied and contacting websites, and looking excessivly at pornography when hypomanic, and eyeing up women he passes or emailing a friend old friends who he only contacts when high, or emailing a stranger on some newly joined social networking site telling them he is watching a long legged blonde in a pub in London, during his take off . I know this is classic hypomanic or manic behviour and out of his control or character but it still hurts me deeply each time it recurrs and really affects my self confidence and upsets me terribly . Sometimes I really feel I am wasting my time and my life, but I have alkways believed that with improved treatmenr he could get well or have significantly reduced or less frequent or severe epiosdes. He does not have euphoric highs, they are dysphoric and agitated and aggressive. He is in no way loving to me then. He is very hostile but he can be very charming to others as they are not pointing out that he is hypomanic and needs help. Thats why he hates me then I think.
I love him ( and when not high ) I believ he loves me, he says he does, though is not very open about how he feels very often, but he is pushing me to my limit and I am feeling terribly sad and demoralised by it all, and finding this pattern of rejection so frustrating as he will not even communicate then, and refuses to reply to any medium of contact until he wants to, often weeks or months and will not clear his messages or read his email or answer the phone. I really don't know how many times I can take him back and being denied any normal relationship or consistent support for many many months of each year, on and off all year long. I know I am missing out so much on what I could have had with another relationship had I made different choices, everyone else tells me, but I feel I made a commitment to him that I would stay by him and not give up on helping him get well. We have been togethger 8 years now, and he is still behaving the same. I have missed the boat re children I think and he is in his eraly fifties now. I tried to leave in our first year as his aggression caused me to have a breakdown, but onece I was nolonger depressed, I decided to lear all In could about his illnesss and support hij and take it on 100%. I had to make that decision at that point and it nearly broke my heart to leave him. Since then I have researched the illness insiside out bought every good book about bipolar disorder under the sun, read all the reasearch, studied all the treatments, attended support groups etc, and battled with the mental health services. He has tried to do some of this too at times but it never lasts. He has shown interest in reading the books but without insight he can nor see himslef in them, he has sporadically attended the mental health services, but not oiften enough, and sometimes fails to keep appointments especially when very high or very low.
They do not see him often enough to see the real him, and I think the hypomanic person they have seen the believe is the real character, which it is most certainly not, but he can be so articulate and plausible as he is so intelligent and many of his team staff especially his key worker, a social workers , and soe others are not that sharp at all compared with him,so he can sound very well, and they do not have the skill to spot subtle changes as they do notv really know him. I wish he had the more acute Bipolar 1 as his mania would more than likely be recognised. Hypomania is still moderate mania and can be devastating as it goes undertreated for so long during which time the damage is usually done.
THis is a life of hell and it affects my interest in everything else including my motivation and interrst in my joib or any social activities. I feel very lonely and defeated. I feel desperately sad for him as he has sustained so anmny losses over the years, and has tremendous potential which he has never reached, and has lost all his relationships due to behaving just like this, but was not given a proper diagnosis or any appropriate medication until 40, though he has sufferred with this since 16. It has shaped and desroyed his life. It must be possible for him to have mpore effective treatment butbthe menatl health team will not refer him to the specialist mood disorders clinic in London at the Mudslet which I have repeatedly requested. Maybe they have mentioned it to him but he may be resistant and will not tell me. I feel desolated again and so deeply frustrated with the whole situation.