DOSE:	25 - 400 mg	oral	Pharms - Lamotrigine	(daily)
		smoked	Cannabis
		oral	Alcohol - Beer/Wine

BODY WEIGHT:

203 lb

A handful of years back I was diagnosed with epilepsy after having two fits in a day, one while at work (didn't know it was a seizure at first so I just thought I stood up too fast and continued on with my day) and the other a few hours later while driving. I had no previous seizure-related experiences up to that point. I was involved in a fairly large crash on my 'second' one and was laid up in the hospital for a few days.

The doctor prescribed me the usual keppra dosage and that worked for about a year and a half before I had a breakthrough seizure. I had nothing happen for another year until I had spoken with my neurologist regarding my mood swings, heavy weight gain, anger issues and severe depress/bipolar disorder. I had previously been on zoloft and another anti-depressant that I cannot recall the name of for obvious reasons.

I was prescribed a 25mg dosage of lamotrigine and was to wean myself off of the keppra and slowly increase dosage of lamotrigine until I was at 400mg a day of L and 0mg of K. After around a month and a half I was no longer taking keppra and was completely on lamotrigine.

Previously on Keppra I had developed somewhat of a drinking problem, it manifested itself in multiple beers each night and occasionally mixed cocktails. This went on for months and was directly impacting my health and lifestyle outside of home. I had also picked up a marijuana habit and was using that fairly regularly as well. The mixture of alcohol, pot, and keppra probably wasn't helping my situation, but due to the nature of them I continued to use.

Shortly after hitting my daily dose of 400mg Lamotrigine I suddenly stopped drinking almost unconsciously. I had no interest in alcohol for almost 6 months, but was also smoking marijuana on a daily basis possibly to make up for the 'high' that I was no longer getting from being drunk. Regardless, getting high off a bong hit or two is much better for me than 3-4 tall boys of Mike's Hard a night. I spoke with my neurologist about 2 months after being fully on lamotrigine, at that time I had lost 25lbs (Previously at 265lbs) and was continuing to lose weight. I had also begun to start the ketosis diet around the same time my full dosage of lamotrigine was on. They expressed satisfaction that I had stayed on the lamotrigine, and that I was losing weight as well as quitting alcohol, while also being supportive of my push for a ketogenic diet (which has been known to be beneficial to those with epilepsy) as well as a slight indirect side comment that marijuana also has been known to help with those who experience epilepsy.

I've been seizure free for over a year now. I've lost over 50lbs since starting, and went from being in the Obese BMI category to a standard Average weight for a male my age and height. While I do not smoke daily as I used to, I do have some beers on on special occasions and will happily hit a full bong of a sativa hybrid at least once a week. I do not 100% credit my control over seizure disorder to the lamotrigine as I also made many lifestyle changes around the same time (weight lose, exercise, diminished alcohol use, gradual to somewhat excessive pot use) but I do believe that the bipolar suppressing effects of the lamotrigine helped kickstart these changes and ultimately have made my life better overall.

Exp Year: 2018	ExpID: 111898
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 24
Published: Jan 2, 2021	Views: 1,816
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Pharms - Lamotrigine  (432) : Not Applicable (38), Medical Use (47), Retrospective / Summary (11), Combinations (3)