About a year ago my doctor put me on trileptal for bipolar I and it has literally saved my life. The daily difficulties of BP are still there of course, I have to be very careful about keeping to a daily routine, eating enough, etc. but no more mania or mixed episodes! The only issue is that a few months ago I returned to working full-time and the sleepiness side effect of the meds, while not a big deal when I wasn’t working, is really affecting me. I take most of my trileptal at night and find myself struggling to get up the next day due to the hangover, to the point where I’m often late to work. I lowered my dose significantly, which I thought would fix the problem, but it didn’t. 

I can’t take most stimulants because they make me manic and I have a  history of abusing them; even coffee makes me jittery. Wellbutrin has helped a little bit but too high a dose makes me anxious…tbh I’m not a big fan of switching my meds anymore because doing that has been a nightmare in the past and, apart from the fatigue, I’ve found a regimen I really like. 

Just wondering if anyone has any advice?? I said “mood stabilizers” and not “trileptal” in the subject line because I imagine this is a common problem with most bipolar meds.