Bipolar/Flashbacks and Depakote
 

I was diagnosed with Bipolar NOS in April and I am currently taking [for depression] Effexor xr, and [for mood swings] depakote. I have never hallucinated, seen or heard things... But since I started the depakote, I have had vivid flashbacks in dreams. I had a friend kill himself in march, [shot himself in the school band hall] and he has been all of my dreams and I hear his voice and see him everywhere I go. Is this normal grieving, or could it be a side effect of the medication?

It could be either, or something else entirely.

Regardless of the medication you are taking dreaming about a traumatic event is perfectly normal, either as part of the grieving process or just becuase the event has had a significant impact on you. (There are LOADS of psychologists who study the connection between dreams and real life events)

It could be connected to the medication. I wouldn't go so far as to call those dreams specifically a side effect, but often vivid dreams in general are a side effect of psych meds. Did that make sense? Basically what I'm saying is that the depakote could be giving you vivid dreams, but your subconscious is picking the topic.


I hope it's ok with you, but I'm going to add Depakote to the title of your post, so that maybe other people who have taken it can share weather they had vivid dreams while on it or not.


AD

Depakote side effect - vivid dreams
 

Salanna...

I wouldn't generalize and say that most meds include vivid dreams as a side affect. I have been taking Depakote for 6 weeks and have had very vivid and often disturbing dreams.

They are most often long and emotional. The "emotional aspect, is marked by extreme "what I would want if I could have it", and the loss of "having what I want".

It takes an hour or so sometimes, some coffee, and adderal (I have ADD), for me to "shake" these dreams. They are very impacting and can make the start of a day harder than normal.

I also take an SSRI as well, but Depakote has been the only new med that I can relate to the change in my regular sleep.

Hope that helps in figuring out what the dreams are caused by.

What does help though, is having a regular structure to your day, where disturbing/vivid dreams wont allow you to stay in that zone of "wow...that was a horrible dream...now I dont want to do anything and my day is messed up now".

Easier said than done, but again...hope that helps.

Aryeh

I started Depakote ER about 3 week ago . . . Maybe a month . After about the first week I had increasingly vivid dreams . Like whole body sensation , wake up in sweats , heavy breathing , still there feeling . Every other day they will be apocalyptic and others I'm searching for something or just living day to day ( The other night I had a Sioux trying to shoot me down with his arrows ! ) . Anyways , I stopped taking it just long enough to see if it was the medication that caused it , and it was . I sleep well and I enjoy having an adventure in my sleep . I just wanted to add in my word for others who had the same question as me and couldn't find it . Thank to everyone else who commented and helped out . [Aidee - Not most psych meds do this . Depakote is the first out of my many trials with other medications that have had this effect .]

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