I take lamictal and currently it is helping me really good with no side effects. (thank god, touch wood).
I had taken depakote for a year, and it made me put on weight big time. After that I changed to lamictal.
My episodes are usually something that I can track till I become unconscious. First my eyes start fluttering, then I have a slurry speech and the final result is unconsciousness. All this does not happen simultaneously. There are gaps of a couple of hours before I get to the final stage. So as a result, I can control it when I start feeling the symptoms.
For the sake of emergency, my doctor has given me lorazepam. This is just to control your episodes from coming to a fruition. I started my medication on lamictal for about 3.5 years now and have had to take lorazepam about twice in the beginning of my doses. Now I don't need it at all.
One of the things that I had realized in my case was my emotion, lack of sleep, very high stress levels and heavy weakness. My emotional outbursts are at extremes be it anger, joy, sorrow whatever. So having realized this, I have calmed myself a lot, which has also helped me control my episodes.
My medication in the blood level is fine and normal as it should be. Usually the doctors always ask to check the medication level in the blood and the liver as this could possibly detect the amount of medication required.