Posted by galkeepinon on July 2, 2003, at 0:19:18
In reply to Re: My Nightmare Experience/Topamax, posted by ROO on July 1, 2003, at 20:28:27
ROO, thanks so much for taking the time to inform me of all this, I will, definately take it all into consideration. It's hard to find the right med for yourself when we all have different ways we react to them. I seem to be doing ok on Topamax so far, except for the few things I mentioned. Funny, though, I've lost about 22 Lbs and I am now just getting my appetite back-weird may be the weight loss limit on the drug-who knows? Obviously sounds like it wasn't the drug for you and I'm glad you found that out! I see my doctor tomorrow and will talk to him about Lamictal. My friend is on that med and she said it has helped her even out. Again, thank you, you were a big help for taking the time to write all this back.
Take care,
Gal> Well I don't want to scare you if you like the drug.
> For some people it's great, and like I said, everyone
> is different. I was on it for about 9 months. I think
> at one point I was up to 175 mgs, but I think that's as
> high as I got. I did lose weight on it, which of course
> can be nice...I probably lost over 20 pounds...I think about
> 23 pounds total. But after the initial vanity of that wore off,
> I really missed _liking_ food. I really didn't like food on
> the drug...it just makes stuff taste really mediocre and it
> actually became a problem for me...I was hardly eating and didn't
> care about eating, and of course that probably made my depression
> worse, because I wasn't getting nutrition and nutrients, and I'm
> also slightly hypoglycemic, so going for long periods with not
> eating probably wasn't helping my moods either.
> Yeah, I was tired on it. I slept an awful lot. I felt unmotivated.
> I really felt dead inside...it DID help with cycling, it does it's job
> there, but I felt so damn flattened that I felt dead. No creative
> inspiration. Ruined my sex drive and response completely. At first
> when I started taking it I remember having darker or more morbid thoughts
> than usual. I have depression, so yes, I have a tendency to think darkly
> at times, but this felt different...it felt drug induced somehow. Like
> "sick" thoughts and images would enter my head. An example is, one time
> I was walking down the street and saw a bottle. And the thought/image entered
> my head of taking the glass bottle, bashing against the street and gouging my
> arm with it. After awhile, those thoughts calmed down somewhat, but
> I think I also just started getting used to being darker the longer I was
> on it and didn't notice it as much. I had the classic symptom of feeling
> more stupid on it, which I didn't mind too much at first, but that too grew
> old. I'm a writer, so I like my thinking to feel sharp and clear. I never
> felt sharp and clear on topamax. It's like my head was full of cotton and my
> thoughts and words were hard to grasp.
>
> I feel SO much better off this drug...so much more sharp, clear and alive. And
> I'm enjoying food more, and eating more, which is giving me the energy to think
> and work out, etc. I do hope I can maintain most of the weightloss. I will say,
> it is good for that. But not worth the price in my opinion.
>
> If you need a mood stabilizer, I'd try lamictal. It's the only
> one I ever tried, and I didn't feel depressed at all on it. I felt
> energetic and good. I stopped it because I gained weight on it (most people
> don't, I just happened to be the rare one) and I couldn't sleep on it (again
> this isn't the case for most people).
>
> I hope this helped. Good luck. And remember, this is just MY experience, topamax
> could very well be a great drug for you. I just wanted to warn people who are experiencing
> depression on it because they might not be aware that the severity of the depression
> can be topamax induced, as it was in my case.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >
poster:galkeepinon
thread:237933
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030701/msgs/238661.html