Posted by yxibow on September 1, 2009, at 23:15:58
In reply to Re: Do Antidepressants extend lifespan? » yxibow, posted by SLS on September 1, 2009, at 6:08:39
> Jay, something occurred to me. I am curious. Are anticonvulsants ever used for your condition?
>
> I would TOTALLY understand were you to decide against commenting on this.
No, I see no reason not to comment, you've commented on the multi-dozen medications you've been on and others have too.
I have been through most AEDs except for Gabitril and Keppra because my doctor has had bad experience with the latter (psychosis) and the former can itself cause seizures.
I have had fairly long enough trials on most things -- can't remember everything but I never felt any benefits, and not terribly many side effects, on Depakote, Trileptal... others escape my memory at the moment but I have tried a fair amount.
Oh, and I did convince my doctor to try Verapamil, which is normally out of his scope and hasn't had much results with either -- it didn't really seem to do much either, but I figured, well if there is any organic migranous or otherwise condition, or anything that would act at the one type of agent, calcium-channel blockers that I havent tried (some AEDs work on various sodium gates), well, go ahead.
The reluctance too there was the real possibility with a lot of medications on board that I could have a stroke. But anyhow, that was discontinued after a while.
I currently take along with a still fairly high dose of Valium, Neurontin. Every time it has been tried to be tapered or removed, symptoms have come back.
Unfortunately I had the vision change (I measured myself about 20/20 changed to 20/30+) side effect, and I did try it for a good enough time, I think, on Lyrica, so that was a disappointment. Then again, this also can occur on Neurontin with some people but I haven't.
I feel nothing from either any more. Years ago when I first took Neurontin my speech was slurred and I was lethargic... that wore off fairly quickly.Valium I felt, now I don't but it is still necessary and also is very difficult to remove any more.
But now I am in a catch-22 with those GABAnergic agents -- if I went off of them totally to "reset things", I would have considerable reduced functionality, and there's no guarantee I would get the same feeling at GABA back again (same with Seroquel and D2).
It is surmised that both transmitters have had neuroplasticity, been overloaded, and getting off of things would reduce me to... well I don't want to go back there.
I have been told that I probably would never respond the same to GABA transmitters for a long time, if not my lifetime -- i.e. I would always need more than the average benzodiazepine naive person.
> I know that your treatment is multimodal, and that you are working your butt off.Trying to... sometimes though as I said below, its been stagnant. Anyhow the weather is too hot to literally work my butt off, okay, I can still have humour there.
I tried to return to the project I was working on for a while today in therapy and whether its my stubborn nature which I have always had (I can go through with things I really want to do but its hard to do tasks I need to do but dont necessarily like) or something else, things felt like lead.
> Anyway, I hope that you feel better soon.
Thank you Scott -- I hope too. It is becoming hard to hold up to this condition and I am losing hope... I had things I was doing in therapy to help promote my life and a possible career, but things have been really on hold right now. It sometimes feels like a bit of me is dying right now, something that is a feeling but not necessarily a reality.
I can use the computer, do a few of my hobbies, watch TV, etc... but when I go out "into the real world", the 24/7 phenomenon is right there, and its right here, its just there aren't things moving 40 miles an hour in the house so thankfully I can do things.
But I need to be outside the house, its not a good thing to be isolated, which is another large problem of mine -- yes there are friends/acquaintances but things have moved on and the distance I feel.Anyhow I shouldn't add fear to fear to a problem, it could and maybe it is making it cyclical.
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:913130
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090826/msgs/915339.html