Posted by chloe on August 11, 2001, at 14:26:40
In reply to Re: Topamax: starting tonight » chloe, posted by Kingfish on August 11, 2001, at 10:26:51
Thanks for the informative post.
I was so scared to try the Top last night. I have been through several med trials of late, and they have all failed.
I like you, am in my 30's, but have had debilitating depression/bipolar 2 or 3?/ some BPD and some "psychotic features" since age 12. I was managing pretty well for years with the use of antipsychotics and ad's. But when I got mild TD about 5 years ago, the struggle to find the right meds has been never ending. Nothing seems to be a good substitute for an AP.
I am starting really slow with 15 mgs Top for one week, then 30 mgs for one week, etc. I am very drug sensitive and don't imagine I will be able to tolerate a full dose. So far, I woke up feeling ok. I am so much more relaxed, it's wonderful. But I am celebrating I have nothing to do today, because I don't feel like I should drive or could really carry on a decent conversation. I do have heartburn and a bit of a tremor, but other than that no tingling. I was also really scared that my appetite would be obliterated. I have lost so much weight already from these awful mood stabilizers. They all wipe out any desire for food. Wouldn't be ironic if I put on weight with this one! BTW, have you lost weight with this med? I am wondering if I need to work at keeping the weight on...
FYI, I also take Neurontin. But I find it rather useless for strong anxiety. The main thing it does is make me mildly sleepy. I was taking 600mgs, but I was dizzy and had such dry skin, I dropped back to 300. Now I am wondering if I could drop it all together with the addition of Topamax. Top seems pretty sedating to me...But maybe that will wear off in time.
I also tried Lamictal for two weeks. I had an immediate hypomanic reaction to it. I also had insomnia and a lousy chronic headache. I started at the 5 mgs peds dose, but still just couldn't tolerate that energized/akethesia feeling. It may be useful to you for your sedation, in that respect. It seemed to have nice AD qualities for me, but I couldn't stay with it long enough to get any of the mood stabilizer effects.Thanks for your info about Top. I really hope this one works out for me. So far, so good!
And take it super slow on the Lamictal. I think it takes weeks to adjust to the initial dose. You really have to be patient. Which I wasn't!How is this for long!?! Keep in touch
Chloe
poster:chloe
thread:74325
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010809/msgs/74631.html