Posted by snapper on August 26, 2004, at 22:03:27
Hey all, just a couple of quick questions for anybody who is or has been on gabitril. On 6-8-04 my pdoc started me on 12mg hs and 4mg am. I am not really sure if it is doing me any good or not but wanted to see if anybody out there has had these kind of potential s/fx...I do NOT have a history of seizures and he started me on this med to help control my anxiety as I could not be on any benzos as I was initiating a course of what was supposed to be 12 ECT treatments.Gabitril was a med selected because it was supposed to provide anxiolytic effects but not interfere with the ECT. Anyhow my anxiety kept getting worse and worse and the suicidal type of agitation and anxiety and insomnia and the whold process of fear and anxiety assosciated with having the ECT to begin with was jacking me up! Even though I had previously had a course of ECT treatments in 2001 that were pretty effective, I was not nearly as filled with as much anxiety. So to get to the main point of my post....I chose to have the pdoc d/c the ect and treat the anxiety part of my illness. He kept me on 16mg Gabitril per day and added 20 mg valium which helped a ton with the agitation, sleep and overall anxiety. Then a month later I had to convince him to add back in Effexor and he did at only 75mg am. The main things I guess that I am wondering is the following.
I feel mean and hostile, sarcastic to my family and sometimes feel like yelling and cussing at people. Sometimes I feel like throwing s*it even though I don't act on these feelings and impulses. There is a lot of family tension in my house on a day to day basis and a lot of times when things get stirred up, it's all I can do to bite my tounge. I guess what I am asking and saying is how do I know if this the Gabatril or the ever so common anger rage and hostility that are assosciated with the bipolar spectrum? I can't tell. Also I seem to be having word finding difficulties off and on (worse than I remember before the ect and Gabitril)I don't know what the h*ll is wrong with me and I don't wan't to be mean and hostile but it is on the tip of my tounge and mind much more often than I like.BTW fwiw my dx are ... BP II , OCD, personality disorder NOS all this crap with atypical dep features and mixed bipolar features that wax and wane dep on what is going on around me. I could continue but wont, and sincerely thank anybody that reads this and has any in put. OH btw does anybodys' mood disorder tend to make them feel just generally ill? Malaise...almost like a really chronic flu?
thanks
snapper
poster:snapper
thread:382727
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040825/msgs/382727.html