Posted by headachequeen on October 1, 2004, at 18:04:48
In reply to RE: More info please...stressed, posted by bridgey1128 on October 1, 2004, at 17:38:21
Effexor. MAN OH MAN! That was some HORRIBLE stuff.
Effexor is indeed horrible... I was on it in conjunction with Zyprexa and with I forget what to help me sleep... to stop the brain from spinning all night as I was simply unable to stop thinking so could not sleep, part of my problem that they kept thinking was bipolar... as I said I am not bipolar I simply get on these creative binges and highs and cannot stop, the ideas come and they do not stop and I am afraid to let them stop...
at any rate, with the Effexor and the Zyprexa I was a zombie... not only were there no creative highs, there were no thoughts, no ideas... nothing... I was the waking dead... totally flat-lined...
no emotions, nothing... my face was flat, my eyes which are usually alive and flashing with life and fire were dull and flat... my husband was not happy, said he would rather cope with the all night waking person than the dead person...my psychologist who was trying to help me deal with childhood trauma that had emerged with the breakdown that followed the death of my dog... don't even smile... I had a complete emotional crash following the death of my favourite dog, my soul mate and total partner and ended up in hospital and so much emerged as a result...
said one day that he was having a hard time getting past the training I had received as a child, our family does not display emotion and he said that I had learned my lessons well...
it occurred to me as I left the session that the drugs were not helping... so I quit that day...
just went cold turkey... no one told me that it was not a good idea or that it was not really possible to do this. I went home and threw out the three bottles of pills and had no problems at all...
when the psychiatrist and my regular doctor found out they were upset about it and kept offering to put me in hospital or to prescribe stuff to help me cope with the reaction and so on, but I was doing fine and figured that any other meds would mean an adjustment time and it might not go so well...
I was smirking about it to the psychologist one day and he really told me off, told me how lucky I had been and how foolish... and then I read Bridgey's account of coming off Effexor... and had a time of retroactive panic...
no one will ever get me to take any of that stuff again... EVER....
as for when the Topomax will begin to work, it takes different time periods with different people, the trick is to hang in there and let it get up to speed...
the metabolism, the present weight, so many factors play a role...
I mentioned earlier that I saw weight loss begin almost immediately, three pounds the first week, but it took several months to lose a significant amount and it has slowed down now...
I have not lost any weight for several weeks...
I keep hoping.. but then again I have not gained any so that is good...The binging is going to come under control as the topomax begins to affect the part of the mind that controls that tendency...
and I forget which part of the brain does that...
it may be in the frontal lobe as that is where my epileptic problems occur and the topomax seems to help that too ever so much...
when I have a problem remembering or I am especially clumsy or have an outburst of foot in mouth disease I always title it one of my F-7 Moments...
works for me and people are more sympathetic as a rule... they are never quite sure what it is, but if it has a letter and a number it must be serious and they need to be considerate <g>
other than husbands of course....give it time and encourage her, she will get there and it will help...
meanwhile, encourage her to drink lots of water, it is in style and it helps... and if she nibbles on cashews or pecans, an ounce or two when she feels the urge to binge it helps and is healthy and cuts her appetite urges too...kat
poster:headachequeen
thread:5053
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040927/msgs/398019.html