Posted by HannahBeGood on February 23, 2003, at 19:37:39
In reply to Re: Mind noise, posted by Tony P on February 23, 2003, at 1:17:29
I usually experience auditory hallucinations of the musical sort when on p-stims. If I try to go to bed earlier than usual in a quiet house is when I am more aware of them. For me, it's almost always like an FM radio is on, extremely low, but I can often recognize the song, which will tend to repeat itself. Can be very annoying, but I usually can filter it out enuf to fall asleep. But I always sleep w/a small fan going. I've been dependent on 'white noise' for sound sleep for a couple of decades.I also have one olfactory hallucination which I have had recurrent since childhood, when I wd. have it a few times a year. The smell is an artificial, chemical sort, not noxious or unpleasant, only, always the same, and always unidentifiable. Nowadays, I may only have it once every 2-3 years, it only lasts about 5-6 seconds and then disappears, and I have not connected it to anything---ever!
I used to have migraines, but since being on regular preventive meds, and reducing my alcohol intake, they have faded significantly. I still have the visual aura fairly often, however--mine is a blurred diagonal from thetop right of my vision fielddown to the very left. It always moves slowly across my vision field, like a tube of moving water. It can take 10-60 minutes to make its complete course. Sometimes there are dozens of points of light, very bright, which fade as soon as they appear, in very quick random fashion, like fireworks, but always white. This part never lasts more than a few seconds. And I often have the stars w/o the water or vice versa. Just the stars rarely leaves me feeling any pain, but the diagonal aura type almost always leaves me with a dull, fuzzed out headache that requires some med and a nap.
But, no migraines since I seriously dropped my alcohol intake over the past 6 years. And, I no longer want to drink, either. It used to be my self-medicating mainstay. If I was in a social situation, I was totally miserable and silent w/o my glass of wine in my hand.
Now, I am very pleased that my current cocktail of lexapro, klonopin, propanolol and dexedrine seem to address my former fears and inhibitions, and I can feel far more comfortable these days. It has taken years to find a p-doc who relized that the p-stim was a necessity for my brain to be fully alert and awake and the only way any A-D was ever going to be effective. (I have ADD, dx'd about a year ago, and it has caused or exacerbated my lifelong bouts of depression, anxiety and social inhibition).
I expect p-stims, klonopin and propanolol, in varying dosages will be a mainstay in my future.
I can live with this, since they improve my quality of life so radically.Hannah
poster:HannahBeGood
thread:9730
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030219/msgs/203155.html