Posted by watersulli on April 12, 2004, at 14:26:37
Hi there, I am very new, both to my diagnosis and to this site. Today, in fact, on both counts. I finally got in to see a good psychiatrist today, and, lucky for her and me, I happened to be in the middle of a rather impressive mood swing at my appointment time. After assessing the cuts from my wrist to my elbow of my left arm and speaking with me about how I've been feeling, it didn't take long for her to come to the same conclusion that the other docs have come to, that I'm a rapid cycler. For various reasons the other doctors haven't been able to treat me, but she jumped right on the ball and handed me a bottle of meds (topamax) and was sticking me in the hospital today. I talked her into intensive outpatient treatment every day for six hours instead of inpatient treatment. I'm glad to finally be getting some help for the hellish roller coaster I have been on for the past six months, but I'm a little concerned about the medicine that I popped into my mouth today. She started me out on 50 mg twice a day, which seems pretty high to me, and is making me feel rather zombie like and have this weird metallic taste in my mouth. I was wondering what other people's starting dose had been and what their initial reactions were. I read some of the archive posts but I was hoping to get some direct feedback from rapid cyclers in particular about their experiences with topamax for treatment. Side effects? I have a thyroid disorder and lupus as well, so I already have a bit of cognitive impairment and I'm very worried my functioning is going to drop significantly. I can handle being sleepy but I can't handle feeling stoned all the time, like I'm not living but watching myself live. Also I was curious about people's weight loss on the drug, as this would be a good thing for me to counter some weight gain from some previous meds. Any help would be appreciated so much at this time in my treatment!! Thanks!
poster:watersulli
thread:335593
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040412/msgs/335593.html