Posted by yxibow on February 9, 2007, at 3:20:09
In reply to Re: Valium AND Xanax? SOMATIZATION » yxibow, posted by Alone on February 8, 2007, at 18:49:32
> Wow, you are the first other Somatiform person I have encountered.
The same. It is out there, but because it is so varied in manifestation, it is not always caught, it may be misdiagnosed, and sometimes really doesn't fit a single DSM, as mine, Somatiform NOS (not otherwise specified).
> I had neck pain for over a decade, but about 2 years ago I lost 30 lbs in just a few months for no reason.
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> I also developed urinary urgency and frequency, my body temperature would drop drastically every night and I would get chills.
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> My right eye would over work itself (confirmed by my optometrist) for no reason making my eye red and it would feel like there was always something in it.
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> I would get sharp pains in my upper abdomin and terrible acid coming up in my throat.
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> My Family doc ran tons of tests (Cat Scans, Blood work, xrays...) and refered me to other docs (Urologist, Gastroenterologist, Rare disease guy) and they ran even more tests.
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> Then I got Shingles. My Family doc gave me Neurontin for the Shingle pain and then some thing wonderful happened.
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> Most of my other problems dissapeared, completely. But then they would start to comeback and consequently my doc would up my Neurontin again and then the symptoms would go away again.
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> After I got up to 2400mg a day of Neurontin, I still needed another increase but my doc said he was worried that I needed so much. He suspected I had Somatization Disorder and referred me to a Neurologist.
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> The Neurologist tested me for MS, which came back negative, confirmed the dx of Somatization disorder and let me go up to 3400mg a day of Neurontin.
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> So far I have only had to use a max of 2700 mg in a day to control my symptoms. I have litterally had every part (almost) of my body checked and there were NO physical explanations for any of my problems. But the Neurontin works. It's a mystery!
I'm glad the Neurontin is working for you, I also take 2700mg of Neurontin a day as an adjunct to Valium.More than 900mg of Neurontin at a time generally is eliminated through the kidneys so it is self-regulating. I was at 3600mg, but backed down a bit. I don't know about how Lyrica would work in that regards, since I couldn't take it because it caused blurry vision.
I did't go through the route of a neurologist, but I had just about every test done in the book by my former GP and a few by my current.
A year before the **** hit the fan, I had a fever (I tend to run 97.5 as normal) of 99.5 every day from 4pm till past midnight -- no infection, nothing, but it sure felt like a big fever at times and it responded to acetaminophen.
Tests from Valley Fever to you name it were done, more recently I insisted on Lyme (nothing). My current GP finally agreed with my psychiatrist 1 year into the treatment that my anxiety over not having an MRI was getting in the way of things and I had a head and neck MRI with Gadolinium. Nothing surprising there, just a sign that at one point I had a sinus infection, which is one typical result of an MRI of the head.
I've been in therapy for 5 years, more intensive for probably at least 3 of those. The goal is to slowly make me more productive so whatever trapped anxiety, be it from 9/11 (likely) or my natural body inclination toward it (I am a lifetime OCD sufferer although it is fairly quiescent at the moment) will become less of a burden and leave my system. This includes activities like volunteering, updating my resume skills with some extension courses, and hopefully eventually with the help of my parents who have been nothing but supportive in my life (yes, I am an only child) move out and do some freelance work.
Its anybody's guess how long things will take, and I have to move forward with my life, but I'm not willing to be handicapped, I haven't lost my wit or my intelligence, I'm just hampered with a disorder I wouldn't wish upon anyone.
There is a sense of diminishing returns at times because I think that I have become less patient to periods of symptom retrogression than I was in the past when my medication mix dampened my visual symptoms dramatically and there is less of dramatic signs lately, perhaps because I really am much better than I was before. I mean at the beginning, fluorescent lights in stores made me so confused that I almost knocked over clothes racks.
(No, this isn't a psychotic disorder -- I know that out there, there is a reality, slightly different from the one I experience, that is free of distractions from visual cues, the one that I know from college. Nothing I experience really isn't anything that the average person would see and its gone, poof, in a microsecond. Because that's what it really comes down to me, somehow my mind is not filtering things out.)
The mind is a very powerful creature (it can activate the autonomic nervous system), and psychiatrists are only beginning to recognize what really is a true disorder and definately not malingering. Yes, there is a DSM code for that too, but the vast majority of people who fit in some sort of Conversion Disorder/Somatiform/OC Spectrum area do not want their symptoms. The most common seen in hospitals, as I noted before, are pseudoseizures.
There has been a small study recently, I think this article is accessable to everyone, I'm not sure, using fMRI -- it doesn't quite apply to my "special senses" (visual, etc.) condition but it does show that there is brain chemistry at work.
I wish you much luck and recovery of your life.Thank you for posting your condition.
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:729205
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070207/msgs/731303.html