Posted by iris2 on October 25, 2004, at 17:28:29
In reply to Re: topamx, posted by headachequeen on October 24, 2004, at 16:44:23
I do not know much about epilepsy but I worked with a couple of people with it and have posted with several. My experience is that it is common for people who have epilepsy to be depressed. I wonder if it is not a symptom of a depression but a consequence of having the problem of seizures. In which case one would not want to take medication for it. Like anything else that can affect your mood in life and make you feel depressed it is not a natural progression to medication. There is a big difference between having "Depression" as apposed to being depressed. There are people that truly need help for depression. There is a difference between illness and living life through chemicals.
It was not such a great idea to go off the meds cold turkey. I have gone off mediations many times. It can be different every time even for the same person going off the same medication. Usually for most people the most they will experience is some degree of discomfort. I have had olfactory and hearing hallucinations when going off of medications. I went off of Valium several different times with no problem. One time I went off of it and was fine, felt no withdrawal at all. Two weeks after I had been completely off of it my skin started to itch. It got worse by the day and in about a week it was painful. I never experienced anything like this and it was so terrible. I thought it was shingles. If anything, including wind touched my skin I was in severe pain. I was in pain constantly. I went to a dermatologist thinking he was going to tell me I had shingles. I thought it was this as my grandmother had it. The dermatologist was familiar with me, thankfully, he asked me if I had come off of any medications recently and I told him Valium a few weeks before. He said that this particular medication deadened the nerve endings a little on the skin and as those nerve endings were beginning to come alive again they were causing me this pain. I tell this rather long story to demonstrate that one can have serious consequences when coming off medications and you should be careful about it. Most times people will be fine but sometimes withdrawal can be more than uncomfortable it can be dangerous. So do not take it lightly if your doctor or the package insert says to taper off a medication, there are reasons!
Being in the hospital can be a great stress reliever. For some of us it is a necessity of life to be in the hospital for a short stay. It is a safe place to be when we need to be in a safe place. If you need to be in a hospital for your safety than you should feel no shame or hesitation in going there.>>I have ready that it sometimes takes 200mg to get the binge urges to go away. He mind is on food 24/7, even when she isn't hungry.
>>Then try to help her find other consuming interests.. she needs to find that food is not the only way to solve her problems... if only she could share her problems with you and find a solution with you but we all know that is not in the real world only in the scripted world
I could not agree more. When one has an eating disorder it is an obsessive/compulsive thing. I have had an eating disorder for 30 years now. My mother is not diagnosed with one but she obsessively thinks about food and talks about it all the time. I have tried for years to get my mother to think and talk about other things besides food but it is never going to happen. I suppose since she is not diagnosed with a problem she does not see it as one. Her obsession with food and body image has adversely affected her two daughters. I have been very ill with bulimia since age 15 and my sister is obese.
I try to interest myself in things other than food. Tell myself that eating and food has its function to sustain life. That is all. People in different cultures have developed rituals around food but its importance comes from the absolute necessity of it to sustain life. In cultures of old food was sometimes scarce, not like in the USA now when it is seen as something to consume and enjoy. If I reason with myself in this way I begin to give it less importance. If I am not thinking about how much I will enjoy the food so much as the need to eat WHEN I am hungry to sustain my healthy life I begin to understand how meaningless eating for other reasons is and how I have more important things to do with my time besides thinking about food. I try to not think about food much during the day and make eating a NON EVENT. Not a big ritualistic thing but just something I have to do to maintain my health and energy. Sometimes I know why I am binging or eating for reasons besides hunger like when I am bored or other times I do not know at the time but I eat because I deal with life's stresses that way. Being aware that food is to sustain health and life reminds me when I go to eat and am not hungry that I should probably not be eating and I am eating for all the wrong reasons. Streeser, maybe this type of thinking might help your daughter.
I do not know if this has helped. I am getting it straight in my own head as I write. I have been binging and eating and throwing up a lot these past two or three months and my weight, I guess, or at least my body size has increased. Especially my waist. Perhaps I gained there because of hormone changes I have had with my medication in the last three months. I have increased prolacin levels. I did read that increased prolactin could actually increase ones waist size so I feel a little vindicated. But I need to do something about it. I need to start doing some exercises to decrease that "belly". Even though the medication has made me eat more I have to be the one to take responsibility for it. I have to stop eating so much. My emotions are telling me louder and louder that my "big" belly is making me look terribly fat and I hate myself for it. I suspect that your daughter has these types of distorted feelings about her body.
Sorry I got so carried away. I hope this helps. That is why I wrote it all out. I have a difficult time being concise though. I suppose I am feeling pretty ill with my eating disorder myself right now so I am sensitive to your plight.
Posted in "Social" because I thought it would be kicked there anyway.
irene
poster:iris2
thread:407140
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20041016/msgs/407140.html