Posted by headachequeen on October 24, 2004, at 16:44:23
In reply to Re: topamx, posted by stresser on October 24, 2004, at 12:23:25
> I'm assuming you all figured out it's still me, after all that mess with the babble mail and posting...what a mess. Kat, are you saying you are really depressed?
At one point I was being treated for depression as I suffer for seasonal affective disorder... go figure, I live winter but need the light of summer which I really do not enjoy -- there is some sort of personality disorder that needs investigating!!!!
However I have, in addition to all the redhead disorders or whatever they are called and diabetes, epilepsy and migraine. Apparently migraine and epilepsy (taken from something I read recently about a new possible treatment for migraine) the two are related -- at any rate, when the former neurologist learned I had migraine, he prescribed topomax to deal with them and as a supplemental seizure treatment...
there are days when the seizures take over my life and ignore the treatment patterns that I am depressed but not to the point of needing treatment, although I spent a month in hospital after a breakdown... that was a couple of years ago and was released on the understanding that I would see a psychologist for a few years...
he and I met for a year or so... and he kicked me loose with the assurance that if I ever needed him he was only a phone call away...
> I'm looking to you for the advice, you're >supposed to be the rock for us!!! Do you think >you need other medication for the depression?
I don't know about being a rock for anyone, but I do know that I will never again take any antidepressive of any sort. I think they are the most incredibly damaging things in the world...
zombieland invents them to be sure that there is a population. In one of my sessions with the psychologist he mentioned that my mother had done a good job of raising me with her Aberdeen granite philosophy because I never let my guard down and he never saw any sign of emotion...
well I was on these anti-depressants ... as well as a sleeping pill and an aed... so on the way home that day I decided that there would be no more zyprex no more effexor and no more of the sleeping stuff... I just threw them away...
no one told me that it was not how it was done, I just did it, the old Aberdeen granite approach to life... and it worked for me.
I had no problems with it, nothing bothered me about it until I told my doctor who offered to put me on a lesser med to help adjust gradually (this two months after I quit) so there would be no reactions or whatever... I thanked him but pointed out that I would have to have something to help me come off that then... he told me that if someone quit cold turkey it was usually for a medical reason and in hospital under supervision... well, no one told me that either until then... it was done and I was fine and I told him that if he wanted to cut me off as anon-compliant patient I would understand but I no longer wanted to take the stuff.
He had no problem with my not taking as long as I came back to talk if I had problems and as long as I kept going to the psychologist. I had told the psychologist a month earlier. When I told the psychologist about his reaction and how funny I had found it he was rather angry and told me that I had been lucky because other people have terrible times doing that... well, they are not Aberdeen granite... but it did help our sessions and we reached the bottom of the problems I had to solve and that was that...
now my depression days I understand; they annoy me but I can pretty well deal with them and I find that the people here are really helpful, incredible therapy... far better than the silly group sessions in hospital with everyone sitting around looking at the ceiling or the walls and twiddling their thumbs.
That was a great rest, away from the stresses and strains that put me there, but it solved nothing, just increased the meds. What a solution to life's stresses: give more medications.
I keep wondering why psychiatrists exist other than to hand out pills and get bigger pay cheques.
Sorry, Dr. Bob. I know -- no nasty comments, but I do wonder... the psychologist did the work... and without pills...>>I just worry about your seizures and I think those need to be taken care of, as well as the depression.
I think I have found one solution to dealing with them... I cannot read and function when I waken in the morning, but if I take a long nap (from about ten until around three) I am able to read, the nausea goes away, and I am able to walk without the appearance of a drunken sailor... things are looking up...
and I have not had a daytime seizure for two whole days ... I feel like celebrating...
but as I have cut back on coffee and do not drink caffeinated soft drinks or alcohol or eat chocolate or other stimulants... and am cutting back on the stronger proteins such as red meat and pork and and and and.... anyone care to join me in a peanut butter and beansprout sandwich - on whole wheat of course...
>> Now for M, this morning she said that for the last three days her eyes felt really scratchy when she put her contacts in her eyes. (last about one hour)Now here I am an expert as I suffer from dry eyes... they say that if you live with a dog long enough you grow to look like it, in my case I have taken on some of its health problems instead...
I had to have surgery to correct entropion (a mild <s> even a <g> is all right, but stop that laughing <g>) and have had three or four surgeries on each eye for dry eye... and with no immune system... this is the time my body chooses to heal... at the moment I am waiting to be sure that my head won't twitch at the wrong time to go back and have both eyes done again, probably have them cauterised this time as the first time...have her use a product to moisten her eyes at night when she is not using her contacts... one that does not have artificial preservatives.. the best one I know, is oh brother GenteelGel ... do not use the drops as they have the preservative...
this comes from the surgeons.., their recommendation... there is another stuff, a drop but I cannot remember its name...
it is good but I prefer this one, easier to use...
shall think of the other...
whenver she is not using the contacts, irrigate the eyes...
and never use anything that promises to get the red out...
there are several products widely advertised and commonly in use for many years that might as well be replaced with battery acid...
AEDs and topomax and tegretol of course are aeds will dry the eyes a bit... so we fight back with proper and healthy stuff...
It is not a drastic thing and stops after a while... even in dry-eye situations... as long as the stupid things don't heal LOL>>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
>> They put those darn vending machines in the schools, and that's one of the problems with her. She just can't stay away from them.
In Ontario they are legislating the foods and quantities of food that can be in the vending machines... that should be interesting and I was told yesterday that the plan is to take it a step further to control the foods that can be in a lunch that is sent with a child to school...
now that I think is going a lot too far...
>>We were wondering if maybe there's something else wrong, because I don't see her eat huge amounts.
Oh,L., I didn't eat at all in high school and my mother didn't notice... I got up and no one noticed that I didn't eat breakfast before I caught the bus into the city. I grabbed a Pepsi and sometimes ate a few frites with it for lunch and some times just the Pepsi. Often I was involved in school activities so was too late for dinner and no one thought about asking if I had eaten.
I look at photos of myself in high school and think how I would panic if a daughter of mine would press my panic buttons if she looked like that... I do not look like a walking skeleton but I maintained a 94-95 pounds or a little less and was 5'6" so I always looked taller than I was and panicked if I thought I had gained weight... but no one noticed...
my mother would comment if she thought I had gained weight though!
>>She says she doesn't eat huge amounts when she binges, but she won't be honest and write down everything she is eating.Hey, I am supposed to keep a record for the meetings with the nutritionist so we can get things on track with blood sugar and balance my diet to keep it and me happy... and I forget a lot of the time... it is so easy to forget and I am supposed to be a mature responsible adult... well, let's scrap the responsible
>> the Wellbutrin, because I don't think it's doing her any favors either.Seems to me that it is one of the ones they told me would cause weight gain... I know effexor does... balloon time!!!!
I hope I'm not talking in circles, but I'm trying to get everything down for all of you.L., this is where you talk about it and we try to listen and help... and if it is in circles well we can follow the cookie trail... honest... we are able to travel with you and understand...
>Kat, is it sunny in Ontario today? It is here, for once, and I hope that helps my mood.It was sunny and I was thinking it would be a good day for some photography, the end of fall and all that, no matter how rotten I felt... and then I slept through it... and now it is evening...
I missed it all... oh well as they say in my country, tomorrow is another 24 hours
and perhaps the sun will shine again and brighten the day for all of us and I will get those photos..
somewhere there will be some colourful leaves still clinging to a tree and looking beautiful... and I will find that tree and those leaves...
> Hang in there, and keep writing those clever posts because it's very intertaining as well as informative.L, a friend from whom I have not heard in a while e-mailed yesterday to inform me that her sister was diagnosed with epilepsy recently and she (my friend) had decided that her sister and I are not going to let it interfere with our life styles and that, she said, is that...
I shall indeed hang in there... this is not going to get me down... I have felt sorry for myself long enough... time to fight back...
kat the survivor
>
poster:headachequeen
thread:5053
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041024/msgs/406712.html