I was suicidally depressed for most of my life, A several years ago I went on medication that did wonders. Lateley I’ve lost about 35 pounds (intentionally) but now I’m experiencing what my doc calls “cognitive dulling” which blows. Hopefully, this can be managed with dose changes, but dropping my meds is off the table for me. Anyone have similar situations?
Something similar, yes. My Wellbutrin makes me trip over my words and also mess up my grammar while I’m talking at times. I’ve also had a couple of memory lapses (once I completely forgot my work phone number for about 30 seconds).
It’s either that or break down into tears all the time, so I’m sticking with it.
I’m on Topamax, the most notable side effects are numbness and tingling in the fingers and toes, taste changes (especially with sweet drinks like soda), and, directly from the Topamax website “difficulty finding the right word”. IOW, it causes a lot of memory issues. These side effects aren’t the type of side effects that ‘very few people’ experience. These are the things that most people get. Despite that, most people choose to stay on the med because it does work very well.
Having said that, I use it for migraines. I’m on a very low dose of 50mg per day and it knocked my migraines down from about 3 a week to about 1 a week. The only (reported) side effect I get is numbness and tingling in my fingers and toes about 12 hours after I take a dose and it lasts anywhere from 2-10 hours. I haven’t figured out the pattern. It’s odd and annoying, but I can live with it in order to have less migraines.
The other side effect I get is muscle spasms in my stomach, eye lids and upper lip, but they seem to be disappearing. They made it hard to fall asleep, but again, for the reduced headaches, I can deal with it.
I was on Wellibutron (anti-depressant) to help combat post-surgical headaches. The headaches were unreal and the Wellibutron was only one part of a multi-drug approach to manage the headaches. One really negative side effect of this anti-depressant was that it made it almost impossible for me to have an orgasm. Apparently anti-depressants are used to help men combat premature ejaculation. In my case it took the ability to have an orgasm completely away. I could literally have sex for 4 hours straight with no end in sight. In this case I elected to stop taking the medication and hope that the other meds would be enough to take care of the headaches.
Thankfully it was eventually determined that the headaches were “rebound” headaches caused by the removal of the high doses of pain meds used during and after surgery. After a few months they went away. So, quality of life issue in my case. In yours, if coming off the meds would revert you to a suicidal mindset I would think that the side effects would be worth keeping you safe.
I took Chantix which gave me weird dreams, bad gas and a bit of a fuzzy head or more like an aloof attitude.
Absolutely worth it for 11 weeks and then no longer being addicted to cigarettes.
I’m dancing a fine dance with some sleep-related meds right now. I take something at bedtime to stop my legs from tap-dancing (Restless Legs Syndrome).
So - I have to figure out when to take it. If I take it too late, then it doesn’t take effect until hours after I’d like to sleep. If I take it early enough for it to take effect before bedtime (say, I take it at 8 PM) my legs are fine but I’ve spent the last 90 minutes feeling nauseated, achy, and unable to concentrate.
Then there’s the Nuvigil, which helps keep me awake during the day. First-off I was trying to take a smaller dose because we thought it would raise my BP. Now that that’s ruled out, if I take enough to be alert, it can SERIOUSLY screw up my sleep for the first couple of days. Still - it can be the difference between stumbling into walls, and actually seeing them and turning away a few millimeters before impact.