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Does the mental confusion with Topiramate fade after awhile?

Wed, 06/18/2008 - 20:12

Another question on the topiramate/topimax side-effects.  I've been on 25mg Topiramate at night now for about 6 days now; eventually working up to 200mg/day. I'm in the software field so have to think analytically most of the time, and right now I'm so doped up I'm having a hard time differentiating between what people are saying and the venting system! At first I thought they were talking too quietly, but no one else seemed to be having any difficulties. I'm very groggy, unless I start talking then I'm a bit too animated. I'm also not sure if I'm making sense and people seem to be looking at me funny like my social skills/delivery are a bit off or something. To make the problem worse, I've had some anxiety in the past which has for the most part been under control, but now seems to be making a come back by the stress of trying to "act normal" and understand what's going on at work. I think the anxiety was causing seizure activity too (muscle jerking, altered perceptions, vibrating internally), OR, the Tompiramate is. I'm on such a low dose, that I'd think the cause was the former - anxiety. Beside the point actually.

Anyway.... if the dopiness/cognitive stuff doesn't fade, then this drug is TOTALLY counter-productive to why I went on it in the first place. I wasn't having noticable seizures, just A.D.D. that affected my work indirectly and causes co-workers to think I wasn't listening to them, etc. The doc thinks the A.D.D. is probably caused by frontal lobe seizure activity he saw. I've been having a downhill slide at work for the past few years with focus. Very frustrating and has caused me a lot of worry about continuing to support myself without switching to a less analytical job, which means selling my home I remodeled and the garden I love puttering around in.  OK, major future tripping here that's not productive - sorry.

Has anyone have these cognitive issues with the drug when they were ramping up and had it go away? I want to give the drug a good try if so, but if not, then it's time to try another drug or an alternative medicine like acupunture.

Comments

Re: Does the mental confusion with Topiramate fade after awhile

Submitted by Amie79 on Tue, 2008-07-22 - 14:27

It's true. All you can really do is laugh at yourself and decide if you can cope with it or not. It does get worse over time but you do start to handle it better. I start to catch myself now not listening to people when they are talking straight to me or when my ear is right to the phone.  I'm pretty sure my 70 year old grandmother has a better memory than me and my 6 year old a better attention span. I've been on Topamax for almost 10 years now and have  had epilepsy since I was 7. I'm 29 now and don't really know or remember life an different than being doped up. I just pray everday I haven't passed it down to my daughter.

It's true. All you can really do is laugh at yourself and decide if you can cope with it or not. It does get worse over time but you do start to handle it better. I start to catch myself now not listening to people when they are talking straight to me or when my ear is right to the phone.  I'm pretty sure my 70 year old grandmother has a better memory than me and my 6 year old a better attention span. I've been on Topamax for almost 10 years now and have  had epilepsy since I was 7. I'm 29 now and don't really know or remember life an different than being doped up. I just pray everday I haven't passed it down to my daughter.

Re: Does the mental confusion with Topiramate fade after awhile?

Submitted by belimawr on Thu, 2008-06-19 - 22:44

It has the nick Stupamax...read about it here.

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/drugs-treatments

 No, you will feel dumber and dumber over time. My gf has a learning disability, and screamed with laughter-I could almost FEEL the thoughts slowly going thru my head. My IQ is 148. She said "now you know how the rest of us feel", lol! 

  http://tinyurl.com/3nwa8w

 under topamax...

"Topamax's pros and cons:

Pros: You're more likely to lose weight than gain weight (although this is a bug, not a feature, for me and a few other people). The best med on the market for temporal lobe dysfunctions.  It really helps with the sensory integration problems in autism.

 

Cons: If you don't have a temporal lobe dysfunction or problems with other parts of your brain that Topamax hits, or you're at the wrong dosage, it will make you dumber than a box of rocks. The kidney stones aren't much fun."

 Topamax's Not So Common Side Effects: Dry and/or itchy eyes along with assorted vision problems. Topamax also has a warning for rare forms of myopia and glaucoma, so if you get any sort of visual weirdness, have your eyes checked immediately! Fortunately discontinuing Topamax usually takes care of these issues, but you can't let your doctor just blow it off as an eye thing. You may find yourself not able to drink coffee any more, so be prepared to quit the bean. Because it does hit the temporal lobes so hard you can get a zombification effect that is typically experienced only with antipsychotics. Unlike the antipsychotics it's not such a sure thing it will go away in a matter of a couple of weeks. And since the olfactory bulb is wedged in that neighborhood, food in general, and not just carbonated beverages, may not taste quite the same.  "

 

Tastes like pasty metal, iirc! 

 

It has the nick Stupamax...read about it here.

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/drugs-treatments

 No, you will feel dumber and dumber over time. My gf has a learning disability, and screamed with laughter-I could almost FEEL the thoughts slowly going thru my head. My IQ is 148. She said "now you know how the rest of us feel", lol! 

  http://tinyurl.com/3nwa8w

 under topamax...

"Topamax's pros and cons:

Pros: You're more likely to lose weight than gain weight (although this is a bug, not a feature, for me and a few other people). The best med on the market for temporal lobe dysfunctions.  It really helps with the sensory integration problems in autism.

 

Cons: If you don't have a temporal lobe dysfunction or problems with other parts of your brain that Topamax hits, or you're at the wrong dosage, it will make you dumber than a box of rocks. The kidney stones aren't much fun."

 Topamax's Not So Common Side Effects: Dry and/or itchy eyes along with assorted vision problems. Topamax also has a warning for rare forms of myopia and glaucoma, so if you get any sort of visual weirdness, have your eyes checked immediately! Fortunately discontinuing Topamax usually takes care of these issues, but you can't let your doctor just blow it off as an eye thing. You may find yourself not able to drink coffee any more, so be prepared to quit the bean. Because it does hit the temporal lobes so hard you can get a zombification effect that is typically experienced only with antipsychotics. Unlike the antipsychotics it's not such a sure thing it will go away in a matter of a couple of weeks. And since the olfactory bulb is wedged in that neighborhood, food in general, and not just carbonated beverages, may not taste quite the same.  "

 

Tastes like pasty metal, iirc! 

 

Re: Does the mental confusion with Topiramate fade after awhile?

Submitted by kljagain on Fri, 2008-06-20 - 01:32

Great links, thank you very much. Just spent many hours on the site. Especially liked his humor and rant on not being a baby about they symptoms; that said, I have 2 of the symptoms that were call doc/stop drug ones, yet I still tried to talk myself around them to make sure they weren't caused by other factors; this was made difficult (actually the whole week had been trying to sort things out) due to the fogginess. Anyway read on...

Well, last night I went home gardened, picked up around the house, and then watched DVDs until 2AM and still wasn't tired! This was a change from the heavy dopey feeling I'd been having. Today I got up at 6 and felt "up", no "down" anxiety feelings, and able to understand people again. Actually feeling "quite good" like a bit high. Yeah! However, as the day wore on I got more speeded up yet got nothing done at work that didn't involve just talking. OK, thinking I may need to get to the "right dose" as I've read until things really smooth out. Willing to ride out the manic-ness at this stage with the hope it goes away.

Tonight - Like day 3 - now on day 7 - my heart started beating fast and skipping beats again. My blood pressure was up 16 on the systolic when I checked it. Maybe as mentioned I'm someone who'll be caffeine intolerant with the drug. I vascilate as of a couple of hours ago on whether to take tonight's dose or call it quits, after all, I can try without the caffeine tomorrow and see if it makes any difference.

Then I started thinking that even if the seizing yesterday at work was instigated by anxiety, I've had plenty of anxiety in the past and to my knowledge it hasn't caused seizures in me! So, unless seizing as your coming up is normal on this drug, I'm thinking NOT good.  So, coupled with that and the heart acting funny, I'm calling it quits with the Topi. Not worth is for someone who's seizures were mostly controlled (really late nights I get them), unless you count the theory that my ADD is caused by small seizures I'm not really noticing. Right now, even with my job on the line, all the health risks don't sound like a worthy trade-off. Think I'll try the accupuncture and let you know how that turns out :-)

Great links, thank you very much. Just spent many hours on the site. Especially liked his humor and rant on not being a baby about they symptoms; that said, I have 2 of the symptoms that were call doc/stop drug ones, yet I still tried to talk myself around them to make sure they weren't caused by other factors; this was made difficult (actually the whole week had been trying to sort things out) due to the fogginess. Anyway read on...

Well, last night I went home gardened, picked up around the house, and then watched DVDs until 2AM and still wasn't tired! This was a change from the heavy dopey feeling I'd been having. Today I got up at 6 and felt "up", no "down" anxiety feelings, and able to understand people again. Actually feeling "quite good" like a bit high. Yeah! However, as the day wore on I got more speeded up yet got nothing done at work that didn't involve just talking. OK, thinking I may need to get to the "right dose" as I've read until things really smooth out. Willing to ride out the manic-ness at this stage with the hope it goes away.

Tonight - Like day 3 - now on day 7 - my heart started beating fast and skipping beats again. My blood pressure was up 16 on the systolic when I checked it. Maybe as mentioned I'm someone who'll be caffeine intolerant with the drug. I vascilate as of a couple of hours ago on whether to take tonight's dose or call it quits, after all, I can try without the caffeine tomorrow and see if it makes any difference.

Then I started thinking that even if the seizing yesterday at work was instigated by anxiety, I've had plenty of anxiety in the past and to my knowledge it hasn't caused seizures in me! So, unless seizing as your coming up is normal on this drug, I'm thinking NOT good.  So, coupled with that and the heart acting funny, I'm calling it quits with the Topi. Not worth is for someone who's seizures were mostly controlled (really late nights I get them), unless you count the theory that my ADD is caused by small seizures I'm not really noticing. Right now, even with my job on the line, all the health risks don't sound like a worthy trade-off. Think I'll try the accupuncture and let you know how that turns out :-)

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