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Memory Loss & Lamictal
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 23:08Comments
Me toooo!
Submitted by rgeorge2 on Thu, 2018-12-13 - 13:55
Re: Memory Loss & Lamictal
Submitted by camiphoenix on Mon, 2011-12-05 - 15:56
1) Yawning - Virtually any time I'm talking out loud, my use of breath has me yawning almost constantly. Pretty disruptive considering I work tech support in a call center. I may wear out the mute button on my phone.
2) My coordination is off now. Used to be a skater-chick, ride a unicycle and have lots of fun balancing and walking on high and narrow things. Now I'm lucky if I can round a corner without bumping into it with my chest or hips. I can't wear white shirts or "nice" clothes anymore, because I have a good chance that I'm going to spill something on myself before the day is done. My typing speed has been cut down to about a quarter of what it was (due to typos and having to look at the keyboard frequently now). It's a miracle if I get through a sentence without using the backspace button. On average I'm backspacing every other word. What I intend to type and what my fingers do are not the same thing.
3) Severe memory/cognitive impairment - I had to make notes in order to type this up. For reference sake (rather than bragging), throughout my life I've consistently been in the top 1% on universal IQ tests. I'm a problem solver by nature. Having worked with the people in my department for 6 years, I'm now only able to recall about ten people's names reliably. I have had to make myself a notebook listing what I need to do in my daily duties at work, giving myself step by step instructions because I won't know what to do on any given day. I have to document all of my usernames/passwords in my notebook as well, because if I'm off work for even a week I will forget them entirely. I've lost at least half of my vocabulary, and even that is being generous. I struggle to remember simple words, or when I'm talking completely random wrong words will come out every few sentences. If I get up from the couch to go to the kitchen, even odds I won't remember what I went for by the time I get there. There is no way I can multi-task anymore. It's hard enough keeping my mind to one task now. At this point I fear for my job, and have been avoiding personal contact at work as much as possible so people don't notice my level of impairment. My friends have to let me know that I've told them something repeatedly before. Most of my life I've felt that my intellectual capacity was really all I had going for me, so losing it is devastating.
To be fair, Lamictal has stopped my seizures. It's been great for that. But it stops random short-circuits that cause seizures by depressing brain function in its entirety. Everyone has different levels of cognitive suppression, so you may or may not experience any of the assorted side effects. The key here is that if you start to have challenges braining, don't ask your doctor if you should stay on it. Tell them you need to try a different medication. Period.
1) Yawning - Virtually any time I'm talking out loud, my use of breath has me yawning almost constantly. Pretty disruptive considering I work tech support in a call center. I may wear out the mute button on my phone.
2) My coordination is off now. Used to be a skater-chick, ride a unicycle and have lots of fun balancing and walking on high and narrow things. Now I'm lucky if I can round a corner without bumping into it with my chest or hips. I can't wear white shirts or "nice" clothes anymore, because I have a good chance that I'm going to spill something on myself before the day is done. My typing speed has been cut down to about a quarter of what it was (due to typos and having to look at the keyboard frequently now). It's a miracle if I get through a sentence without using the backspace button. On average I'm backspacing every other word. What I intend to type and what my fingers do are not the same thing.
3) Severe memory/cognitive impairment - I had to make notes in order to type this up. For reference sake (rather than bragging), throughout my life I've consistently been in the top 1% on universal IQ tests. I'm a problem solver by nature. Having worked with the people in my department for 6 years, I'm now only able to recall about ten people's names reliably. I have had to make myself a notebook listing what I need to do in my daily duties at work, giving myself step by step instructions because I won't know what to do on any given day. I have to document all of my usernames/passwords in my notebook as well, because if I'm off work for even a week I will forget them entirely. I've lost at least half of my vocabulary, and even that is being generous. I struggle to remember simple words, or when I'm talking completely random wrong words will come out every few sentences. If I get up from the couch to go to the kitchen, even odds I won't remember what I went for by the time I get there. There is no way I can multi-task anymore. It's hard enough keeping my mind to one task now. At this point I fear for my job, and have been avoiding personal contact at work as much as possible so people don't notice my level of impairment. My friends have to let me know that I've told them something repeatedly before. Most of my life I've felt that my intellectual capacity was really all I had going for me, so losing it is devastating.
To be fair, Lamictal has stopped my seizures. It's been great for that. But it stops random short-circuits that cause seizures by depressing brain function in its entirety. Everyone has different levels of cognitive suppression, so you may or may not experience any of the assorted side effects. The key here is that if you start to have challenges braining, don't ask your doctor if you should stay on it. Tell them you need to try a different medication. Period.
Re: Memory Loss & Lamictal
Submitted by comment on Wed, 2013-05-22 - 20:25
Thank you for taking the time to sum up your history and the effects you have experienced from Lamictal. My side effects mirror yours and I take great pride in my job and it is someone's challenging to cover up the inadequacy caused by my medication. Your post is over a year old. Did you change medications, if so, what has transpired? Best of luck! David