Bad advice symptoms and conditions

Oh My Gosh....I cannot believe I just stumbled across this site. Feeling so NOT LIKE MYSELF for quite sometime now made me decide to google Snythroid side effects, wondering if this medication I am on could possibly be the reason I am feeling so badly. I am 50-years old and started taking synthroid (Levythyroxine) about a year ago for hypothyroidism. I have been struggling tremendously with anxiety, mood swings, fatigue, more hot flashes, emotional instability, and sudden weight gain (about 10 lbs) since I started taking it. I never had any weight issues. I have just assumed this was all related to being "menopausal" (and I'm sure some of it is) and stress-related.....but here's the thing....BEFORE I started taking it, I felt "normal" emotionally, I never had a problem with my weight, and never really had any major "pre-menopausal" symptoms....in fact, I think I had A LOT LESS hot flashes and emotional turmoil, BRAIN FOG, etc., BEFORE I went on this stuff. I was technically POST MENOPAUSE two months ago. Okay, so symptoms should be subsiding now. Any menopausal symptoms would/should have been worse during pre-menopause. Again, I never remember having any major symptoms going through "the change" and felt blessed in that respect......so could it be possible that this hell I have been going through COULD be related to this fricken Snythroid????!?!? I want to just stop taking it to see if I feel normal again, but don't know if it's SAFE to go off all of a sudden. What is this Armour?? I cannot believe how many others out there are feeling like me. I hope this is the reason, so I can feel some hope. But now what do I do? I'm sure I still have to get my TSH levels or whatever regulated. Any suggestions out there? I'll try and make a doctor's appt and check levels again and see what my options are...I was told I probably had to stay on this stuff for the rest of my life. Thanks, everyone.

MHN took away my PTSD diagnosis and told me that I should apply for SSDI with borderline personality disorder. I refused and got a private pay psych eval. Now MHN say's I am refusing to follow there treatment plan because I didn't mess up my application with their bad advice. Now I have been required by Susan Rook-Thomas of MHN to take medication or lose my insurance. Their psychiatrist prescribed Seroquel. I haven't seen anything on it's effectiveness for PTSD. After taking it my ears started ringing and I got sick and dizzy. It may be anxiety from being forced to take meds after bad treatment from MHN.

The only side effect that doctors officially recognize is the cough. Some doctors will try to convince you that you can live with the cough, which is such bad advice.

The cough is a sign that your body is not happy with the med. It took me about 2 weeks to get the cough. It is the first symtom I had. I wish I'd stopped right away when I got it, but it was so mild at first and the doctors convinced me I could live with it. Once I had the cough, it very slowly kept getting worse over a period of the next 2 weeks, though I would have still considered it liveable. But then other side effects that the doctors don't acknowledge started happening. Eventually it was these other side effects that made me stop taking the drug. But the cough was the first symptom that my body didn't like this med.

Since it's the only one the doctors know about, it's the one to complain about. So if you get the cough: start complaining about the cough right away - immediately, the first day you get it. Tell them that you associate the cough with taking the drug. If they don't switch you off right away and it gets any worse at all, complain that the cough is getting worse and worse and tell them you can't live with the lisinopril, and tell them before it harms your lungs and energy levels, or you develop other symptoms.

I have learned that it is up to the patient to complain about drug side effects. The doctors will never diagnose it on their own. They must be trained to consider new conditions as new conditions, and never as side effects. It is important to them to never put it in the patient's head that a symptom is or could be a drug side effect. They don't want to mess with patients who are actually taking a drug and getting some benefit from it. Compliance (getting the patient to take a drug every time, on time) is a big problem. And, of course, experimenting by taking a patient off a drug might make them question the drug. So they would rather experiment by adding more drugs than to put the idea in your head that it might be a side effect of one you're alread taking.

Therefore you, the patient, must make the association yourself, and complain about the drug's side effects. And you have to complain about a side effect they already know of, or they will flatly reject the idea that the drug is doing any harm. Even when you do they will try to get you to live with it. Once they have you living with it, they not follow up with you to see if it gets any worse, and, you'll probably also be less likely to complain about it again if it does. This is a bad situation. And maybe you can live with it at first, but the first side effect appearing is a bad sign and if, after complaining, you agreed to live with it, if it gets any worse at all you need to bring it back to their attention, quickly, and let them know things have changed and it's time to stop living with the side effect.