Personal life symptoms and conditions

My good friend is on Topamax and Trileptal for epilepsy seizures. She has developed severe paranoia. We cant call her on her phone or send her an email as she believes that her phone, computer and house are all "bugged". I have written a letter to her doctor to let him know what is occurring in her personal life as Im sure that he is unaware of her behavior. She lives in a world of fear and her medication needs to be changed.

I have had Mirena since January, 8 months now, I am feeling so sad, actually I am looking now in the net as I was not able to stop crying and there is no reason for crying, everything is ok in my personal life. I am very concerned as this symptoms have increased in the last four weeks and I am seriously consider removing Mirena, I want my normal life back.

Hello-
I am here to share my story about topamax in hopes that others may read this and not have to go through what I did. I went on topamax for the prevention of migraine headaches. It worked great to prevent my headaches but gradually I could not talk, I stuttered severely, and I have memory and other cognition problems. At my doctors recommendation I stayed on the medicine for about 6 months because he assured me that the stuttering would go away. I was in such awful pain that I agreed with him. Needless to say that 6 months was not me. I couldn't talk and I couldn't think. Now when I think back on it, I wish I had just endured the pain. When I went off of the medication I still stuttered. It was not quite as severe but it was bad. It effected my work, my personal life, and daily menial tasks. I could no longer communicate. I was devastated. My doctor was puzzled and said that he had never heard of this before. So to make a long story short I went to a speech clinic, bought casa futura techs small talk device, and tried some anti-stutter meds. My speech now, 2 years later, is much improved thanks to the smalltalk but guess what,? I still stutter. Manageable and not very noticeable to others at times but my speech has not returned to pre-topamax status. I looked into sueing the drug company to bring awareness about this issue but did not get much positive feedback from attorneys. IF YOU ARE ON TOPAMAX AND ARE STUTTERING, STOP TAKING IT. IT MAY NOT GO AWAY WHEN YOU DISCONTINUE THE MEDICINE. It is not worth it. You cannot put a price on speech. I don't care what the physicians desk reference says, what your doctor says, what the corrupt drug companies say. I know my experience and it has been a catastropohic effect from topamax. Find a different med if you have speech problems! Please, for your own sake. Thanks for letting me share my story.

I am a 36 year old African American Female. I have been on Toprol for 4 years. I take 25mg a day. At one point a dr. recommended I take 50mg a day. That was horrible. All of my side effects were worse. I decided to break the pills and stay at 25mg. The lower dosage is better. At 36, I look like I am in my early 20's! Most people guess my age at about 24. I don't feel like it at all. I am always tired, I don't have orgasms ( which is bad when you have boyfriends in their early 20's all the time) and I have anxiety and depression. I love to have fun but toprol keeps me depressed, uninterested and I cry for no reason at all. I just feel severely sad for no reason at all and cry. It is horrible. I was prescribed toprol for rapid heartbeat and mildly high bp. That it works for, but the side effects are gruesome! I tried another med for a month and I thought my heart was gonna jump out of my chest. I have 2 sons: 10 and 16, I can't be depressed and crazy all the time. I am very attractive and I want to enjoy life now that my kids are older. I'm getting off toprol!

i have been taking dorxy 100 mg once a day along with a .3% differin cream for mild acne. I have been taking it for about five weeks now. I am twenty years old. At first it only upset my stomach so I took it with food/milk and that helped. But as time progresses, I feel as though my symptoms are getting worse. I constantly have a headache, I am sensitive to sunlight (I do not burn that easily, but bright lights irritate me), loud noises, light headed, sick to my stomach, dizzy, confused. I have severe back pain and pain in my wrists, ankles and especially in my knees. Thankfully my boyfriend has been dealing with what could also be side effects, I easily change moods, I am depressed, I suddenly cry over ridiculous immature situations, I am insecure and refuse to believe anyone that compliments me. I loose my temper easily and never feel like taking part in sexual activity with my boyfriend. I also feel paranoid and worried at times, I feel overly stressed. I do have a lot on my plate with my personal life but I have never acted this way about situations before.

Basically, being happy to crying in half a second, always feeling tired and lazy, no energy, and not being hungry then starving, and feeling sick and dizzy are basically making me wonder if this medicine is worth these side effects. I do not want to risk putting my baby in danger if I ever get pregnant a few years after taking this medication and from what I have read, it could have a life long effect on our bodies.

Although my acne has made me miserable all my life, and seeing the results of it clearing up so quickly makes me SO happy, I am hoping that eventually I will grow out of it. Because in all honesty, we are putting our bodies through so much, all just to have clear skin! Someone out there thinks you are beautiful, regardless of your acne. So I am probably going to talk to my Dr. and discontinue the doryx. I just can't take the side effects any longer. Besides, I read online that in most cases, after you stop taking Dorxy, the acne comes back. Sigh, I don't know guys! This is a tough situation for all of us.

Best of luck, take care everyone. :)

I posted last weekend about my side effects with Mirena. To refresh everyone on the facts, I've had it since Sept 2006. I tried to have it removed in December but my doc wouldnt do it. She said it was extremely rare to suffer from depression due to Mirena. She put me on Prozac which has helped immensely. I have changed my diet and exercise and I can't lose weight and its all belly fat, I look 6 mo. pregnant if I dont hold my tummy in. I've never had a problem losing weight when I try. I had a feeling it was hormonal so I googled Mirena Side Effects and it brought me here. After reading all of your posts I decided it definately wasn't "rare" like my doc said and it wasn't just ME being crazy.
I went in today (to a different doc) to have my Mirena removed. The doctor flat out told me she would not remove my Mirena unless I wanted to get pregnant.
She said there was 100% no possible way that the Mirena would cause any of these side effects (sweat, fat, depression are the big ones). She drilled me on my diet, exercise and personal life to try and shoot down my symptoms. I told her my life is GREAT, and my diet/exercise is GREAT. She told me "You need 5-7 servings of produce, not 4" I said "I doubt 1 more serving of produce is going to magically make this GUT go away".
I also told her I have NEVER suffered from depression, and the Prozac helps but I shouldn't have to be on medication.
In any case, she still insisted that there was no possible way the Mirena was responsible for these things, because it doesn't go into your blood stream, yadda yadda.
She finally took it out anyway, I wasn't leaving with that demon still inside me!

I'll update everyone in a few weeks as to how I am feeling. I'm wondering how to ween off these meds... I don't really want to have to go into the doc and have her tell me I'm not allowed to. So frustrating!

I had been on nuvaring for 6 weeks. I usually don't do well with any birth control pills so when I heard about nuvaring I was excited to try it. The first few days I felt some light body ache as if I were getting sick. I noticed I was feeling depressed, but I thought it was because of some problems in my personal life. Then I went on a trip to Brazil to visit my family. I always have a great time. This time I wasn't having fun at all. I was always super depressed. I was always tired and never felt like doing much. Some days I just felt like crying. Some nights I would wake up in the middle of the night, think about my problems and just start crying, something that is not like me. My emotions were totally out of wack. I was not in conrol of my emotions, which is not a good feeling. I also had this horrible pain/feeling in the middle of my chest. More like an emotional pain as if you were missing someone super bad, as if someone had died, a very weird feeling. These symptoms subsided a little with a vitamin b complex. I read that vitamin B6, about 100 mg is good for depression. I would take a multivitamin and with it a vitamin B complex. On the days I would forget I felt the difference, the symptoms were worse. Two times during my trip when I was having one of those days my grandmother then my father asked if everything was ok, that I looked pale. The second time when he asked me, I thought to myself, this is not normal. I feel horrible. I came on to the web and found this sight. The same day I took out my ring. I was on my second month starting my third week. It has been two days. That pain in my chest has gotten much better and also my mood is getting better. About the sex drive I am not sure, because I have been away from my husband since I started the ring, but I haven't thought about sex at all. I think it was the right choice to take it out. Another thing about a week and a half ago my breasts have been very tender. My breast are still very tender, maybe a little worse, probably because I took olut the ring a week earlier, but I am glad I did. Hopefully now I will enjoy the rest of my trip. All these products for birthcontrol with hormones is like poison to our body. Well at least I have noticed it has been for mine.

I have been on birth control for about 4 years now. Four years ago, I was diagnosed with Endometriosis the worst stage there could possibly be. I have been on the Ovcon 50 for 2 years this birth control has helped me keep the endometriosis under control. However, since I started taking this birth control I started noticing a lot of changes in my body, I gained about 15 lbs, I have terrible headaches, break through bleeding, fatigue, very moody, bloated, and the worst is the lack of sex drive . I mean, it is completely gone. I can only blame this on the Ovcon. I made an appointment to talk to my doctor about this situation because it is something that is ruining my personal life.
I forgot to mention that I am on this pill continuously; I do not have periods, so the break through bleeding is normal.
My partner and I have been trying to figure out what has caused me to become who I am now. I blame this on the Ovcon and when I go see my Doctor, I am asking him to give me a different type of birth control. When I look back, I see that since I started the Ovcon 50 my life has changed, I was trying to blame this on my Endometriosis. I am 100% sure; Ovcon is causing me all the side effects I have. I would not recommend anyone to take this pill

Back from the RE:

We discussed many forms of birth control (none of which appeal to me) and he agreed bcps are not for me do to my reactions to them. He did question my correlating the YAsmin to my anxiety and said if that were the case I should've been like that from the first month on them. I quickly informed him of many of you here and asked that he not jump to conclusions just because the FDA; the warnings in the Yasmin pill pack and his Medical Journals all say that it DOESN'T cause us to be this way. He quickly let that go!

I was FINE before Yasmin. I was energetic, happy, and went with the flow of my hectic life with kids and an at home business. Then BAM I turn into a whole other person with serious issues mentally and emotionally and NOTHING in my personal life changed to cause this. How can anyone not conclude it a pill full of hormones?!!!!

He reluctantly prescribed me Xanax to get me through the next couple of weeks but said he would NOT prescribe me a refill. Which I said was fine because I really dont want to take anything but I can't just keep trying to make it through the day with my kids and me feeling so horrific.

Each day I feel a TAD better; what I wouldn't give for that magic wand to make it all better in a poof. I signed up for a 'Mind, Body & Spirit" (some sort of Yoga) class on Saturday and Wednesday so I am hoping that helps as well.

Enough of my lengthy reply! Hope everyone here continues to improve; all be it slowly. Everyday that passes is a another day we can all be 'us' again.

Denise

about 9 months after Iraq I began taking 10 mg of Paxil. By july I was taking 40mg in adition of another drug to help. During the first 3 months I would sleep about 12 hours a day and sometimes 40 hours in a 48 hour period. Lets say the Army was not having a good time with me. There were many dizzy days and spells. It was hard to fall asleep and always imposible to get up. I had anxiety atacks about 3-7 per week and sometimes 2-3 per day. Sadly my leaders would not let me go home from the field. Now it has been 5 months sine I began taking the medication and I am getting round. I have been 145 pounds since age 24 until age 29. I began getting round at age 30 and it is not the age but the medications. I notised fatige during workouts and after long runs. I question my future in the military based on the condition I am in now. Of course, there is no sexual apitite but good thing myy wife was going through the end of her pregnancy. I have a few months before my wife gets an apetite. Allthough Paxil has helped me control my disorder which was out of control at one point, I now have other problems which are affecting me in my personal life and slowly clashing with my work

I was put on Zoloft for treatment of depression and anxiety due to an immense of stress in my personal life. At the beginning I was experiencing headaches, jaw tension, diarrhea and weird dreams. This was 2 months ago. Now I still have intense, vivid dreams, but there not bad dreams, so I don't mind that at all!! I have had NO loss of my sex drive, which a friend said I would, give it time. Thankfully, they were wrong!! I plan on being on Zoloft for 6 months, sbut so far I've seen a big change in both my attitude and emotions. BUT I also am following up with therapy, which is helping a lot too. I don't feel bad or helpless anymore about being on Zoloft or that i have had some personal issues that I needed help with. Now that I'm starting to see I wasn't the bad person in my problems, I realize that the Zoloft helped "clear my head" and helped me to start to become me again.

I feel compelled to post a message here regarding the side-effects of Yasmin in hopes of preventing someone, even if its a complete stranger, from struggling with the effects of this pill in the same way that I have for the past year.

I'm 29. I started taking Yasmin a year ago to regulate mid-cycle bleeding and I had also just begun a long-term relationship so it seem appropriate to get back on the pill. I had been on BCPs in my early twenties and didn't have a problem with them, but really preferred being hormone-free. My doctor recommended Yasmin. She said it was the "Wonder Pill".

It was the start of a very crazy year in my personal life--death in the family, moves, relationship & health problems, etc. I started seeing a therapist right around the time I started the Yasmin and didn't notice a correlation. After all, life had been pretty cookoo so it seemed fitting that I felt cookoo, too.

After months and months of being extremely irrational, over-reactive, and anxious I decided that I needed a 'clean slate' as nothing seemed to be helping-no amount of therapy or self-talk/self-work was putting a dent in the amount of bad feelings that were swirling around inside myself. I felt very at odds with everyone--my boss, my family, my lover, my coworkers, and my friends. I was generally over-whelmed & completely off-center.

I called my doctor THREE times over the year and told her that something just wasn't right...that I felt "off" and wondered if it could be an effect of the pill. She assured me that Yasmin is the best pill on market, etc. etc. and that no other patients had experienced the effects I described.

Finally, at wit's end, I decided to try the 'clean slate' approach and eliminate any possible stimuli so I could attempt to get a handle on my inability to manage my emotions. I decided to stop taking the pill. My relationship had gone to hell anyways, so it was sort of an act of defiance.

What do you know? I calmed down & was right back to my old self--the one the my friends and family missed and the one that I missed so bad it hurt! I have never felt so refreshed. All the bad things that were/are going on in my personal life still exist, but I am not INSANE from the scary, bad hormone anymore.

I agree with the posts that state enourage you to find a doctor that checks your blood levels before choosing a BCP. Its really important to find a pill that works for you.

I have a lot of regret about my inability to see just how off-centered this pill made me. I made a mess of my life flopping around like a fish out of water for a year. So, the best I can do is encourage anyone who stumbles along this long post to please keep yourself informed..and listen to your body when choosing a hormone.

Yasmin is one of the worst things that has happened to my body. It might not be that way for you, but don't let any doctor tell you that this pill (as with all BCPs) is free of possible major emotional side-effects.

Thanks for reading.