Sense of self symptoms and conditions

I have had my Mirena for 23 months - placed 6 weeks postpartum. Like most, I too experienced the usual breakthrough and almost consistent bleeding/spotting for the first 6 months with cramping, headaches, and weight gain. What I have also experienced is an overwhelming sense of exhaustion that has not improved but gradually worsened.

Around 4 months PP I realized that something was off in my body. I did not have any energy, didn’t feel like myself, super emotional and no matter what I would try I could not gain motivation to accomplish the task of maintaining my house. I was struggling with a feeling of fogginess and cloudy thinking. I've experienced hair loss, increase in breakouts, dry and splotching skin.

During the first year I would have 1-2 good days in a week where I felt energized and I would be fooled into thinking that I was on my way back to the old me. I could accomplish things, rationalize clearly and deal with life. The rest of the week though would slowly slip back into a drained, over emotional foggy state. At 15 months into having my IUD in place, my days of productivity were dwindling further and further apart.

I have been blessed to have a husband that truly loves me. However, even still he has had a hard time comprehending what I have been dealing with and it has taken a toll on us. He will often say you are just not a happy person no matter what. I know that I am not unhappy with my life in general, my husband or kid and yet he is right. This thing robs you of your happiness and sense of self.

For the past 2 years I have said over and over again that I know something is wrong. I simply don’t feel right. I have been very aware of the changes within myself. I have struggled to be an active parent to my child and I have struggled with the most basic tasks. Things that use to take me 1-2 hours could stretch into days now. I was once this extremely productive individual that now barely is able to get the simplest of things done. I literally put all my effort into trying to accomplish things yet it barely makes a dent.

Until I started doing some reading, and I have found there thousands of women going through the same stuff I am, I really felt like I was going crazy. These symptoms are so subtle and similar that they most often get passed off as PPD, or dealing with the pains of motherhood and stress of life. Up until 2 weeks ago I couldn’t even verbalize the fact that no matter how much I slept, took vitamins, or exercised that I still felt tired all the time and was experiencing an inability to be productive.

I started taking Lamictal in September 07 for bipolar. Started with 25mg and now on 150 daily. I\ Since being on the medication, I feel like Ive lost my sense of self. I find it difficult to keep a conversation going and i lack creativity, I'm just not as witty and sharp as i used to be. I used to write and draw a lot but i have trouble creating inspiring works like i used to. I sleep away too much and have too many weird dreams.

I never really struggled with bad depression but have had some manic episodes. Lamictal has stabilized me, but i fear too much stabilizing. haven't had any manic episodes, but I feel my self and my life slipping away. Theres gotta b something better out there.

IF YOU'VE EXPERIENCED ANXIETY WHILE ON YASMIN, PLEASE READ THIS:
I started Yasmin back in Feb. 2004, and started experiencing extreme anxiety & panic attacks a few months later. I didn't put two and two together until October 2004, when I finally discovered this website. I was so relieved to discover that Yasmin had caused my anxiety (also some depression, and some OCD tendencies), and that I was not just losing my mind. I stopped Yasmin immediately, thinking the problem would just go away, but unfortunately, it got worse before it got better. The first three months off Yasmin were hell on earth. The anxiety was unbearable. Then after three months, the anxiety got significantly better. (FYI - it takes 3 months for a BC pill to clear your system. Coincidence? I think not.) After that, I still had some anxiety, usually really severe around the time of my period. I tried anxiety programs, relaxation CDs, deep breathing, etc., some of which helped, but the anxiety never completely went away. I resorted to taking Xanax as needed. I know my story is very similar to many of yours, so I wanted to share with you what I've learned since then:
As time went on, my anxiety got better & better. I usually just had it around the time of my period, and in some social situations. Then, this past Spring, a dear friend of mine (who I met on the forum, by the way) found a doctor who did some tests on her hormone levels & discovered that she had no progesterone. He told her that her own hormone imbalance coupled with the hormones in Yasmin, caused her to have her anxiety problems on Yasmin. He prescribed her some NATURAL PROGESTERONE (not the synthetic stuff), and she started feeling so much better! Seeing her drastic improvement, and admitting to myself that after two years my anxiety wasn't completely gone, I went to the same doctor. He did some blood work & guess what? I had essentially no progesterone as well. He put me on natural progesterone too. I am taking 100 mg. in a capsule form each night. I cannot tell you the difference I have felt. I feel normal again. Think about it - the hormones in Yasmin obviously caused our anxiety. Doesn't it make sense that the problem is inheritently hormonal? I have been helped so much by the ladies on this website, so I wanted to share my story so that if just helps one person, it's worth it. Go to a doctor in your area who specializes in natural hormone management & see what your levels are. In my case & in my friend's case, our anxiety disorders have been the result of a hormone imbalance, one made significantly worse by Yasmin. I hate to see so many people resort to anti-depressants & anti-anxiety meds, when it may be that all they need is to balance their hormones. Best wishes to all of you. Please hang in there, life does get better!

Posting to fix typographical error, other changes made.

Flomax should not be used by anyone. It attacks the eyes. One would never want to hurt the eyes. One will not be able to have cataracts removed, either. I took a single pill, before I knew this, and yet some side effects keep increasing for one week now. I guess my liver is not very good. Without a healthy enough liver, this stuff might remain in blood forever. I don't know what is going to happen. I have no control. I stopped immediately, but the drug effects keep marching on, because drug is still active. Some side effects which are increasing even though I took only one pill: unusual and severe back pain, constipation, excessive sensitivity to light, blurrier vision, headache, transitory sharp pains in eyes. Other side effects which remain but are not increasing are insomnia, (at best now I have restless inferior pieces of sleep with somewhat changed dreams, not restful sleep, a completely different sleeping pattern and experience), also a few nasal things remain that are not getting worse. Over-all am morbidly affected by this change in health this last week, especially distressed I guess by changes in vision, at least some of which and maybe all are permanent, and in the sudden lack of hope for removing cataracts in the future. My sense of self is of course changed and the knowledge of my lack of sufficient thoroughness in checking this drug out, recklessness in using, doesn't help either, but the main thing is simply being less healthy.

Http://www.crstoday.com/PDF%20Articles/0405/crst0405_f5_chang.pdf

The above link is for a PDF. The link below is to a different article, but is HTML.

Http://www.revoptom.com/index.asp?page=2_1596.htm

Floomax should not be used by anyone. It attacks the eyes. One would never want anything ever to hurt the eyes. One will never be able to have cataracts removed, either. I took one pill, before I knew this, and yet some side effects keep increasing for one week now. I guess my liver is not very good, I'm age 64. Without a healthy enough liver, this stuff might remain in blood forever. I don't know what is going to happen. Some side effects which are increasing even though I took only one pill: unusual and severe back pain, constipation, sensitivity to light, blurrier vision, headache. Other side effects which remain but are not increasing are insomnia, at best now I have restless inferior pieces of sleep with somewhat changed dreams, not restful sleep, a completely different sleeping pattern and experience, also a few nasal things remain but are not getting worse. Over-all am morbidly affected by this change in my health this last week, especially distressed I guess by changes in vision, at least some of which and maybe all are permanent, and in the sudden lack of hope for removing cataracts in the future. My sense of self is of course changed and the knowledge of my lack of sufficient thoroughness in checking this drug out, recklessness in using, doesn't help either, but the main thing is simply being less healthy.