Topamax and lol

hi started my topamax 25 mg at bedtime i take it for migranes been top for 3 weeks now i have noticed side effects however iam taking other meds and im having trouble distinguishing which side effect goes with what lol ..e.g.. paxil for anxiety , panic attacks and HYDROCHLOROTHIAZIDE for borderline blood pressure , i have experienced the tingling in the hands and the feet ..lack of appt,i wouldn't say my desire for sex is gone but im experiencing vaginal dryness and itching and numbness as well as problems climaxing sorry tmi lol ... thought it was a yeast infection but its kinda different? any girls ever exp that before while on top? im getting scared now reading the post about loss of hair im already very thin and have little hair as it is any help or suggestions would be great thx ...

I take 200mg a day (100mg in the morning and 100mg at night) for seizures. It has been my miracle drug. Granted the side effects were awful. But I did my research before starting it again. I had taken it previously for migraines and couldn't tolerate it. If you take the appropriate vitamins while taking it you can help to alleviate a lot of the side effects that you may have. Topomax can absorb some critical vitamins out of your body which causes some of the side effects. The vitamins that I take are: a high dosage of a Super B Complex (tingling, numbness, fatigue, speech). L-Carnitine (memory loss), Biotin (hair and skin). There is another website with postings similar to this which is where I discovered other patients taking Topomax that had discovered using the vitamins helped. Once I got on a good regimen of vitamins it made a big difference. I still experienced and am experiencing weight loss (but I just had a baby) so I am not really upset about that. LOL Anyways, I hope that information helps someone out there. It sure did help me. If I can find the research link that had the vitamin listing that it depreciates I will post it.

I started taking Topamax 2 days ago and I have already noticed side effects..such as the flat soda...numbness in my arms and face at night...BUT the worst part are the morbid thoughts at night ( I take only 25 mg at night) I have the most bizarre dreams and I wake up feeling like I havent slept for days. I am taking it due to severe migraines which result in seizures. I am horrified after reading some of the posts here. I am wondering if anyone started out with any of these side effects and then as their body became accustomed to the medication did they pass?

Taking Topamax for 2 years started out at 25 mgs 3 times a day for a mood stabalizer (bi-polar). Had tingling in hands and feet sometimes in face. Lost waight, pop tasts nasty, sleepy, short term memory loss, slurred speach. Now I take 100mg at bed time have no symptoms except I still am able to controll my eating (had a problem with over eating) no more road rage but I still felf a little depressed and did cry so I was not to stable until Citalopram 10mg at bedtime and Adderall XL 10mg in the morning was added. Now I finally feel like a totaly normal person. No more anxiety, mood swings, crying, paranoia,or any other weird stuff. I feel pretty good. Rarely I get pins and needles in my hands or feet or I forget where I put something.

the mood swing side effect is very real. I'm currently taking a very small dose of prozac to counteract it. it doesn't effect everyone that way, and from what I understand, it can be just a temporary side effect due to the titration. once you stablize on a dose, it should lessen I'm told. after I nearly bit the head off a produce guy at nearby market for no reason at all, I knew I didn't want to wait and see, lol.

i've been on it for about 10 months now and i've had plummeting potassium levels, so much so the doc prescribed prescription potassium supplements and a excellent quality multivitamin plus minerals. that seems to be doing the trick.

I am showing hair loss and extreme weight loss too (so far over 30lbs), problems with gums. I can treat the gum problem with biotene, but the hair loss is a problem and the weight loss, well, i can stand to lose a few lbs.

I also have night sweats which are just weird and have problems with body temperature regulation.

all this on a whopping 45 mg a day!

still, I love my topamax. it's the only thing that's eliminated most of my every other day migraines.

okay, so today was the first day i started my topamax, within 1 hour my face and arms and hands started to severly tingle, not fun, its very bothersome, i feel like i had some very bad botox, LOL. I'm not sure if i'm gonna increase from 100 to 200 mg, i'll see what happens within a week.

update....
i have begun to ween myself off topamax as of last week. i was taking 75 mg a day, now i'm down to 25 mg a day. i have noticed a HUGE change..i am pretty much BACK TO MY NORMAL SELF...i will continue until i am OFF THIS MEDICATION.
my depression has ceased, my fits of rage, GONE. i no longer have anger fits towards my poor husband (i feel so horrible for the way i had been acting towards him because of this medicine), and the whole sex drive issue, completely back to normal again (THANK GOD...my husband was about to go crazy..as was I! lol)
i am making an appointment with my doctor next week to see about another preventive, but until then, i have to keep a few hydrocodones on hand in case i get a migraine (and it's a definite that i will...). Hydrocodones are the only thing that get rid of my migraines...the Relpax and such make me feel like i'm about to have a heart attack and really dont relieve my migraines.
I just hope i can find a preventive that will work...WITHOUT these side effects (depression, etc). My migraines are so frequent that it is a must that i find some sort of preventive.
Best of luck to you all out there that are either still on this med, or getting off this med. i recommend the latter of the two.

well, after reading all of these posts,
i have hit a harsh reality. my husband has been right this whole time. My sex drive has hit ROCK BOTTOM....my fuse is so short i snap at him at absolutely NOTHING....our marriage is SUFFERING...and coincidentally...it all started right after i started taking topamax...i am only taking 75mg a day...2 in the morning, and 1 at night...
i was so excited because my migraines, that i was getting every single day, were FINALLY gone....and i lost 10 pounds...and i only had to suffer the change in taste in my sodas, the slightly irritating eye twitch in my left eye, and the tingling in my feet. i just thought the sex drive and mood swings were purely coincidental. now that i have read every single post from you guys, i am now forced to go to my husband with my tail between my legs and tell him i'm so sorry for blowing up on him every time he begged me to get off the topamax and i absolutely refused because i refused to go back to the pain of my daily migraines...
as far as the hair loss, i have thick curly hair and i already shed like a shaggy dog so i dont know if mine has really increased or not due to taking the medicine. looking at it now, i can probably say it has, a little, but not much.
i have always shed like crazy..lol
but mainly, my side effects were the change in taste with sodas and beer (beer aquired a "sweet" taste, sodas lost it's "fizz" on the front of my tongue if that makes any sense), my left eye had a constant twitch until i upped my dosage to 3 a day instead of 2, i get the tingling in my feet only, none in my hands or face like i've read, i started getting slight nausea when i added my birth control patch back into the mix with the topamax but that subsided once my body got used to everything.
Sitting here reading this has made me realize a lot about this medicine.

100mg 2x's a day graving sugars...to help me lose weight..and level my mood swings..lol still graving sugars!!!!!!!! like crazy...i hate talking most of all...side effect.?? meeting people?? leaving the house?? effexor 300mg aday also. ..weird thoughts and day dreams...

feeling you have tons of cash to spend on everyone...doc told me to becareful ..of being too gracious...lol feeling of numbness of adults behavior but love being around my grand children. really dislike my husband even more now. but something stops me from being unkind like i used to be.. am having suicidal thoughts now.

It made me ANGRY !!!. Im not kidding. I am the angriest person I have ever met since I started this stuff. Cant take it anymore. Gonna ram my shopping cart into someone soon.lol

25mg 2x/day only so far.
( along with the tingles and stupidity of course)

green spots .. lol..but only when i look at something red? the pharmacist thinks im crazy.. lol..shes right ..im bipolar but what does that matter..anyone else get that side effect? Im only on 25mg 2x a day and only for 5days so far..oh and yes im stupid stupid stupid :P