Topamax and miracle drug

I just started on topamax and it has done wonders for me i suffer from cyclic vomiting syndrome and have suffered for many years making my teenage years absolutely horrible in and out of hospitals all the time, despite some minor side affects i have my life back i can go on vacations i can spend the week end at a friends house without being scare i might end up in the hospital its an amazing miracle drug and i thank my doctor for finding it and prescribing me it.

I took Topamax for my migraines following a significant car accident. All I can say is this medication didn't help me at all. In fact, it made my migraines 10x WORSE! Before, when I had a migraine, they were debilitating and would last up to 48 hours. Once I was on Topamax I had a migraine that would not go away. It was almost a month of me being out of work so that I could be weened off this medication and feel better. Now I take something called Axert which you take at the first sign of a migraine. It is my miracle drug. It is not a narcotic like every other doctor seemed to want to give me and would make my migraine go away within an hour. However, I have noticed I have built up a little bit of a resistance to it!

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 have been on Topamax for four months for epilepsy and I love it. I do experience some of the above mentioned side effects but my seizures were not grand mal seizures they were absence seizures. so the memory loss thing is a non issue for me, as far as depression, didn't get that one, weight loss; glad to have it, tingling; not that bad; the coldness; really only bothersome at bedtime so I take a bath at night, a really hot bath. Confusion, I was confused a lot because of the seizures so, again don't know which is worse. For me I feel this is a miracle drug. I'm not sure about the abdominal issues that is my only concern right now, that is what I am dealing with constipation and maybe some menstrual issues??

Just one question I have been on this stuff at the beginning dose for less than a week. My eyes hurt, my head is about to explode, I am sick as a dog, I lost 5 pounds, I can't eat, constipated, can't sleep, can't function, ringing in my ears, and the ADD is unbelievable. I am a medical transcriptionist I kind of need to be able to work, no work, no pay. Topamax is going bye-bye for sure but how long till the side effects go away?

I was given Topamax for headaches and loss of weight. I am obest. 142pds over weight. plus I am disable I can't be on my feet to long. I have rumatoy arthrits, osthio arthiris. I go thru depressions,anxieties,going thru menapause, will this topamax work for me? I have read all these side effects and they scare me. Because I have enough problems and I don't need more,scarier ones. please help. fumashoo1

I have been on Topamax for 5 years. At first I believed it was a miracle drug. It was being used to treat bipolar 2. Over the course of 7 months I lost 40lbs, which at that time I did not know was caused from the drug. I was losing parts of my memory, and I worked in a high performance sales job, but was able to cover the mistakes. Over the course of the next year and a half things began to get worse. I believed at that point it was my illness. I began to have panic attacks and began to be more depressed. Eventually I had to leave my job 3 years ago. I was given other drugs with the topamax but nothing did anything, so they upped the dosage to 400mg, which put me in bed almost constantly. The dosage was taken back to 200mg. Over the course of this process I complained of back pain, losing the feeling in my left side of my body, vision loss (I had perfect vision before taking this drug) headaches, eye twitching, stomache problems ( which developed into diverticulitis)hair loss. I had nerve testing done, which came back negative. I had the first eye test done which came back with some eye loss. My doctor assured me that the topamax could not be causing any of these problems.
The last vision test from an opthmologist now says that I need surgery to correct my eyes, because of the problems that this drug can cause. He says I need lazer surgery.
Well, the fact remains, that this drug I believe has caused all of my problems. Most of all, my lack of motivation, my depression, and my lack of will to do anything. My sleeping pattern has been totally changed, and I suffer my panic attacks which I never had prior to taking this drug, and anxiety. I have no libido, which I believe has been a gradual thing, it was not immediate.
I am now weaning myself off, and it is not easy. The lower dosage has withdrawl effects, and the fear of weight gain has always been a problem. However I realize now after researching this drug to great extent the long term effects are not worth weight loss, and natural products maybe the better solution.