My experience w/ Topamax (100mg) has not been a good one. I'm still on it unfortunately
It has had the anorexic effect on me and I have gone from 155lbs (which was a lot of weight gain from other meds - my reg. weight before getting sick was 125lbs) down to 115lbs. I'm also on Wellbutrin (200 mg) and recently started taking Imovane again for sleep and added Lorazepam (0.5 mg) to the mix because of a stressful situation I just went through. Since I started Topamax I have completely lost my appetite for almost everything and anything and have to force myself to eat every meal. It absolutely sucks! My stomach gets upset most of the time after I eat so tummy mint tea has become my best friend (that stuff is magical!). When I'm under stress of course eating is much more difficult for me and at one point it was taking me 3 attempts to eat a regular size meal. By the time I sat down to eat the 3rd time I could barely force myself to eat the rest of the meal and after microwaving it so many times it tasted like crap by then so I usually just tossed it! Anyway, I could go on and on about
the torture of eating, nausea, the battle between my mind and body and so on...but I'm sure you get the point. I'm sure your wondering why the hell I'm I still on the crap then!!!! Well my choice is to go back on the med. that made me blow up to 155lbs which made me hate my body (it's called Epival btw). I was extremely unhappy at that weight and although I am tall, I didn't mind gaining some of the weight but I gained it weird and the back of my neck was thick and my back was really fat + I looked swollen (not natural weight gain - med. weight gain). I don't know if anyone else can tell a diff. when someone gains weight from a med. and it is usually fast and the weight sometimes packs on in weird places. It happen to my friend with Chromes (if that's how you spell it) disease and it just didn't look natural at all when she had to take this med. that did this to her. When I started my meds and she saw how quickly I was gaining the weight and how bloated I was she completely understood! I'm glad I lost it all, well actually not all, I wanted to stay at 135-130 some where around there. All I can do is try to adjust! This summer I'm going on a weight gaining mission with my step sister and we are going to buy some protein powder (not sure what kind yet but if anyone knows of any good ones that helps you gain weight please let me know) and workout. I'm hoping that since I don't have as much stress in my life at the moment that I can focus on me and slowly increase the amount I eat (oh I forgot to mention that I can only eat a little bit at a time because I get full very fast as in a few bites and I'm full it's ridiculous). That's why I got to the point of trying to eat a regular size meal 3 diff. times. Anyway, if this plan doesn't work I'm not sure what is going to happen because I know my shrink doesn't want to change my med's but I can't see myself dealing with the side effects of the Topamax much longer. Also, I don't know what we'd change them to because I refuse to take anything that will make me gain weight! I'm not the easiest patient to work with
Why can't there be something in the middle - a med that doesn't make you blow up or make you anorexic! Gosh!
Sorry soul2bleed just getting out my frustrations in my post! Sorry my post isn't good news but med's do effect people differently so I hope you benefit from this med. I hope I can gain some weight and stay on this med if there are no other options for mood stabilizers that I'll actually agree to taking. I really don't care to go on the roller coaster ride of changing a med again either! Anyway, let me know if you have any questions and good luck to ya
Emily