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NSHN Forum Support & On Topic Forums. Some additional boards are viewable to members only => Survivor Room => Topic started by: tellingstories on May 01, 2012, 10:37:19 AM
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So I'm on both, specifically quetiapine and carbamazepine but that doesn't matter.
I'm wondering if anyone else on mood stabilisers/AP's gets that thing where they can't think of the word they want. I've always been quite erudite, but recently I'm forgetting all my words. It's freaking me out a bit to be honest. I like words too. I'm an obsessive reader. No intelligence overall whatsoever but good linguistically. I had a good vocabulary.
I no longer have a mood, particularly, to attribute this thing to. I think they've medicated much of that away. Well, if ten is manic and zero as depressed as is personally possible then I'm about a three and a half. But that's neither here nor there, it's the words.
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dont worry u can do it your stong
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Um, thanks.
Anyone?
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I found that Quetiapine really zoned me out - there were times I couldn't string a sentence together - so I can identify with what you are saying.
I felt like I was living in a fog most of the time, and didn't realise how out of it I felt, until I came off it.
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hi how r u
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I'm on an AP and a mood stabiliser (olanzapine and valproate).
I don't find that I lose words, as such, but I do lose where I am mid-sentence and forget what I've been talking about. That has (by those who call themselves professionals) been attributed more to my diagnosis than the meds they're using to treat it. Freaks me out a bit and leaves me looking stupid sometimes.
Do you have anyone you can ask about what's going on?
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Hi .. i'm not on the same as you... i'm on risperidone and AD, sleeping tablets and lorazepam , but i find my memory is awful... i forget words, peoples names, things i've said/done everything... it's so frustrating i can't describe it! i sympathies with you ! xx
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Thankyou for the replies.
I think I am being ever-so-slightly melodramatic, in that obviously I can type coherently, so it's not like all my words are gone, else I wouldn't be posting here.
Terri, that's really odd, someone I know with no mental health problems (as far as I'm aware and we're pretty close) does that all the time, so much so that if there's a long pause I know to finish her sentences.
I suppose , Bea it's part and parcel of that general thing. I don't feel sluggish, but my brain is having large amounts of c******ls chucked at it, and maybe my brain is a bit sluggish for a while. I'm hoping it's temporary.
Blue... yeah, mine's never been great. I don't know many households where, if they lose the remote control, they automatically look in the fridge ::)
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Actually it just occurred to me that I'm taking a magnificent amount of opiate (prescription) painkillers. Well, that could be a factor *thick*
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hi i just was wondering how u r today
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I am magnificent, thankyou for asking. No sarcasm intended.
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hay how r u today
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Yup, very odd. I can only assume that my psych just sees me as one big walking ball of symptoms. ::)
How're you getting on?
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I didn't sleep very well even though I took Zopiclone. I spent £300 yesterday in ninety minutes, including getting a really ugly tattoo that'll be with me for life.
My mother is worried about me. She's telling me about bad stuff I've been doing in the last few weeks. Not illegal or immoral, just selfish and argumentative. Stuff I have no recollection of and I don't understand why because I am not psychotic. I know everyone says that, but I'm not, never have been. I feel like she's ashamed of me, and I am ashamed of myself.
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hay dont be ashamed of your self be happy
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Thankyou Greenday for your support. How old are you by the way?
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quetiapine completely knocked me out. i was on the maximum dose, i couldn't think straight, i would stop talking in the middle of sentences, i was barely coherent, i couldn't read which i hated because i love books. it turned me into a zombie and a completely different person, sounds a bit like what you're experiencing. oh, and it had no effect on the mania.
as for mood stabilisers i've tried lithium and valproate, neither of them gave me side effects (that i noticed).
just after xmas i was admitted to hospital after an od, i was immediately taken off quetiapine and despite horrendous withdrawal for the first two weeks i felt a noticeable difference immediately. i am less tired, i can concentrate, i don't feel like my head is made of cotton wool. i cannot believe how i put up with those side effects for 18 months. Are you noticing any positive effects of the quetiapine/carbamazapine? if not i'd say definitely worth thinking about asking if you can try other meds
x
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I've been on quetiapine for about three years. I don't know where I'd be without it. It stabilised my sleep, calmed me down, made me less impulsive, stabilised my moods... to an extent. Hence the carbamazepine. It's really too early to tell if that's helping, I'm not on the full dose yet. I have to have bloods and as I understand it the therapeutic dose is determined by the levels in my blood, because everyone's body metabolises it differently (or something- I'm told it's the same process as with lithium, I'd be interested if anyone could clarify)
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hay tellingstoriyes im 16 and becoming 17 this june i feel sad and hate my life
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Aww bless. You're very young, why do you hate your life?
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i can't say i understood a lot about the metabolising stuff but here's what i did get, if it's any help.
there is a therapeutic range of the concentration of the drug in your bloodstream, and it has to be between a particular set of two numbers for the drug to be effective. too high can lead to poisoning and bad side effects, too low and it won't work. for lithium its 0.4-0.8mmol/l. everyone metabolises drugs differently, so the same dose in two different people will result in different concentrations of the drug in your bloodstream. they have to do blood tests to check the level, if it's too low they'll increase your dose, too high and they'll decrease it. when you're in the therapeutic range you won't have to have bloods as often as the concentration should remain pretty stable.
hope this is what you were asking, if not, apologies.
x
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Hey TS, I have the same problem with forgetting my words and stopping mid sentance etc. Ive even started doing what my gran used to do and going through everyones names until I get the right one!
I tell everyone its early onset Alzheimers. Obviously a joke, but that is what it feels like to me.
Im not on any APs and the AD I am on now is mirtazapine but I am also on a high amount of pain killers (tramadol, diclofenic co-codamol and the oh so effective para) so you might be on to something with that idea.
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I tell everyone its early onset Alzheimers. Obviously a joke, but that is what it feels like to me.
You know what, that's actually what I was really worried about. I am a total hypochondriac and since I turned thirty you'd swear it was sixty.
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because its so hard living a life of a self harmer why did u ask my age i dont realy mind u asking its ok but can i ask what age u r :peepwall:
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I don't experience the effects your talking about with my mood stabilisers (valproate) but i did with my AP ( risperidone).
I would try not to worry about it too much (easier said than done i know!!!) but if you do feel as though it is becoming a problem then maybe a chat with your prescribing doctor? If it makes you feel any better i have the short term memory of an Alzheimers patient, and i'm 25!! :-( lol.
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because its so hard living a life of a self harmer why did u ask my age i dont realy mind u asking its ok but can i ask what age u r :peepwall:
I asked because I'm nosey and I hadn't seen anything in the introductions section about you. I am nearly 31 but that is a sore subject. I'm sorry you're so young and feeling like that, can you talk to your parents?
I don't experience the effects your talking about with my mood stabilisers (valproate) but i did with my AP ( risperidone).
I would try not to worry about it too much (easier said than done i know!!!) but if you do feel as though it is becoming a problem then maybe a chat with your prescribing doctor? If it makes you feel any better i have the short term memory of an Alzheimers patient, and i'm 25!! :-( lol.
Thanks RG. It has actually been better today and yesterday. I'm trying to cut down on the painkillers, so that's probably why.
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i can't say i understood a lot about the metabolising stuff but here's what i did get, if it's any help.
there is a therapeutic range of the concentration of the drug in your bloodstream, and it has to be between a particular set of two numbers for the drug to be effective. too high can lead to poisoning and bad side effects, too low and it won't work. for lithium its 0.4-0.8mmol/l. everyone metabolises drugs differently, so the same dose in two different people will result in different concentrations of the drug in your bloodstream. they have to do blood tests to check the level, if it's too low they'll increase your dose, too high and they'll decrease it. when you're in the therapeutic range you won't have to have bloods as often as the concentration should remain pretty stable.
hope this is what you were asking, if not, apologies.
x
Thankyou Squiggle, that is what I was asking. Jeepers, I love that some people (IRL, ok?) think that being mentally ill is somehow glamorous when this is what we have to do to ourselves to stay 'well'
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i feel happy today and thnks for telling me what your age is and i realy like talking to u :1059:
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Thankyou Squiggle, that is what I was asking. Jeepers, I love that some people (IRL, ok?) think that being mentally ill is somehow glamorous when this is what we have to do to ourselves to stay 'well'
i know. blood tests, side effects, millions of pills, trying to find the right meds, therapy (if you're lucky enough to get accepted) and yet it still doesn't guarantee that they can make you better. it's not like they can do a blood test and say 'hey, you have bipolar' and BAM, they give you the right meds and everything is fine....
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And then there's the absolute terror that next time I mess up will be the time they take my children away.
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hay dont worry i m here