i am having multiple Wellbutrin side-effects and now racing thoughts too.

to start with:

migraines w/ and w/o aura
auras w/o headache
photophobia & phonophobia v. bad and extend through day after headache remits
sometimes nausea
exhaustion

as such, i will be on computer when i can - which hasn't been recently. even with shades it is hard. sometimes no computer no tv only black sock and earplugs.

i want my own room!!!
with FOIL ON THE WINDOWS!!!

i am also having stabbing chest pain
- does not correspond to anxiety (no response to lorazepam).

it is constant/chronic and other sx absent so i would exclude heart or resp. issues. plus, it happened while starting on lower dose, then remitted. It IS listed in Wellbutrin pamphlet. very strange.

what else. oh

thoughts racing sometimes a lot making it difficult to concentrate.

==========
MED PLAN:
==========

i'm upping my Depakote to 1 gram.

1. that will eventually help with migraine prevention/intensity.

2. If enzymatic inhibition is stable, it will also counter activating sx (racing thoughts).

BUT

if this does not resolve racing thoughts
- OR, regardless -
if chest pain does not resolve

I will suspend Wellbutrin.

VENT:

i hate drug mfrs for farting their stupid xl formula abroad sans the other kinds so pts cannot titrate like should. all the side effects still make miserable 2 months, compare to not miserable 2 months, used for decent titration! xl has most issues than both other formulas combined probably from complaints i've heard on internet. terrible. should take it off market.

i am less depressed... but disabled by side effects.

there oughtta be a law.

===============

and NOW my head IS churning loose multilingual verbage like a blender. interferes with sleep. can't tell if churning or dreaming or what. big mess of sound and motion pictures HAH!

at times, my context gets "unplugged" and i read words in one language as though in another (and not even my natural ones). To think i am qualified to work as a translator - heh - if i were right now i would take text in one language and spit it out in three ~ intermingled ! Ya, da tripolar translator... requires special socket adaptor.

(see now, with the SR, i could skip a little tiny pill in one day, and "tweak" my dose here and there to avoid this hoohah.)

I WANT MY WELLBUTRIN SR BACK!

if you have advice pls post, i will check back... brain-fry allowing.





~ waves ~

p.s. cuticles still bad, benzo no benzo. wassapoint???

Dear Waves,

Oh Drat! This does not sound good.
The gram of Depakote will help.
Also, I'm not clear. I think you are still on / going back to 150 on the Wellbutrin for the moment . . .
Yes, those would be the two biggies for me too.
Chest pain?! Racing thoughts? I'm so sorry you are going through this.

And exhaustion continues.

I'm not coming up with suggestions right now.
I'm writing and reading your post and thinking.


Mari

I'm sorry that you are having a bad night. Make sure that you tell you Doctor about those Auras with your headaches. Have you stopped any medications recently cold turkey? When I stopped taking Ativan in the hospitol,cold turkey, I had those Auras when I shut my eyes.

I'm sorry that you are going through the rest of it too. I can relate to alot of what your going throught. Those chest pains are hard to deal with. Mine start in the middle of my chest,and last for 4 days,and up to a couple of months.

I understand the scrambled,distorting,tormented mind,with insomnia. It's hard to tell people how bad these type of things are,but it's dreadful,and I understand.

I have these flip down sun glasses for the computer screen when it's to bright when I'm light sensitive. I don't need them to often,but I flip them down when I do.

Hang in there. BF

thanks Mari and BF for posting back to me... i have more to answer, better, probably tomrorow.

Mari appreciate your confirmation of plan.

Friend i am sorry and worried you have chest pain for months? scary. need tol ask you more about that.

today but no migraine but pain bad and now still zonked even after nap.

((( Mari )))
((( Friend )))

goodnight, and thank you both for caring

~ waves ~ wanting to throw in the towel already

Oh Waves I am so sorry to hear this. It really is a bad side effect to be living with.
I wish there were an easy resolution, and you find relieve. You lose precious days with the mess it is causing. Keeping you close in thoughts,
Feel better soon is my wish
Di

Thank you, Di.

Sometimes i feel my days are not precious at all, but more of a burden to those around me. I am not of much practical use around here. I do not take good physical care of myself as i used to much less help others as much as i physically could at times.

As for the preciousness... other times i feel like... see i have kind of a big cosmic view of things... like about God too... my beliefs are not traditional... technically I would be agnostic I suppose, since that is the broadest category. However, i can relate what i believe to a concept of "God" as being a pervasive entity... a universal intelligence... comprising everything, and the ultimate "life force" if you will?

And that means me too, that means somehow if i am here, i am supposed to be, no matter how it feels. Like maybe that feeling has a teaching in it, for me, or for others to witness. I do not know because i cannot see the whole tapestry of life... the entirety of existence. It is beyond what we can know. It is beyond our tiny minds.

We have been taught, i believe, in different cultures, some basic tenets our minds can grasp, ways to see "a face of God" which enables us to discern good from evil. Free will comes in with this discernment. Some agnostics question the existence of good and evil. I have had perhaps too many "magical" experiences" or something, I don't know, and/or it goes back to some subtle Catholic underpinnings. (Indeed when i pray even this varies in form. Yes, I am wacky.)

But as for feelings... the "precious days" lost have become years ... years out of the full time work force. Years of blockage. Years of opportunity of retirement contributions not made, of family not had... of... utter standstill.

I am not sure if i will keep this med. More on that later.

Thank you for caring about me and thinking of my days as precious. Who knows, perhaps they are, even if i do not feel it. Thank you for making me contemplate on this.

~ waves ~

A family member was blunt,and it affects me with pains in my chest. I fealt like I got hit with a medicine ball,right in the middle of my chest,and the whole trunk of my body ached for three days. This was two,or three weeks ago.

It didn't start this way when I was a teenager,but started when I was in my 30's. I had panic attacks when I was a teenager. One time I tried to get off of my medication very slowly,because friends where telling me that it was my medications that was making me feel the way I do. Then after a long time,I felt like I was having a heart attack. I went to my parents house,and they called the doctor,and he gave me a high dosage of a tranquilizer,and the pain went away immediately. It's a different thing in the long run. Doctors don't like to give me a high dosage of that kind of medicine for to long.

When I get that pain,it usually starts in the middle of my chest. Sometimes I have a pain over my heart. Sometimes the pain travels to my back ,and slowly goes up my chest to a point under my left arm pit. When I feel like this,it's hard to do anything. I can break my concentration with a hobby. It takes time for it to stop hurting.

Sometimes it hurts in the middle of my chest,and the left back area,around the upper kidney area,and then it goes up my back to my arm pit,and shoulder area.

Sometimes I feel these jabbing pains in my heart area,but it isn't a heart problem. It's physical pains from anxiety.

I have worn t shirts out around the middle of my chest rubbing the pain area.

Also sometimes my head has so much pressure in it,that it feels very uncomfortable. That to is something that people don't understand unless they have it. Dang! I wish that they could cure it. BF

We where writing to waves at the same time. I hope that you are alright,and have a good weekend. BF

Dear Friend,

Suffering with this type of pain all the time and not just temporarily from side effects is just awful. Now, I am concerned because having anxiety and having heart issues are not incompatible. one could have both. This is my concern.

My goodness, Friend, this is really really really awful. Do you think it is like a PTSD type reaction - is it associated with people being somehow hurtful or insensitive to you? Especially friends or family? Panic attacks can feel just like heart attacks.

HOWEVER

What worries me thought is how long it goes on, and the radiation of pain through the armpit, arm, and back. And if you get upset, that can raise your blood pressure which in turn can cause underlying heart disturbances to manifest with symptoms such as you describe. Now, many heart problems are very simple to manage, so if it you had something wrong and were treated you would feel much better and not be so vulnerable to these episodes.. On the flip side, an undetected and untreated heart issue could become dangerous.

I am afraid of alarming you. On the other hand, I want make sure you are ok and stay that way!

Having anxiety and panic attacks does not mean there may not be heart issues. (You know, like, the "just because i'm paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get me." )

Could you see your GP and discuss this, and request a full cardiovascular workup? That should reveal any issues including past events. S/he should not have a problem ordering the tests for you. Medically, anxiety can be ascribed/dx'd as the cause of similar episodes only after cardiovascular problems are ruled out. Better safe than sorry!

Sooo... Will you see your doc for me? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?

Can you describe this more? Does it hurt, or does it feel like it is being compressed? Are there areas which are more or less affected - for instance is it as though you were wearing a band that s too tight?

I am sorry you have all these issues. I know it is terrible and people really really do not get it at all.



~ waves ~

Dear Waves,

When is the pdoc coming home?
Can I count down the days with you?

M.