Life in the Boonies

It would be very interesting to hear from someone else out there who has been taking this so-called wonder drug called Topomax. I call them my Stupid Pills. I've been taking them for almost 4 years now. They were prescribed by my Neurologist because I was having migraines every 2 weeks that would last for 2 days.

I had tried EVERYTHING for migraines and nothing worked....until Topomax! I take 125 mg each night before bed and now I rarely have a migraine and if I do, it is mild. Not too shabby, huh???

Well, it's not all that rosie, Rosie. Topomax doesn't come without a few side effects. #1 is plain and simply STUPIDITY. Let's just say it was a very good thing I had quit my stressful, high-paying job because I could not have done it. This stupidity side effect gradually tapers down over time but it never completely goes away. Today, after all this time and after getting a new job that requires my brain to work at about 65% I am asking my Gyno to take me off of them. You ask why I'm asking my Gyno???? Because for the life of me I can't remember the name of my Neurologist....side effect of the Topomax.

Let me just give you some more examples besides not remembering who my Neurologist is. Three years ago I sold our house and my hubby asked me to call and get all of our utilities turned off. I sat there with the phone book for 30 minutes and started crying because I could not remember any of their names. Now we lived in a very small town. There was only one electric provider, one gas provider, one cable company and one phone company. I just couldn't do it.

Another time I was at the grocery store and I wanted 10 pounds of hamburger meat. I started thinking that I couldn't carry a 10 pound package so I asked the butcher to put them in 10, 1 pound packages. We had 3 teenage kids in the house....we never cook less than 2 pounds at a time!!! What a genius!


To quote Jerod Poore from Crazy Meds "Topamax is best known as Stupamax or Dopamax because it turns you into an idjit on drugs. It really is a supermodel drug that will make you skinny and stupid. Your memory will go down the toilet. You will experience mild aphasia, the inability to recall the correct word for something or calling something by a completely bizarre name. Your thinking will become fuzzy. And you had best drink lots of water, because Topamax is not extensively metabolized, is a weak carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, and is primarily cleared by your kidneys, so Topamax will give you a propensity for kidney stones. It gives me a couple small ones a year. I've found that trace mineral supplements and omega-3 fish oils helped to deal with the worst of the cognitive problems like the aphasia and stupid memory tricks I was getting until I hit the correct dosage."

"For the first few months I was taking Topamax (topiramate) the intense and frequent déjà vu I experienced (one of the signs of temporal lobe damage) became jamais vu as the damage to the left lobe was being worked around. Jamais vu means the familiar will seem unfamiliar and out of place. Your stuff may not seem like it's your stuff for a few months. It may feel like people are moving your stuff around when that is not happening. I suggest not dusting to prove that nothing has been moved. Another weird effect is things seeming the wrong size. This will make grocery shopping a real adventure. So you come home with way too many carrots and not nearly enough potatoes, that's life on Topamax for your adjustment period. Really, those bizarre side effects just mean that the Topamax is working. Eventually it all gets straightened out and there's no more déjà vu and no more jamais vu and only French people get to see things in weird ways. "


Anyway....to shorten up a long story, I'm gradually tapering off of them and getting smarter all at the same time! Ooooo Can't Wait!