u/Efeuly

Hello everyone.

I'm taking Paroxetin for a week now and was nauseous everyday although I'm taking it with my breakfast. It gets better after 6 hours, but I can't really work because of it. I was taking 10mg and today I will go up to 20mg. I also can't show or tell anything at home because my parents don't know about these meds and my search for therapy. At the moment I'm saying I'm just ill, but I can't do this for weeks. I don't know how long I can keep everything a secret when I feel so nauseous on it that I can't work. Also, I don't want to take anymore time off work.

Please tell me the effects will wear off soon, I'm a little bit desperate.

I just have to rant.

I had pain everyday for the last 4 months. And even before that, there were only a few days without pain, but at least more frequently. 4 months with pain was my longest episode until now. It was mainly manageable pain, but pain nonetheless. Then there was the last week. I had 7 pain-free days. I was just starting to stop being so suspicious if it will come back tomorrow and starting to enjoy it. And then, yesterday, it started again. I thought maybe I'll sleep it off, but of course I didn't. It's still fairly low pain, but my experience is that it will get more and more in just a few days.

It just feels so unfair. 7 days after 4 months of pain is such a short time. On the one hand I'm a little bit relieved I even seem to have some pain-free time at all, I had lost hope because it was such a long pain episode. But experiencing how life could be and then get the pain back so soon is so bitter. I had my neurologist appointment 2 days ago and told her I'm pain-free since a few days, and now my next appointment is in august. I'm trying to stay calm so not to trigger more pain, so maybe it will stay manageable like it is now, but I'm feeling so down. It feels so unfair.

I didn't even enjoy the pain-free days because I had so much going on with my search for therapy. I wonder if the stress from yesterday where I had a first appointment with a therapist (who can't take me because she doesn't have the capacity, but now I have the form to keep searching with hopefully more success) is the cause of the pain. It's so hard. You already have a lot on your shoulders and then on top of that the pain is back.

Just had to rant. My friends don't seem to have the capacity to deal with my problems and all the negativity anymore, and I can't blame them. And my family doesn't really seem to put the effort in to really understand trigeminal neuralgia. I just didn't know where to go except for here because I had the need to talk about my frustrations of having pain again. Not looking for a solution, only for someone to listen to me rambling.

Thanks for reading and hang in there, y'all.

Hello everyone.

I'm currently taking 100mg Lamotrigin, on Thursday I will increase to 125mg (50mg in the morning and 75mg in the evening). I'm taking Lamotrigin because my neurologist said there are less side effects in comparison to Cabarmazepin etc. I had a few side effects (the dry mouth bothered me the most), but over the weeks they got better and were always manageable.

But for weeks and months, my anxiety is through the roof and it doesn't seem to get better. I can't calm my body down, I'm crying nearly everyday and there is always this inner restlessness, this uncomfortable tingling in my stomach, and generally I feel nervous on a level as if I have a job interview in 20 minutes and are not prepared at all, even without a concrete trigger like a doctor appointment (which I'm always scared of) and almost the whole day. I tried breathing, taking more walks, distracting myself, but it all doesn't work, or works only for the moment and once I stop it's so bad again. It's so exhausting and gets me so down.

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with increasing my Lamotrigin over the past 2 months? My next neurologist appointment is in 2 weeks and I should probably tell her about these problems. But I'm scared that she takes me off Lamotrigin. The pain finally starts to lessen, I don't know if it's because the meds finally start working or because of a normal remission phase unrelated to the meds. Either way, I'm scared she will say I have to try other meds like Cabarmezepin. I'm not at all comfortable with the side effects of those. I have problems with panic attacks, and things like feeling drunk, dizzyness and so on are huge triggers for me, and to be honest, I even prefer the TN pain to having more panic attacks.

I'm searching for a therapist because of my mental health issues (namely, the anxiety and panic attacks that I dealt with more or less well on my own until it became a bigger and bigger problem since all this TN stuff got so worse half a year ago), but it's not easy to find one. Or even find the courage to call anyone. I talked to my doctor about wanting to get therapy and even this was so, so hard for me. I know I have to pick up the phone and make the calls to at least get on a waiting list (I'm from Germany, and there aren't nearly enough therapists available here, so the search will be hard). I'm just so exhausted from all of this and I'm overwhelmed where to start and that my parents will be so disappointed when they find out that I want therapy doesn't make it better (they don't think highly of getting therapy because of mental health problems).

I've read that Lamotrigin can cause anxiety. But I wonder if it's the case here, or if my anxiety got worse because of the whole thing with getting diagnosed with a chronic illness at 24, having to take meds for a lifetime (and I hate taking pills, the thought alone makes me so uncomfortable) or having a super scary operation on my brain, and still having pain everyday despite all these doctor visits the past 6 months (even if it slowly starts getting better, it's still frustrating). Also, I have problems with working (because I can't concentrate with everything going on) and my family (that doesn't seem willing to put the effort in to understand TN at all).

So, my question is, does anyone here have experience with taking Lamotrigin and increasing anxiety?

Also, I just had to vent a little bit, so sorry for the long post.