How many of us have had our care providers suggest we have a mental health concern?

Wow,
It's weird. Since starting topamax, I feel like my marriage has improved. Whereas I felt
I was on the brink of divorce, within the last few weeks I've noticed myself letting little things
go more (like wet boots on the floor, and picking up little messes) I used to create huge arguments
over the small things in life and now I let them go, and I'm largely crediting it to the top.

Weird how certain things effect each individual differently.

Sorry everyone has had bad experiences on this preventative, but I'm so happy it's given me a lot
of what I've been looking for. It is controlling my moods, major weight loss (goodbye prego lbs! 25lbs in 2
months), however it has not helped frequency of migraines but has helped with intensity.

Maybe I had a bit of a mental health issue or way too much stress before starting topamax. Who knows?
I feel a lot better now, though.

Before taking certain drugs to deal with the migraines I was confident in front of others and out and about. I had it suggested that I was suffering from stress but I felt in control at least. It has taken me nearly a year to emotionally recover from the complete nighmare of Topmax.

I couldn't trust myself to go out of the house and not have something really odd happen, was totally up and down, and have only just managed to feel worthy of looking other people in the eye again when going out and about.

For months on end I have had to pretend with people that I felt oK, but I was so afraid of the embarrasment of the symptoms becoming evident.

It was suggested that I was suffering from stress, I'm not sure if that counts for the purposes of the survey.

Not being able to see well or trust where I put my hands, or comprehend health forms and benefit forms that needed bank details drove me to the lowest point I have ever been in my entire life.

I begun to shake when the post arrived on the doormat, afraid of what I was going to have to comprehend and thinking that I was going to lose everything because i didn't understand what they were saying.

Looking back it was a natural response to a really bad situation. But I am aware that it could be drawn from in my medical files in the future if someone is looking for mental health issues for any reason.

I think we really should be wary of some of these drugs. We have I hope come out of the decade where they prescribe antidepressants like sweeties, myself having being prescribed a drug in my teens when a relative died - the same drug turned up later to be linked to young people comitting suicide.

I think doctors are too quick to blame a psychological problem when the patient is very probably undergoing a natural response to the situation that they are in.

I once sat at work talking to a group of female colleagues, and we got onto Doctor's responses to some various ailments we had. All of us had had it suggested that we were at least over stressed and possibly slightly neurotic, hormonal.

I find it frightening how what could be a normal response to a bad situation or indeed medication reactions can get put on your medical helth record as a mental health issue.

Di

In response to Di above, I had the exact same reaction to Topamax. I think we are being way over medicated, and I'm sure some are dangerous. After Topamax, I gave up preventatives. As long as my abortives work, I would rather just deal with them as they come along. Topamax for me was like being in the Twilight Zone. It was a nightmare. I could have easily been diagnosed as having mental problems if I would have stayed on that.

As far as anti-depressants and other "mental drugs" I think they are all over prescribed also. It is normal to be depressed, anxious, "bi-polar" sometimes. People want a magic pill to feel 100% at all times. I know there are people that are clinically depressed and have other problems that are physiologic and medications can be beneficial for them. I don't think the majority of people on these medications actually need them though and are being labeled unnecessarily. They are told they are depressed within minutes of seeing a doctor. ??? Impossible to diagnosis this quick. Then they believe it.

As for this survey (by the way, it is interesting), I don't think we (migraineurs) are diagnosed with mental problems any more than anyone else. It would be interesting to see how people without migraines answered. I bet hundreds of them also are being told they have mental problems. It is really disturbing the amount of medications that are being given to children. If they aren't like everyone else, they are labelled ADD, depressed, hyperactive, etc, etc.. Get this one. My son was diagnosed as having a behavior disorder and was prescribed medication. What he needed was a kick in the butt, not pills. I tossed them in the garbage along with my Topamax.

When I first developed symptoms but before I got an initial diagnosis, I would often get panicky from the extreme symptoms. My doctor suggested I might have an anxiety disorder, likely an atypical panic disorder - atypical because the symptoms would last 24 hours or so while panic attacks are usually relatively short. That was fine by me, as I knew panic attacks were often very treatable and I'd do anything to feel better - psychologists, drugs, whatever, I didn't care. So he prescribed Xanax for me, It didn't anything for my symptoms, but I did feel less panicky during the episodes, so I guess i was more comfortable.

I was diagnosed as having atypical migraines about a year after that.

Since I got diagnosed, nobody has suggested any psychological disorders.


So I guess I would be a "yes" and "I agree" even though that changed to a "No".