Anyone taking anticonvulsants?

[jhsbipolarfnd92]

Hi!

I have been taking anticonvulsants Lithium & Lamictal, for Bipolar disorder for 5 years. I had a serious injury due to hypermobile joints this past year (my hip dislocated and bruised my femur) and I haven't worked since.

I was told to take Ibuprofen at high to maximum amounts for about 6 months. At the end of those 6 months, I was diagnosed with FND after a series of neurological issues that, at worst, paralyzed my legs I still walk with a cane.

Anyway! The important bit. It turns out the anticonvulsant I've been taking, Lithium, mimics FND when at a toxic level in the blood and brain. Turns out the Ibuprofen affects kidney filtration and Lithium is contraindicated- meaning it causes Lithium to go toxic in the blood & brain.

Now, I carry the FND diagnosis w/ Bipolar and I'm struggling to find any physician that will even consider the idea that my neuro issues were/are related to chronic central nervous system toxicity.

My most recent ER trip was following a med adjustment. My most recent ataxic episode was following an accidental, mild overdose.

Anyone out there taking anticonvulsants??

[CAP83]

I would talk to the doctor who subscribes your lithium and other meds. Also stop the high dose of ibuprofen

[jhsbipolarfnd92 in reply to CAP83]

Thank you. I stopped taking the ibuprofen in June and my doctors are all aware of these things. They keep insisting these symptoms are FND rather than considering drug interactions could be occurring. I was hoping someone out there may have run into something like that.

[robin1856 in reply to jhsbipolarfnd92]

Yes, Yes, Yes. I was taking lithium for 15 years, with SSRI AD unknowing of the long term fallout and believing what i was being told while taking it that it was a mood stabilizer that would help prevent the most severe symptoms of previous depressive episodes to be 'smoothed out'. Should have been taken off the lithium/ADs 12-24 months after the depressive episode resolved (which it did) in my opinion. Would have been far fewer neuro-toxins in blood / brain that way. However following a breakdown due to work / home stress of the cognitive issues building up over a number of years later I was prescribed various other ADs and I now have a diagnosis of FND with hypertension (AD causing high blood pressure) extremely poor memory, brain fog, lack of energy, 'numbed', sensory symptoms, temperature dysregulation, extremely fragmented poor quality of sleep, myoclonic jerks "movement disorder", very slow and fragmented speech, and difficult to manage emotional issues which have contributed to a breakdown of family. It is truly awful, often extremely painful (head pain) I feel in constant trauma from the "slow processing of everything" and the inability to control it or understand life, recall things, or initiate actions. I can barely use my phone, literally - head so slowed up. Writing messages like this can take an hour to find the words. It has led to going from a reasonably sociable person with a job in a team, who could follow/understand plan and manage things to some level, to a highly isolated and dependent existence mostly at home (paid for through work sickness scheme thank god) - which in itself creates further loss and pain. I feel terrible for knowing the truth that I am not behaving like a 'dad' for my kids, or setting them up for trauma themselves for not getting the support or seeing.showing how life works instead being 'invalided' - the kids will get a shock - my wife know how to look after little kids and she knows how to process 'to do lists' but she has only a partial grasp of the "survival of the fittest" and my kids will have had minimal lesson thanks to the above, when they leave school. Although 50, I have such difficulty accessing memory that the various life lessons learned in the past seem unavailable - like your internal compass has been completely fogged over, figuratively and physically, also means I don't know how to join in any more - have been going to local drop-in places for homeless, with colourful and sometimes strange characters - I can't speak their language, so I get known as the quiet one. That is also traumatic. If a topic is mentioned I know little of I get 4 or 5 words while others have already talked it through. How much is neurotoxins from lithium / ADs / sleeping tablets / high blood pressure over time it has been a curse not a help. I sympathise.