1. SOMA -- I was in a car accident back in '87 and was prescribed soma for whiplash/back pain t.i.d.. Within 10 minutes of taking my second dose, I flopped to the ground. Thankfully, family was around and an ambulance was called. Though I have never experienced "full cataplexy", I imagine soma induced it. I was wide awake! The emt crew kept jamming my sterunm to "wake me up", but all I did was scream to myself -- god, it HURT! LOL. To this day, the worse things that happen are warm fuzzy feelings in my back and arms, weak knees and "piffs" (micro-sleeps), but thankfully never a full-blown attack like '87's. I've tried to find notes on mechanisms, and I have found indirect references to this stuff inhibiting hypocretins, but I'm not fully confident in the source text. Has anyone else used soma? what type of experience did you have?
2. TOPAMAX -- a few years ago, in the midst of the diagnostic process, I was told I had epilepsy (even though EEGs never showed that type of activity
). So i was prescribed this chemical from hell! I lasted a week on it before I refused any more. The best way to describe it's effects was that it amplified all of my complaints -- I was disoriented, always felt like I was falling over and could not formulate words or let alone carry on a coherent conversation. In hind sight, I guess I could say I was in a state of perpetual micro-sleep. Has anyone else used topamax? what type of experience did you have?
