Topamax was awful for me and the dozens of people I have talked to about it. My attention span lessened. My ability to focus was gone. I was depressed. I had terrible mood swings and would even have periods of "lost time." I was a completely different person but I didn't attribute it to the medicine. It's difficult for me to see changes in myself. Finally, after years of being on it, a new psychotherapist told me to get my doctor to take me off of it or he would do it himself. That's when I started the research. I still have cognitive issues, memory loss, trouble finding words, etc. But I look back and can see just how badly it affected me. I can't imagine trying to kill myself now! On the plus side, it did control my seizures and kept my weight normal.

Topamax was my only med for ten years and it kept me completely controlled. Side effects were extreme weight loss, numbness/tingly extremities, loss of words. It took about three years for me to start gaining weight back. The tingling extremities stopped shortly after I maxed out. And the loss of words or difficulty finding words went away after a year.

I went off it for 18 months with my doctors approval because all my tests presented clean for five years. When I finally had to go back on it (along with another medication), it has not been as effective. An epileptoligist once told me that it was not uncommon for generalized epilepsy to disappear in your twenties and come roaring back in your thirties.

My doctor called it the "Stupid" pill. I would wash clothes, take them out of the washing machine and dump them right back in! It was horrible! I had to go off of it.

I have taken topamax in the past. I noticed that it really messed with how things tasted to me. I lost a bunch of weight because I didn't like the way things tasted. Everything seemed to taste like metal. It did keep my seizures at bay though.

I was on them for 8 months had bad memory loss and very violent outbursts which were uncontrollable, memory loss was so bad I couldn't even remember my kids birthdays some days after a seizure I couldn't tell who any of my family were luckily I'm now on lamotragine, still having seizures but not as bad but still having some memory loss