Depression Worsens.

My physical problems, including pain in neck, head and other joints also affect what I can physically do to help my depression though not as bad as yours sounds to be.I really feel for you!!

Onward,

Imagine a white hot railroad spike driven into your brain behind your temple/eye for 45 minutes to 3 hours. Being a Chronic sufferer, I get no Seasonal or months-long breaks like most afflicted. I get hit about 5-8 times a week and I cannot use the most common, most effective treatment for curtailing Attacks - breathing pure Oxygen. I am incapable of breathing deeply enough for long enough for it to work.

Thank you for your words of concern.

Dave.

Fizzyo,

I am sure your, and other's, physical issues are just as draining as mine. That is why we need each other in this Community of ours. The support I receive here and at our Sister Site, NeuroTalk, is what keeps me going and is more than I get in the Real World.

I do appreciate your kind words and hugs.

Dave.

We have so much in common! I get cluster headaches too though not as continuously as you; it's sort of seasonally triggered for me and can last for up to around 9 months, but I do get breaks. Topiramate was the only thing that ever helped me, but strangely when I was taking anti-depressants at the same time it stopped working for me, and now it doesn't even work for me on its own. Which leaves me a bit stranded. Other prophylactic drugs I've tried either don't work (most everything), or have given me permanent injury via their side effects (depakote! grr.).

I actually get what seems like almost every kind of headache there is, and some trigger the others.. I get tension headaches because of some botched spinal surgery I'll forever be suffering the after effects of, and migraine with aura since I was a kid. Clusters started in about my mid 30s.

It's probably no coincidence that it's only now I've been cluster free for 6 months or so that my last major depressive episode finally had a chance to break. I don't think people that haven't had experience with persistent severe pain can entirely imagine just how much it can impact one's mental and spiritual powers. It really does stack the deck, I feel for you.

Is the topiramate still working well for you?

P.S., Your white hot railroad spike in the eye description is indeed apt.. very similar to how I describe mine to my friends, right before they wince. I always feel badly afterwards, but I'm just trying to be accurate..

Vonmoxie,

I am never happy to hear of another Clusterhead Pleased you are in a lull, long may it continue.

I had to increase my dose of Topiramate this time last year. It has cut my Attacks from constant, up to 5 a day, usually an hour long, to 5-8 a week (sometimes 3 a day, sometimes none). The duration has increased but the intensity remains the same.

One of the positive side effects of the Topiramate is it dulls my constant Neuropathic Facial Pain/Paresthesia and TN by about 25%. The rest of the side effects are terrible, but they get washed out amidst all my other meds.

Dave.