Today I will write about a persistent problem that I have due to taking Psychoactive medications: the “fuzzy head.” I haven’t found much on Google about it, so apparently it’s not an extremely common side effect. It’s very difficult to describe.
Basically, it feels like a mild electrical field in your brain. It’s sort of tingly and sort of cloudy, it feels uncomfortable but it’s not quite a headache. It’s not the same as “brain zaps,” which are sharp electric shock sensations people often feel when withdrawing from these medications. It’s more of a persistent hum.
It makes it difficult to concentrate or really enjoy much of anything that you’re trying to do. Every time a dosage of mine is increased, I start getting it, particularly after I haven’t eaten in awhile.
My theory is that my blood is thin from not eating, so the medication has a stronger effect. It has been affecting me all day today, at random intervals. The first time it happened I took a nap, but the feeling was so strong that my sleep was disturbed and shallow. That’s my usual response when I feel
it coming on: I go to sleep so that it will pass. But lately, it hasn’t been working. My sleep at night is worse than usual and when I try to nap during the day the “fuzzy head” won’t let me. So, I’ve been miserable the past few days.
I talked to my ARNP about it (the prescriber of my medications) and she said that the sensation will “go away after you get accustomed to the dosage.” The problem with this statement is that I have been having this problem on and off for over three years now, despite changes in medication. That’s the same thing that she said when I told her about my sleep problems, that they will “go away.”
I don’t really think that problems I’ve had this long will just magically disappear. Erin says I should get insistent with her, and threaten to stop taking the medications altogether, but I don’t think that will work. I also suspect her motives, since she views the medications as a crutch and thinks that I should be without them.
I don’t know what else to say about it other than when I have the “fuzzy head,” it pretty much ruins my whole day and I lay around doing nothing, or sleeping. I don’t know what to do about it and there’s probably nothing I can do, aside from quitting all medications. As everyone knows, that’s usually a bad
decision for anyone with mental problems.
I’ll try to write a “general life update” in my next entry.