Hello to all: I have been a long time now fan of science sites like these and I really appreciate there existence.
Anyway, the reason for this post is to tell of myself and my medical history to maybe benefit someone with a similar situation. I am now 34 but when I was around 19 or 20 I had a stroke and lost my ability to talk properly, I could talk but my enunciation was bad and at times I could not even find the correct word or put a sentence together. I still suffer from the latter but thank God the former has been healed. I lost my memory and had great difficulty writing and reading and just overall communicating. I felt like the world was alien to me and I was alien to the world, a sense of disconnect. It was a nightmare and still is but to a lesser extent.
So, presently I am seeing doctors about my problem but finding the proper way and course is not easy. Psychiatrists cannot see inside your head they just take down what you say and prescribe drugs that may or may not help you and you do that until you find something that may work. The problem with this is that drugs have side-effects so you may be complicating things. I think a better step is to see a neurologist to determine what areas in your brain are not or where not receiving blood flow and address those areas of your brain. It is more precise and better than drugging in my opinion. Also I recommend genetic testing because inflammation is a hurdle to recovery and things like food allergies, high histamine levels and other things must be addressed.
Its been a long road but for anyone with brain injuries and problems. I suggest you pinpoint the area of the brain that is affected and see what you can do to rehabilitate that area. Don't take drugs blindly unless that is your only option.
One drug that helped me with my speech problems quite noticeably was memantine. Another thing I noticed was that when I took adderall my speech became worse. I also noticed when I was tired my speech would also be significantly affected. I've taken Vyvanse before and it did not seem to affect my speech but I may need to try that again, perhaps. I've taken methylphenidate and that seemed to affect my speech also. Right now I am taking guanfacine and that helps me with my randomness. I am trying to figure out why my speech is being so heavily affected by these stimulants. I am wondering if the area affected in my brain has healed but its small and when these stimulants are used they diminish all the catecholamines therefore causing my speech problems to return after a while not immediately. When I abstain from there use my hesitancy in speech and organization return. It is a conundrum indeed. It may also be that there is a release of glutamate since the memantine really helps and I believe that is suppose to suppress glutamate, but verify that what I am writing is true please.
With my dementia problems I tend to be a butterfly (very random), notice how a butterfly flies and you will see what I mean, or another metaphor I am like a vine grabbing at this and the other thing. Versus being something like a bumble bee or a bee in general that knows what it is doing and where it is going or a tree that grows in a specific direction and a specific width.
Anyway my current strategy to healing my maladies is finding something herbal or otherwise that will stimulate cell growth in the specific areas that where affected and reducing inflammation. I will do this using ultrasound and perhaps MRI down the line. My goal is to heal with no side effects from drug use.
Edited by valory5, 04 December 2012 - 03:30 PM.
