I am on the the third day of taking it at 25 mg in the evening. I have definitely felt an increased level in dizziness since yesterday. Typically, how long should this last. The klonopin that I take as well helps a bit but a great amount. Thanks for any responses!!!
Well that is a hard question. As the most repeated phrase on here “we are all different” 
With that being said, for me, I was on it for almost a month and it never really went away.
I guess I am wondering if it is worth going up at a slower pace…I was just chatting with a pharmacist who suggested taking it every other day instead. I will consult with my doctor, but I wonder if just starting off at a lower dose or going every other day makes a difference???
I dont think I would go the every other day route. If the dizziness is really bad then cut it in half and titrate up slower.
If its just that the extra dizziness is worrisome and causing more anxiety, then try and relax and stick it out for a few
more days. Personally, my anxiety would probably get the best of me so I would cut it in half. You will be less worried
about it instantly.
I was thinking that…they are tiny pills…will have to get a pill cutter. Hard to tell if it is the anxiety or the discomfort…there were a few days where the dizziness was feeling better, so I guess it is a combination of the two. I will probably start cutting it in half tomorrow and talk to my dr. Thanks for your help!
I don’t quite understand. Are you guys taking this drug for dizziness, and it just causes more dizziness? this seems to be the major side effect. (confused)
It’s a different type of dizziness (just like with gabapentin and other anti-seizure drugs that depress the central nervous system activity).
It’s not MAV dizziness, but it’s because the drug is acting on the nerves in your brain and shifting around the electrical activity - it’s trying to normalize it in your brain.
For this reason, topamax is hard to adjust to it and that’s why many people quit the drug before it’s straightened things out and you get to live a more normal life again without being overly sensitive to everything.
I’m not a neurologist but I’ve done a lot of research on these drugs. I may give topamax another try. Do a search for the drugs you want to try on this site and you’ll find out how varied people’s experiences are, but get encouragement that there are solutions.
Thanks. I would be grateful if someone can describe the differences between the dizziness of MAV and that induced by topomax.
The thing is that, I am not sure I have vestibular migraine, so the question is really whether there is a drug I can try that would give me an idea of whether I have MAV or not.
I think gabapentin was the only drug I tried that immediately helped with eliminating some of the MAV symptoms (dizziness, ear fullness, etc) without dizziness but at a LOW enough dose - go too high on it and you might experience the woozy drunken side effects . See if your dr is willing to prescribe 100mg three times a day of gabapentin, and maybe that will help you right off the bat. I love the medication - I can only go up to 200mg 3 x a day though before I start getting the woozy side effects. But others on this forum have gone much higher on it w/ good effects. It’s individual. I was not dizzy when I took topamax at 25mg to start with btw. It did seem to help but then got some eye side effects that I think are individual to my case… don’t be scared off by me about topamax. Nortriptyline made me dizzier the first time I tried it but the second time I tried it, my body seemed to have adjusted and it worked really well at 10mg taken at night. Good luck with the meds - you just need to give them a shot and see if they work for you. I spent too long trying to heal w/out meds that I ended up wasting like 2 years when I could have been trying to figure out which drug would work for me…