Personality Loss with Chronic Headaches

[BooBoo88]

Hi, I am a 20 year old male with no personal history of depression or chronic headaches. For the last 12 months I have been suffering from chronic headaches. For the first couple of weeks or so it was on and off and felt like my head was going to explode but would only last an hour or two. At the same time it felt like my personality was gradually getting sucked out of me. After then it has been pretty much constant tight pressure ache on the top and the sides of my head feeling as if my brain is to big for my skull that lasts from the moment I wake up to the moment I get to sleep. I feel like I have no personality and find it very hard to socialize with people. I also seemed to have lost my sense of humour. I seem to have a lot of bouts where I just burst into tears and feel like its all too much. I am currently on 150 mg of amitriptyline at the moment which I have been taken for the last couple of months on that dosage with no results. There was one break in my spell of headaches for about a week when i first took amitriptyline last summer. I was only on about 40-50 mg and I was headache free and felt like my old self again. But I foolishly got drunk one night on holiday and the headaches were back and the amitriptyline has never worked ever since. I have been referred to several Neurologist who have tried me on Topamax and Nortriptyline which both have had no affect. I have also recently reffered to see a psychiatrist in the last couple of months who has tried CBT but has not worked. I was just wondering if anyone has ever come across anything like this before? Any help would be very grateful.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

It sounds like you have been well worked up for the headache...I suggest that you see a psychiatrrist who practices dynamic psychotherapy rather than cbt so that you can deal with the developmental problems of your age and identity and get to the source of these personality changes and headaches...its your best bet...

[zack32]

Have you ever had an MRI of your head done? Think back , have you ever injured your head and thought you where ok? Just a thought as I am not a Doctor. I hope you find out the problem and get the help you need. Sometimes brain injuries can cause personality problems. Perhaps a psychiatrist is not what you need.
Do you have a problem with high blood pressure? This can cause extreme headaches as well.

[BooBoo88]

Thanks for the response. I've had an MRI scan done and everything came back fine apart from a minor sinus infection and as far as I know I don't suffer from high blood pressure.