Pain in left temple

[Roger108]

About 20 months ago I felt something breakdown in left temple area behind left eye. Ever since then that area feels stressful and painful, and I've also been having symptoms of depression- sadness, crying, difficulty sleeping without pills, etc. It feels agitated and stressed out in the left temple area chronicly since then. I've tried herbs, vitamins, and anti-depressants but they haven't seemed to help. I've had MRI's and CAT's but they say they are all normal. Xanax seems to give a little temporary relief, but not much. The anti-depressants seem tolerable for a few days and then the stress there seems to get worse. I've tried several different ones and the doctors tell me I have to stay on them for several weeks before I'll know if they help, but the stress seems to get worse and the longest I've been able to tolerate any of them is about 7 days.

I was thinking maybe it's temporal arteritis because the stress point is always in the same spot on left temple area. It feels like something broken down there, but so far doctors haven't been able to find anything physically wrong. They say temporal arteritis can cause some symptoms like this and won't show up on MRI's or CAT scans. Wondering if I should have biopsy to see if that's whats causing all this pain and suffering everday. Don't know where to go with it at this point. Any ideas- it's very difficult to live like this with left side of brain shut down everday.
I'd sincerely appreciate any advice you might offer.

Thanks,
Roger  

[Jungfrau]

Roger, Interesting that your father had schizophrenia. No doctor has ever told me there is a connection between schizophrenia and the popping behind the eye that my son had (and John Nash, too, it seems). Keep in mind that schizophrenia is just a label for a collection of symptoms that vary from person to person. Doubt that you will experience "schizophrenia" as it is normally something that happens to men between 15 and 25, though there are exceptions. My son is doing very well. He's 27 now, pretty much back to normal in most ways. I have done a lot of research into how to help him get over his condition. One thing you might want to consider (don't laugh!) are non-drug therapies. There are a lot of cutting edge therapies that have to do with consciousness and out-of-body experiences. (My son has had several which helped him enormously.) Check out the NY Times article about depression and LSD. Researchers are seriously looking into LSD now in clinical settings to help people with mental health problems. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html?pagewanted=all There are more ways than just LSD to achieve out-of-body states, such as sound and light. http://www.theeternities.com/index.php/7-news/70-graham-hancock-on-ayahuasca My son's came about through a specific type of sound therapy. Be forewarned. Your psychiatrist will be against this so-called nonsense.

[Roger108]

Yikes! My father had schizophrenia. But I'm 52 years old when this happened. Doesn't that usually occur when you're younger. My father was about 30. How is your son doing now?

My psychiatrist has never said I have schizophrenia. She says I have clinical depression.
Thanks for help.
Roger

[Jungfrau]

Roger, I am going to freak you out, but here goes. My then 17 year old son felt a "pop" in the area of the temple or perhaps over his eyebone. I  can't remember exactly, which is rather critical for you. He got a piercing pain in his head which ended as soon as the plane landed. Repeated visits to the doctor revealed nothing. He complained of an inward pressure in that area and had headaches for months, which eventually went away. Fast forward a number of months. He developed schizophrenia. If you have seen the movie "A Beautiful Mind" you will notice that John Nash keeps touching his temple or eye area before he came down with schizophrenia. My son underwent an MRI at the time of diagnosis which revealed nothing unusual. You obviously have mental health symptoms of something. My sincere suggestion is to google Dr Abram Hoffer and start taking the supplements he recommends for schizophrenia (I take them myself for increased mental focus). I wish I had known about this back then. The supplements he recommends are niacinimide, vitamin C, zinc, omega 3 and a B complex. Take the supplements religiously as instructed. You will need more niacinimide than most people, probably in the order of 3 to 4 grams per day to start. There is nothing to lose as the niacinimide has side benefits such as clearer skin and huge increase in mental focus. Good luck!