Hi...

[sinke]

i have diagnose with epilepsy since i was 15.since then i used many medications and none helped me fully. now i'm 29 and i'm on lamictal & depakine. I'm very depressive. everything can make me cry, i feel very lonely and when i come to my sense after seizure i have a feeling that today is last day of my life.i started to write, and when i see what i wrote, everything is so depressive... but good lyrics...to me anyway. eeg shows higher amplitude in frontal part... sometimes left frontal side, sometimes right, sometimes both.I like smoking pot, and that is one of the two things that makes me smile and forget about this world and problems. still have seizures, living in this kind of world... but that kind of depression... i'm very affraid... love u all

p.s. can anyone tell me anything about seizures and medical marijuana?

[Loopy Lou]

Medical marijuana?

Wow... my big brother smoked pot and ended up schizophrenic and extremely paranoid and aggressive.

Not a doctor here, but it may be making your seizures worse. Maybe you should bring it up with your neurologist.

Anyhoo apart from that it sounds like you're having a tough time, but if you're looking for help i think this is the best site.

Welcome to the site!

[sinke]

Seizures and medical marijuana

my fiance has had seizures on and off for about 6-7 years now, beginning when she was 16. They began immediately when she began puberty and was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. The first medicine that she was prescribed was depacote, one of the more common anti epilepsy drugs. Because the medication was not controlling tremors even though it was controlling seizures, the doctor boosted the dose up multiple times until it reached a toxic level and she had to be taken off of it. The next medication that was tried was lamictal, with devastating results, she became extremely angry and manic and began throwing things at one point, because she was psychotic and she had to drop out of school. she also had so many different side effects from the lamictal that she

After lamictal, she was put on kepra, which was working at first, but then she had an unexplained seizure and was put on an overdose of it. The doctor that she had at this point was extremely irresponsible and fiquired rather than changing medications the doctor uped her dose to a near toxic level again. She then became suicidal, homocidal, manic, depressed and had insomnia. her best friend then took her to a doctor and the doctor whom was biased would not believe that she had epilepsy and her medication was making her act like this and they claimed that she was just a college student who had overdosed on drugs which was b.s. After lamictal, she switched to kepra which was yet another medication that her irresponsible neurologist raised to a near toxic level to the point where she was taking 12 pills a day just for seizures, so they changed her meds to tegratol which just caused more seizures.

After having 7 unexplained seizures in one day, she was switched to Topamax after being put in the hospital. Topamax made her completely out of it. She could not think or remember anything even her own name. She was extremely vulnerable and couldn't understand anything and was confused to the point of dysfunction for months. She had to drop out of shcool as she couldn't do anything school related. Even after normalcy started to come back, she could barely read or remember information, had trouble speaking and putting words together, which continued for the whole time she was on topamax. Topamax not only caused extreme stupidity, but also stomach problems, hearing/speech problems, headaches, diarrhea, sickness,depression, fatigue and insomnia so she had to offset these syptoms by taking more and more pharmaceuticals like anti-depressents and sleep medication. Finaly after a year or two of taking topamax and being in a permanent haze she decided to switch medicines because the side effects of topamax were unbearable.

she is now on zonagram, which has a few subtle side effects but nothing when compared to topamax. Although she had no seizures on topamax, it was too hard to functon in life on it. Well the point of this is that there has been one miracle medication that has worked for her everytime she feels seizure brain activity and keeps her mood calm enough to not have seizures, and that medication is marijuana. For her epilepsy marijuana has been a godsend. Ever since she started smoking it regularly she has not had a seizure and it has kept her seizures at bay when she misses doses of her regular medications. suprisingly it is much much much more easy for her to lead a functional life while high on marijuana, than the extreme intoxication that topamax, lamictal, etc. brings.

I have read that marijuana prevented seizure activity but never believed it before. but now i am convinced. When she was having seizures she was not using marijuana, and then her doctor suggested it because it is a known alternative to people whom normal epilepsy meds don't work for, and once she found high grade marijuana, her seizure syptoms anf seizures dissapeared almost immediatedly even though she was on the same prescriptions. And when she stopped marijuana, the symptoms that precede seizures began to return. so to anybody out their that doubtd the healing power of cannabis, you are living in a closed minded world of pharmaceutical industry prpaganda. Even though medical marijuana id not legal for seizures it should be it has saved people from seizures.
By seizur... at Sat, 12/31/2005 - 10:11am


and loopy, by the way
30% of schizophrenic are in mental hospital because they are on higher level on evolution scale then most of the people living on this planet so they cannot understand these people and the easiest way is too put them away in some institution and put them on medications so they cannot function

i asked doctor and he said only alcohol not to drink

thx 4 welcoming

P.S. marijuana aggressive... i c u don't now nothing about marijuana so i advise u 2 inform about it before telling that he became schizophrenic and extremely paranoid and aggressive because of it

[Loopy Lou]

I know enough to know that it's illegal for a reason.

And also, what you said is exactly what my brother and all his pothead friends said too.

Do not insult my intelligence *leaves thread*

[sinke]

didn't insult your intelligence.from where did u get that?
i just say u know nothing about it
reason why is illegal- if u know it... please tell me

here watch this please 20/20 - Bailouts & Bull**** Pt. 3 of 6... write it on youtube
and dont be angry because of what i wrote, nothing bad
by the way say hi 2 whole ireland, love that country... wanted 2 ask u if i come will u be my guide

[Loopy Lou]

Ok, perhaps i was a little defensive there. And as you may have noticed, i'm completely anti drugs. Of the illegal sort.

I've never heard of marijuana being legally used for medical purposes. If doctors said that here then they'd probably be struck off.

The reason that i said about my brother is that he smoked pot for years and years. When he started having psychological problems thats immediately what was assumed caused it.

He cuts down on the pot, symptoms fade. Scientists have done a lot of work on the effects of certain drugs and it's well known that marijuana causes mental problems. Just because i don't smoke it doesn't mean i don't know about it. And i wanted to add that while i have my opinions on this, it isn't an attack on you personally.

But i digress. And Ireland is a lovely country. I should go home again soon, but need to get my epilepsy sorted soon.

[sinke]

Davenport-Hines: "The Pursuit of oblivion" :

In Great Britan in one year 100.000 people die from tobacco, 30.000-40.000 from alcohol, 500 from paracetamol, from heroin and other inhaling drugs combined 150


from marijuana none died... ever
scientist by the way didn't prove nothing about marijuana and mental problems or they gave false report
every person has the right to think and decide 4 themself
u have good movie... it is called The Union: The Business Behind Getting High
and you'll see what scientis did .you can check on imdb what is about and how is rated
but this is forum about something else so...

peace

[Meetz1064]

smokey. Please remember this IS a house party!

Now, I HAVE heard of one or two cases of seizures being helped by medical marijuana. Up in Canada, I believe. BUT, marijuana's main ingredient, THC, is NOT known to be a key anti-epileptic preventive. It DOES occasionally work on a few people, though.

The most common form of seizure prevention is, of course, anti-epileptic drug's. Diet is also quite helpful (there are multiple kinds to choose from), and doctors are now beginning to take note of that.........seriously. Perhaps that is something that should be considered here, too.

Topamax does have a nickname of DOPE-A-MAX for a reason.......much like what you described. I WILL tell you that when I mixed Lamictal and DepaKOTE (VERY similar to Depakene) there were some serious issues. I had to be taken off both to try and sort things out........if I remember right, the Depakote/Depakene will raise the levels of the Lamictal.

BTW, Sinke, I want to welcome you to CWE. Feel free to check out the different rooms such as the Library and the Kitchen....and the Padded Room is great for venting when you need to.

Mr B, our host has built us an AWESOME home here, so please feel free to kick up your heels and check things out.

And don't forget to start a seizure journal if you haven't already!!!

Take care,

Meetz


PS, There are several other things E patients should NOT be doing besides drinking alcohol
One is going swimming by yourself, cooking by yourself, taking a bath/shower without someone around, horseback riding, driving is also an issue, too...... Trust me, there's more....

[sinke]

yeah... what u say: The most common form of seizure prevention is, of course, anti-epileptic drug's
I do not have patience 4 doctors & their drugs anymore, doctors(many of them) tried all sorts of drugs on me in my 15 years career with epilepsy and none helped, some made it worse... so now i'm trying to find some alternative methods

and that smokey thing... i don't know what u wanted too say with that but it doesn't sound nice, it sounds like a word from someone with lots of prejudice

thx 4 information about depakin influence of lamictal

i don't want to write seizure journal because i don't want to think about it when i'm ok

and of those things swiming and taking a bath, always is someone arround, my father asked me if i want to drive when i was 18 but i rejected because of seizures, 4 me that is first thing people with E shouldn't do, never had a chance to ride a horse(would like that very much )... i only cook by myself sometimes

peace

[Meetz1064]

Sorry, sinke.

No offense intended by the okey dokey smokey statement. It's just something my dad used to say to us kids when he was trying to break things up, that's all. No biggie. No prejudice or anything intended.

Later,

Meetz


PS. I did forget to add that there is another alternative, called neurofeedback. Have you looked into that? One of the super moderators here, RobinN, does it at home with her daughter, too. It simply teaches the brain how to rewire itself, with some work on the part of the patient.

Here, follow this link. It should help:

NEUROFEEDBACK

[sinke]

thx i will look whats it about

when i click link it says Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms

i'll look on google about it

[Meetz1064]

I must have done something wrong........

Try just going to the very first page of the forum, and look at all the tags there at the top of the page. The very biggest one IS neurofeedback. Click on it, and it will take you through to what I meant to direct to....

Hmmmmmmmm *scratching head and walking away*

[Meetz1064]

I fixed it for you, Sinke. Look at the previous post again, and try clicking that link instead.

Man, am I embarassed.....*shaking head*

[KellyD]

Welcome to CWE sinke. I'm sorry that you are having difficulty with your seizures and depression. I hope that you are able to find something that will work for you. I don't know anything about medical marijuana for any condition, I have heard of it being prescribed in what I would assume to be rare cases for terminally ill patients (such as AIDS and cancer sufferers) to aid in pain relief only, when all else has failed. I also know that my brother in law has been a heavy pot smoker for years and he also has epilepsy and is on high levels of 2 medications but is still prone to seizures, it is believed that his marijuana use is not only the cause for his ongoing seizures but also his diagnosis of epilepsy. He was only diagnosed at age 27, there is no family history and no known cause for what causes his seizures, all his scans and tests were clear. You can draw your own conclusion from that information, I'm not going to preach to you my beliefs or offend you for yours. I have a lot of other personal stories on marijuana use and the effects on users but I don't feel they are really relevant here. I may have misunderstood what you said and please correct me if I'm wrong but it appears that you are already using pot and you still have seizures, if this is the case then you may have already answered your own question on it's effectiveness for your seizures. And while I'm glad it helped your fiance I would be concerned of the long lasting possibly irreverseable effects it may have had on her health. Have a look into the alternative methods with diet and neurofeedback that are listed on this site, RobinN is a big advocate on the more natural methods of seizure control so I'm sure she will have plenty of good advice for you. Best of luck.

[RobinN]

I did not join in this conversation, as I have no experience with med mj, and prefer to stay away from this.
What has helped my daughter is making considerable nutritional changes. It continues to be effective, and with the addition of neurofeedback to support and train brain function, she is on the way to recovery. The quality of her life is greatly improved over the past two years. It was not a quick fix, nor did we numb her along the way. Her seizures continued, and yet in my journal there is evidence that there is increasing seizure control. She admits how much better she feels.

I highly suggest that you take a look at some of the nutritional plans that are proving to be effective for seizure control.

[AmyMelissa]

hey, i dont know about medical marijuana and this is now prfesiional or medical advice but i have found that when i am having a very bad week and have a couplde more seizures than normal if i smoke say 1 joint a day for 3 days i wont have a seizure for a few weeks, its just normal weed i smoke nothing special. however....... some people it has negative effcts on and can make it worse so make sure you never do it alone... and build up graduallyx x x

[sinke]

to kellyd

i was diagnosed with 15 and start smoking with 21 so... as u said 'You can draw your own conclusion from that ', Pot that i smoke is probably not medical but it doesn't have effects on my health problems, and in these medical shops, they must give u right staff and dose it...
it's not my fiance, i found that article on net and her diagnose is very similiar with my case, that is the reason why i ask...
and talking about irreverseable effects on health... i think we should all be affraid of medications that we are using...

[sinke]

robin
thx for suggestion

[KellyD]

I agree, I hate taking medication and I hate medicating my baby which is also why I can't understand why anyone would risk their health in any way when I would do absolutely anything to take this diagnosis away from my son.

Sorry I misunderstood about who you were speaking about. I was just offering what I knew.

[sinke]

what do you mean with 'risk their health'?