parent of adult son, recently diagnosed

[www]

Hi to everyone. I am coming here to learn and get support, as a parent of a 22 year old college Senior who was diagnosed last month with E. He has had 3 tonic clonic seizures since the first on December 2, 2009. My first question is in relation to timing of seizures. Do you time a seizure from the beginning of the seizure until the end of the convulsing or do you time it until the point where he regains consciousness?
This has really hit us out of the blue, no underlying reason or history in the family.
I am curious though...he started suffering from extreme anxiety and depression about 6 months before his first seizure. For a young person who is positive, intelligent, pragmatic, all around great guy, this was really weird. Has anyone who was diagnosed as an adult had a similar story...depression and anxiety coming first and then the onset of seizures?

[Crazy Monkey]

Hi WWW

Welcome to CWE

You have definitely come to the right place for support/information/education about epilepsy. Everyone here is very friendly and supportive of each other.

I personally don't have tonic clonic seizures, I have absences, I am sure some of the other guys will be along shortly who are more knowledgeable on tonic clonic's.

Regarding anxiety, from time to time I do feel anxious and have panic attacks, I have had seizures every day since a young age so I know no different so therefore I cannot determine for sure whether they are seizure related.

[skillefer]

Hi www! Welcome to CWE. It's hard to answer your question regarding the anxiety because everyone here is different. For example, I have tonic clonics, like your son, but don't have anxiety or depression. Now, the depression and anxiety may have been precursors of the seizures. For some, hormone fluctuations can trigger seizures..and perhaps that was what was happening to your son. Could have been that there was more stress going on at school too. Don't let yourself or your son think that seizures are the end of his dreams. Many of us here have degrees, graduate degrees, wonderful careers, and families that care for us. Try, instead, to think of epilepsy like asthma or diabetes...a condition that can and should be treated. However, he needs to remember to take care of himself too. That means 7 hours of sleep each night...no cramming. And eating a healthy diet.

As for no family history. Don't be surprised, but many of us don't. If there's any history of diabetes in your family, he definitely should eat abuot 6 times a day and make sure that he lays off of the sugary foods. (Alot of us here have family histories involving diabetes..and diabetes and hypoglycemia can trigger seizures.) Also, he needs to cut back on, or eliminate all of the caffeine in his diet. Yes, this is hard. Heavens, I used to drink 9 cups of coffee a day. The running joke among the other teachers was to tell me that I ought to just carry an IV bag with the coffee in it... But it is possible to quit. That means no coffee, tea, mate, sodas, or energy drinks.

These suggestions are made because the main triggers for seizures among many of us are lack of sleep, stress, poor diet, and too much stimulants like coffee. Hope this helped.

[ceiliclare]

hello,

i'm new here but i think some communication with your sons neurologist would be helpful, that being said, maybe this will be of some help: as for timing my husband times my tonic clonics like this-from the start of the tonic(passing out stage) through the clonic(convulsive stage) this usually lasts between 1-3 minutes. it's never gone on longer than that but we have an epileptologist pen that an be administered if it goes on for more than 5 minutes. Then he waits about an hour to try to rouse me to see if i'm back to baseline(the point where i can understand and communicate, and move about unassisted) getting back to baseline can take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours on average, but i'm usually dopey for the rest of day. I'm sure you'll find lots of info here about contributing factors or seizure triggers. From my own experience I can tell you that my seizure disorder wasn't diagnosed until i started having tonic/clonic ones at age 21, eventhough i had been having petit mal or absence seizures since i was a young child. Hope this helps, best wishes-ceili