[Research] The Correlation between Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Dissociative Identity Disorder

[occb]

I have been to therapy with some pretty perceptive psychologists.

I have never suffered time losses consistent with DID. I've never forgotten how I got somewhere, or where I got something, and I've never been addressed by any other name.

The only time I was ever told I behaved in a way I couldn't remember was when I had been drunk -- I stopped drinking two years ago, and no longer get told that.

Additionally, my sexual abuse, while troubling to me, wasn't of the level of repetition and severity that is associated with DID.

As I said before -- I can remember the instances when I've met the person, just not the person. I can often repeat our conversation back to them fairly accurately, but I always appended it with the question, "that was you?"

I read once that emotional connection plays a part in your memory of people, and perhaps it's a lack of an emotional connection that hampers my remembering them?

[Cinnabar]

"Billy-Me
Christopher-A Catholic Boy
William-The reflection of me"
There are other names as well, but I'll stop there.

What did it mean at that time?

It's DID.

Billy, it could mean a number of things. I would suggest keeping a journal of your thoughts. Write these kind of things down. I know your first concern is seeing your neurologist but in time you might want to explore this particular question with a psychiatrist of pshychologist. There are also plenty of books out there which address DID. You could see if any of the symptoms match up. And thank you for providing the links. I still have one of them to go through.

[Cinnabar]

Once in a while I still have a bout of depression, but not like it once was. I think part of it was the seizures, part was the marriage and part was life in general.I felt sooo alone. And I have the VNS, so that helps, too. As for the aphasia, when I hesitate when speaking, that's when I can't find the word.

No wonder depression back then. Seizures and then a bad marriage and with children figuring in the picture, it must have been very difficult. I'm glad the depressions are just bouts, though of course I wish you didn't have them at all just like I wish I didn't have them.

I can understand how having aphasia can aggrivate you. Believe it or not I am sometimes at a loss of words. I don't know if it's an absent seizure but I'll be on the phone with my friend, Steve, and he'll say "Laurie, are you there?" And I can't quite remember what he was saying. I get in a word and he says "I used to never get in a word edge wise with you. You're so different now". Yep. I am.

[Billyboyboo]

Have you looked into the possibility of DID with a trusted therapist? They have a set of questions they ask you out of the Physician's Desk Reference that can help pinpoint a diagnosis of DID.

I have been diagnosed with a Dissociative disorder.

Billy.

[Molly97]

I have been diagnosed with a Dissociative disorder.

Billy.

And does the empirical evidence, also called your life as you know it, support that in your opinion?

A sound diagnosis is the first step. Then working through the events that caused the DID follows.

I'm proud of you, Billy, for talking about it openly with us.

[Cinnabar]

Billy, I applaud your bravery for discussioning your Dissociation. That's why we became friends in the first place. Your openess and then mine brought us together in a solid bond! We all have to gather together and dispell the stigma of Dissociation along with Epilepsy. And remember we are dissociative as a result of Epilepsy. We have been learning allot this week!

Here's to our friendship! and oatmeal!

[Nakamova]

For those interested in reading more about how the brain constructs a "self", I can recommend "Into the Silent Land" by Paul Broks. One of its chapters is called the Seahorse and the Almond -- because hippocampus is Greek for seahorse and amgydala is from the word for almond. I like to imagine a seahorse and an almond floating around in my brain...

[Cinnabar]

Into the Silent Land

[page 19, 20] I have a memory of being with my son when he wa four years old. It is deep winter. We have to go out, so we leave the warmth of our house for the freezing night air. There are few lights in the village and the sky is full of stars. We are hardly beyond the front door when he starts coughing.
"Are you all right?"
"It's okay," he says, "I think I just swallowed some dark."
He has the notion that darkness is a substance. It will make you choke if you swallow too much in one go.

http://www.doyletics.com/arj/intothes.htm

Nak, He is my kind of writer!!! What a clever, magical, meaningful excerpt. Always what I aim for as a writer. I'll be getting this book because he does address the "I" astutely from what I've just read in the review.

I like to imagine a seahorse and an almond floating around in my brain...

I would like to imagine it too (seriously) but as we've discussed, there's not that much room in my brain. Pretty crowded and my people would probably eat up all the almonds. But it would make for an interesting painting!

[Cint]

For those interested in reading more about how the brain constructs a "self", I can recommend "Into the Silent Land" by Paul Broks. One of its chapters is called the Seahorse and the Almond -- because hippocampus is Greek for seahorse and amgydala is from the word for almond. I like to imagine a seahorse and an almond floating around in my brain...

Another book, "The Root of Thought" ~by Andrew Koob, talks about brain damage, astrocytes, glia cells and describes the hippocampus as the generator of the brain.

And, if anyone is interested in brain surgery, another book I can recommend is "Conversations With Neil's Brain".

[Cinnabar]

Years ago after my diagnosis of DID I read the autobiography by Truddi Chase titled "When the Rabbit Howls" and just broke down in tears. Here Oprah interviews Trudi Chase in 1990. They touch on "nothing" close to the horrors Truddi Chase had to endure which caused such fragmentation, but you can see by Oprah's reaction that she knew more than was disscussed in the interview.

Ms. Chase eventually went on to college after years of therapy and got her degree in the arts and has become successful artist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<obje...mbed></object>

[Cinnabar]

Cindy, I know you're an avid reader of books pertaining to the workings of the mind so thank you for sharing two of the many books you have read and studied.

[Cinnabar]

Some information about hippocampal and amygdala volume in patients with and without Dissociative Identity Disorder. (amygdala is the mass of grey matter in front of the temporal lobe.) Here we have scientific proof where Dissociative Identity Disorder is evident through scientific testing.

Method: The authors used magnetic
resonance imaging to measure the volumes
of the hippocampus and amygdala
in 15 female patients with dissociative
identity disorder and 23 female subjects
without dissociative identity disorder or
any other psychiatric disorder. The volumetric
measurements for the two groups
were compared.

Results: Hippocampal volume was 19.2%
smaller and amygdalar volume was 31.6%
smaller in the patients with dissociative
identity disorder, compared to the healthy
subjects. The ratio of hippocampal volume
to amygdalar volume was significantly
different between groups.

Conclusions: The findings are consistent
with the presence of smaller hippocampal
and amygdalar volumes in patients
with dissociative identity disorder, compared
with healthy subjects.

http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jd...rs/DID_MRI.pdf

[Swirledhead]

Hi. I only found this website because I did a search for 'temporal lobe epilepsy dissociative identity disorder'.

I have had temporal lobe epilepsy since I was a baby. I only very recently have begun wonder if DID is also a possibility. I was really surprised when my search provided results!

Right now, this is disruptive for me. I am scared to seek help, though, because I'm a disabled single mother. What would happen to my kids if I were dxed with DID?

[Zoofemme]

Okay...I will put this all out there and get it all said. I feel comfortable enough here and maybe it will help somebody out in the long run, who knows. My husband has tried to get me to write it all down but there are gaps and when it gets to personal I freeze up but I'll generalize it.

I was mentally, physically, verbally and sexually abused as a child. A sure recipe for having a lot of problems as an adult. I was also raped by a neighbor and mentally, verbally and physically abused by an ex-husband. I dissasociated when I was a child. This did not become apparent until I was in my twenties. I knew I had black-outs or gaps when I didn't remember or recall things but I just attributed it to partying and such. I use to keep journals though. When I wrote in them I never read what I wrote...just stream of consciousness stuff unloading all of my thoughts...once a journal was filled up it went in a box. When I was in the military I was taken aside by one of my bosses and made aware that I was behaving strangely...like I was two different people. On several occasions i wouldn't anser to my name, my demeanor changed, etc. At a later date, this person took me aside and had my journal in his hands and made me read it...it was written by two different people. To make a long story short, it was apparent this other person hated me with a passion and there was some concern over my mental health. I was sent home on leave for awhile where I learned my mother was aware of these "odd periods" in my behaivior but she thought I was just going through a phase.

I saw a therapist for awhile and the dissasociative episodes went away. I had no PTSD which amazed the therapist nor did I have "issues" other than the disassociation stemming from my childhood.

I married that boss mentioned above though. He is also the ex-husband mentioned further above. He used my disassociation against me and nearly had me convinced I needed to commit myself. He turned out to be...something other than what I expected. In turn I disassociated again...you use the survival technique most familiar to you I guess. I fought myself this time though. I could keep track, especially since he would tell me when I did it and I would read what i wrote. I forced myself back into one unit and I divorced that man. I have not disassociated since then (over 15 years).

I told all this to the psychiatrist the neurologist sent me to when I started having seizures since the neurologist said they were psychogenic or PTSD. I AM WHOLE. The psych hypnotised me to see if he could bring that other side out. I had no hippocampal shrinkage. No PTSD. No anxiety. The abuse I suffered was not my fault and I have always known that; you just can't fight someone whose bigger and stronger than you are. The only clinical depression I've suffered was from my seizures turning my life upside down.

Now I will say this...maybe it was different for me because in the end I did fight and win in all instances of my abuse. I stopped the childhood abuse myself. I finally did get big enough to say "No more or I WILL hurt you". I immediately told on the neighbor who raped me. I walked away from the ex-husband once I dug my way out from the mess he made of my head.

So how is that suppose to help? I look at it like this, if you own it, that means you control it and so much of this is about control or lack thereof. If you control it, it empowers you and that is a thing that can do miracles

Sorry its kind of disjointed...tried not to get too verbose, lol.

[Nakamova]

Zoofemme, what an unpleasant (to say the least) journey you've had. I'm constantly appalled by what one human being will do to another. And I'm in awe of the resilience of folks like you that allows them to survive, recover, move on.

[Bernard]

So how is that suppose to help?

You might find this thread of interest too.

Emotional trauma stored in the body

[Zoofemme]

Thank you Bernard. Actually, I grasped at that in the beginning. Even though it made me angry that the neurologist said my seizures weren't real it would've at least gave me a reason for them and something I could tackle to make them stop so I could get on with my life. I think this would have been a far easier coping mechanism for me than what I have gone thru. I'm not inhibited with a therapist. I lay it all out there and then sift and sort thru the mess. I pay good money for the service and think it is not cost-effective to hold things back. I didn't always think that way...I use to think if I went to a therapist that meant I was crazy, lol.

For anyone who is going thru DID my empathy know no bounds.

[molson]

Very interesting the The Correlation between Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Dissociative Identity Disorder. Having been in treatment for Dissociatitive disorder for two years after which Isuffered a grand mal seizure after this the doctors stated that there was no tie between them and after 5 years of medications not working I had seizure surgery which stopped the manifest events but I have to wonder if the real cause still exists. i believe that the relationship of scientific explanation has severed the (soul)mind/body. Menninger wrote about the mind body connection in his works. Neurologist now only see the physical manifestations of seizures and disown the psyche. "material causes without a soul". there has been writings about dostoyevski and seizures and dosteoyski and dissociative disorder. My Neuropsychologist does not believe in any relationship between dissoicative and seizures, they are both real for him but separate. I do not believe this.\ I have read Crime and Punishment. has anyone read Hunger by Hamsun(nobel prize writer). It reminds me of crime and punishment and may be have something to say to others like me.

[stilldancing_98]

I love Crime and Punnishment it's one of my favorite books. My brother also lived in Russia and and gave me his book with his school out lines from Russian studies. I think they are all related in this instance. I have had a very difficult life. I had a life a lot like you Zoofemme. And to me speaking out is my way of healing. My epileptologist understands this. And he saw my black eye when I was married. But I have moved on. I do believe it is soul mind and body.

[RainbowBrite]

This is a very interesting article. I happen to have DID and was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy last year. I do wonder about the connection between the two, I think that abuse does have an effect on the functioning of the brain. Thanks for posting this!!