Deja Vu: What's normal and what's not

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Trinity

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A lot of people experience dejavu and don't have epilepsy. DejaVu however, from what I know is related with temporal lobe epilepsy in some instances, so i'm wondering exactly how one can tell what is 'normal' and what is possibly TLE related. I don't have a TLE diagnosis - I am diagnosed as having generalised seizures only but in recent years have wondered if i've been having smaller seizures. After speaking with the nurse educator at Epilepsy Action we both believe these events (non dejavu related events) may be simple partials and may point to TLE. In light of that i've thought of the various times when i've had dejavu - I get it A LOT in my dreams. How do I know if this is something that might be related to my E and what I should just ignore as normal everyday dejavu.
 
Red flags would be the frequency of the deja vu events, plus the degree of disconnect from reality. If you are positive that you recognize a particular place, whereas the facts are equally clear that you've never been there before in your life, then that's a sign your brain is playing powerful tricks. If this makes you confused on a regular basis then seizures may be the culprit.

On the other hand, don't worry about deja vu episodes in your dreams -- that's one of the things that makes dreams... dreams.
 
When I had the smaller seizures the Deja vu event was really intense, and was accompanied by a sudden rush of emotion, I could also feel when it was about to happen. It's actually a really bizarre experience. I think it's common for people who have smaller seizures not to realize, because the experience is so difficult to explain.
 
I have had several day time seizures before a gtc sitting on the computer. So I take a lorazapam and it stops. Somtimes I just have one anyway. Sometimes I get them around loud music, flashing lights. So now before I go out I just take a lorazepam and I am safe. Doc. knows I tell him everything.
 
I have temporal Lobe E. -

EVERTHING will seem like I have like this all happened before. the place, people, conservation. etc.

I can be a place that I have in fact been MANY time, and with people I've seem before. etc

But It has come on when I am in a NEW place, new people.

The words of conservations - it's like I know (ahead of time) what the words are goning to be. It is scary for me. Because I know to get to a place, a seizure is coming, and it comes on SOON.

I was stare, I will hear the people around me, I will know where I'm at, I will also smack my ligs.

Sorry, I might have given more details than you wanted.
 
Wow, reading this thread has really changed my opinion of myself a bit.

I have had such bad de ja vu for years, it really gets to me sometimes as it rattles my brain a bit but I tend to get it even more when I'm stressed or tired - it never seems to relate to my seizures though as I get it so much!

I thought I was just going slightly insane. (as you may be able to tell I don't have anyone to talk to about epilepsy and as far as I've always been aware I have it, and that's all I get. I don't even know about partials or anything :()
 
I hope that you ware under the care of nerur. If not please find one.

there could all likes of deja vu, I don't know.

this is what I experience, and I did not have a name for it for many years.

You are not alone.
 
before my first T/C at age 11, I experienced these feelings. I also heard choirs when I would close my eyes at night. Once I had the first seizure, I do not recall hearing music. I was put on Phenobarbital for 3 years. The weird feelings of deja vu did not return until I was taken off the phenobarb. along with a hosts of other funny feelings.

My brain was just gearing up for the next big one ten years later. Those were the days when you had to flop around like a fish for someone to think you were having a seizure. Instead, I was labeled weird, hypochondriac, strange. Ah, knowledge is power!:bigsmile:
 
Oh yes, been called many things, for staring.

I think like you mention, alot of people think a seizure is when you are on the floor, with jerking movements.

I have never told people that I had E. , but when the seizure came, then I tried my best to tell them.

I have had some of the people I had worked with, call me and apologies to me, cause now they have a grandchild with E.

I wish there was a way to educate people on this.

I sometimes see the motorcycles in a packs - riding of cancer, and I am glad they do. (I don't know that works)

But I would like to find a way to educate people, so that this (OOPS, cann't come up with right word)
We are not to be pitied, or look as if we have something they can catch. Just want to be like anyone else who has some type of health condition.
 
feelings

jyearta said:
But I would like to find a way to educate people, so that this (OOPS, cann't come up with right word)
We are not to be pitied, or look as if we have something they can catch. Just want to be like anyone else who has some type of health condition.
Click to expand...

I am still working on that one. Here we are in 2011, and I am still not terribly impressed with reactions. I have come out of the closet to a degree, because it was never verbalized, but it just always felt like I was to be ashamed of what my brain does through no fault of my own. Everyone has problems of some sort, and this one is still riding the fence on acceptance.

Since I have had this for several decades, I have been through some of the grieving process in the last several years, since my only stage about E for years was denial. At the same time, I don't want this life to be "all about me", nor defined by it. I have ended up at that point to some degree. Since the inception of the internet, education about this has been liberating, and sad all at once. I am thankful for CWE. :bigsmile:
 
I get up to something, like a house, office, etc. and think I've seen it or inside it before (when I haven't). Then I get inside and "know" what's inside and get around easily, so I think that I am psychic. Nope. Seizure. I'm glad when I'm slow to get inside, like more than 30 - 60 sec. - it's over before then.

I also think I recognize a road for a minute or so, but don't in reality, and have taken a wrong turn and gotten myself lost.

I've also been outside my house on the grass, and don't recognize what's around me. I know I'm at home, just don't recognize it. Glad these things are over pretty quick.
 
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I have this other thing to happen only a few times, it could be nothing to do w/E. I just don't know.

I can be going down a road (when I was working) and it feels like I need to get of there fast. I went down that same rd. again, same thing happen. After 2nd. I found me another way.

Another time We pull put to relative of my house - I had never been there.
There was this tree, the same type of strange feeling would come over me.
It didn't feel like the deja vu that I would always get before a seizure. This has happen no more than 5 or 6 times. I still do not know what why.

Speaking of strange - when I was a child, my mom would sometimes move the furnt. around in my bedroom. When she put the head of my bed to the north I would dream each night that one member of family died. 1st. is was my Dad, then my Mom and so on.
She would move my bed back to head to south, the dreams stopped.

Again I'm telling things that only my family knows, cause you can't see me.
Anyway just some strange stuff.
 
interesting

there has been this neighborhood in my dreams and when I am awake that comes to mind, pretty much since I was a child. The houses are familiar, and the neighborhood, along with the trees and fences. When I am awake and the images come to mind, I get that funny weird deja vu feeling.

It creeps me out, but also gives me a warm feeling. Maybe it was somewhere I visited when I was little or maybe it is just my brain. Fascinating all the same.
 
Trinity said:
A lot of people experience dejavu and don't have epilepsy. DejaVu however, from what I know is related with temporal lobe epilepsy in some instances, so i'm wondering exactly how one can tell what is 'normal' and what is possibly TLE related. I don't have a TLE diagnosis - I am diagnosed as having generalised seizures only but in recent years have wondered if i've been having smaller seizures. After speaking with the nurse educator at Epilepsy Action we both believe these events (non dejavu related events) may be simple partials and may point to TLE. In light of that i've thought of the various times when i've had dejavu - I get it A LOT in my dreams. How do I know if this is something that might be related to my E and what I should just ignore as normal everyday dejavu.
Click to expand...

what I consider major dejavu is how prolonged it is, and how disconnected everything becomes - it can lead to a simple-seizure for me - sortof the disconnect from time merging with a disconnect from noun-space
like, everything loses a differentiation other than an input type of experience.
at times it'll last a short while on its own but others it can tend to merge toward seizure
after a duration of more than, say, five seconds and I'll start to recognize something as predominant although it seems very difficult to define what it's like, because everything sortof becomes blank, merged, a lack of sensual differentiation of sorts
 
Ya, my dejavu is a warning for me. And I have dejavu non epileptic. And that is totally different.
 
One of my doctors told me that every person and place that you see in a deja vu you've seen before.

One time I had a seizure in the bathtub and when I was out, I saw a guy sitting on a couch just nodding at me. I heard myself saying, "I know you!" over and over again until I woke up. I don't know if that's really deja vu since I was having a seizure, but since I have temporal lobe seizures I guess it is.
 
One of my doctors told me that every person and place that you see in a deja vu you've seen before.
Click to expand...

Don't you just want to (well I don't know what) when this DR's say somthing like that.

I have had deja vu - watching a tV commercial that YES I'v have seen before, but this is different, as I'm sure you know.

I want to be understanding with others, however there is POINT that THIS is how it is for me.

Well I went all over the place..
 
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JulesD said:
One of my doctors told me that every person and place that you see in a deja vu you've seen before.

One time I had a seizure in the bathtub and when I was out, I saw a guy sitting on a couch just nodding at me. I heard myself saying, "I know you!" over and over again until I woke up. I don't know if that's really deja vu since I was having a seizure, but since I have temporal lobe seizures I guess it is.
Click to expand...

ohhhk
are hallucinations common during seizures? that's a whole new thing to me
and that would sure explain one s***load of a lot
I had no idea that could be the case
 
Depending on where in the brain the seizures originate, hallucinations can definitely be part of them.
 
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