Having trouble concentrating and starting tasks

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MIKEJ

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Hello,

I've was diagnosed in 2001 and in the last 4 years things have gotten worse. two years ago I had a set of seizures that left me unconscious for 5 days and when I came to I had lost 15 years of memory. Since then I have had different meds. Now Im on keppra 1500 twice a day and tegretol. I hate keppra.

Does anyone else have problems concentrating or starting new tasks. For example even writing this was a chore. It seems the ability to start things like filling out forms, it took me weeks to get around to filling out my dis application. I used to be a workaholic and if I started something I wouldn't stop until it was finished, now everything seems to be such a chore. My memory is terrible short term and long term.

I was just hoping to get some feedback from others.

Thank You
 
Yes. If it is a physical task or exercise, once I get going I am fine -- plus being so relieved and glad. But writing -- even this -- very hard, as you say. When I read I tell myself to take notes, but I often don't do it and so I don't remember ...
 
Hey Mike.

Basically, what Boswell said. I'm hyperactive, but have problems concentrating or getting on task.

What I do is promise myself to get going. I get off my ass and I start. Once I'm rolling, I'm good. Had overof my trucks sitting for some time before uhh get working. Within a day or two, I was able to tear the front axle apart, get what I needed done and get things back together. Each day, it was a pain to get off my ass, but I did.

I know that isn't a great suggestion, but it works for me.
 
I have the hardest time concentrating. Whenever I sit down to write some music, I just want to throw my guitars across the room because I just can't focus properly. Sometimes even playing a card game is difficult. I end up forgetting who's turn it is, and just quit.
 
MIKEJ said:
Hello,

I've was diagnosed in 2001 and in the last 4 years things have gotten worse. two years ago I had a set of seizures that left me unconscious for 5 days and when I came to I had lost 15 years of memory. Since then I have had different meds. Now Im on keppra 1500 twice a day and tegretol. I hate keppra.

Does anyone else have problems concentrating or starting new tasks. For example even writing this was a chore. It seems the ability to start things like filling out forms, it took me weeks to get around to filling out my dis application. I used to be a workaholic and if I started something I wouldn't stop until it was finished, now everything seems to be such a chore. My memory is terrible short term and long term.

I was just hoping to get some feedback from others.

Thank You
Click to expand...
Hi Mike,

To be out for 5 days is usually a coma with seizures...as I've been in coma's myself with grand mal ones and your slowness could be through those 5 days of being unconscious as you don't know what damage to the brain it may have caused or if many of your receptors in the brain may have been damaged but in general seizures cause a large majority of us to go slow and that's myself included.

I suggest you asking more about that time and if damage could have been caused.
 
MIKEJ said:
Does anyone else have problems concentrating or starting new tasks. For example even writing this was a chore.
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

I've suffered from TLE for over 30 years and tried numerous meds, the latest is Keppra. I certainly have trouble now of concentrating and even wanting to do anything some days. Some of it is due to the med, some of it is due to E.

Check out this website for info on Thinking and Memory:
http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/impact/thinking-and-memory/thinking-memory-and-epilepsy
 
Cint said:
Hi Mike,

I've suffered from TLE for over 30 years and tried numerous meds, the latest is Keppra. I certainly have trouble now of concentrating and even wanting to do anything some days. Some of it is due to the med, some of it is due to E.

Check out this website for info on Thinking and Memory:
http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/impact/thinking-and-memory/thinking-memory-and-epilepsy
Click to expand...

Cint you've stated a good point here because having temporal lobe epilepsy myself, I've noticed concentration getting really bad plus tiredness and half the time I don't know if that's the cause or Lupus :ponder:

I know I hate these feelings and they make you feel less of a person to what I used to be.
 
hi, mike

i have TLE. and i used to have terrible problems with "beginning an action" about a year ago.

i would describe it as the urge to do something failing to arise where it normally should. i was spacing out all the time, couldn't do simplest tasks, was failing at work miserably. sometimes it would take me several hours to get up from bed because the idea that i need to get up and go to work just wouldn't arise. i was trying to take notes, like "1) get up, 2) go to work", but often i would just forget to look at the notes at all, so they never really helped.
i remember one situation, it made me realise sth was very wrong. i was lying in bed, looking at the box of chocolate, sent by my mother weeks ago. i was looking at it, thinking, "hm…… chocolate…… i love chocolate…… it's been here for several weeks…… must be tasty….. i love chocolate…… why have i not eaten it yet?……. so strange….. i love chocolate…..." but these thoughts somehow just wouldn't form into a volition to eat it. i c
and then something strange happened. because i thought the situation was strange i started imagining myself telling it to my friend. and when I've told it to him in my mind, the imaginary version of my friend (it was not a hallucination, just imagination) said, "you should eat it!" And i felt that something was wrong with me, and that my friend was indeed right. if i had chocolate for weeks, specifically sent to me by my mother, and if i love chocolate, i should eat it. so i held onto this, the image of my friend telling me to eat chocolate, and i sat up in bed, took the box, almost tore it apart and started eating chocolate. i could feel that i was able to start that action only because i "was told," even though it was done by an imaginary agent.
it felt that i had a broken link between an emotion and them becoming a an urge for acting upon an emotion.

i was receiving medical treatment, but it wasn't too successful. and eventually i improved my condition by diet and exercises. and stopped taking meds, because they were only fogging my mind. I am not seizure free now, but with lots of sleep, nutrient rich food and exercises i was able to rise the threshold pretty high.
 
When doing things I try to block out anything else that is going on around me. I defiantly turn the TV off because that's the biggest distraction in the world!

For some reason I can listen to music when I'm doing some things and I don't have problems with it but it depends on what it is that I'm doing. If it's something that I need to get up off my butt and do, like clean the house or yard work, then listening to some up beat music helps with that. It seems to give me energy dancing and singing while I'm dusting.

If I need to do things that I need to use my mind for, like paper work or even crossword puzzles, then it usually always has to be silent. Very rarely can I do these types of thing with noise going on.

I'm also a huge procrastinator so I just need to tell myself - DO THIS NOW!!!!
 
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