Do you have any seizures that you actually LIKE?

[Endless]

Hey, nothing is ALL bad, right?

Most seizures suck big time, but do you have any seizures you actually LIKE? That are actually pleasant or fun?



I have a few that aren't bad.

• I love euphoria seizures. That is, if I'm not at work!
• If I'm just laying around, the show with the moving patterns of colored lights is kind of fun. Some teenagers pay perfectly good money to experience that!
• I had one this morning that made my eyesight super sharp, colors really bright, and my brain super-fast and smart. Too bad it only lasted a little while, 'cause now I'm back to normal.

I've never had one of these, but I read about it a couple of weeks ago. Since there are some kids in here I'll use a metaphor: a seizure that's a glorious release of natural animal and spiritual energy. (How's that? And where do I line up?) Is anybody out there willing to admit they've had one of those?

[carlos.fonke]

Still waiting for the seizures I enjoy. I do love the sleep immediately afterwards, though.

[epileric]

I know as a kid I used to like them because of the amount of thoughts that would flood my mind & the sensation of energy.

As an adult I find that when I wake up in the middle of the night with a seizure I usually feel pretty euphoric, unless I get nocturnal seizures for more than 1 consecutive night. Then each night I have one my mood becomes less euphoric until about the 3rd or 4th night I feel angry & frustrated to have them.

[Solicitous]

Hey, nothing is ALL bad, right?

Most seizures suck big time, but do you have any seizures you actually LIKE? That are actually pleasant or fun?

Hey Endless

Seizures do suck big time, but the seizure that I always like and enjoy is going into "LA LA Land" when I have an absent seizure. It always feels better than a
2 hour nap. I take a trip and never leave the farm

But I hate it when someone or something snaps me out of it

Good one Endless

Having an absent seizure is better than being an absent professor Jerry Lewis

Norm

[Nakamova]

I wouldn't ever describe tonic-clonics as pleasant, but after the very first ones I did feel "electric" for a few weeks. My watch stopped working and my car battery died, and although they were probably unrelated, I like to think that electricity was pouring out of my body and messing with things around me.

[KelVarQ]

Sound like what you're experiencing are auras, which is actually a small seizure and at times can lead into a bigger one. This was, for me, the warning sign of a possible tonic clonic or complex partial to follow. However, for years when my seizures first started all I experienced were the auras and I came to enjoy them...for me they were weird deja vus that brought me back to childhood. Oliver Sacks discusses this in his book "A Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat". Mine had to do with seeing something (mainly landscapes) and Oliver Sacks phrased it as, "A transport back to early childhood". Eventually the auras stopped for me and I would just go right into the Tonic Clonic I haven't had those auras (deja vus) in years. Sometimes I miss them because there was definitely something surreal about it, BUT obviously I would still rather due without them.

[occb]

Partner says he only likes the visual auras he gets -- some are white lines like spiderwebs everywhere, and some are bright spots of rainbow colours that move and swirl around.

The ones that make us laugh are the ones where his arm just shoots out for no reason, usually knocking things off the table. They're always such a surprise. One moment he's sitting pleasantly on the couch, the next it's like a ninja move, he's perfectly still, but his arm just flies out, passing all other hazards and knocking over the coffee cup on the opposite side of the table.

[Crystal11]

I was diagnosed with Absence seizures at age 6 but neuros now say those were probably complex partials. But I remember I could trigger mine when I was younger. I would take something sparkly or shiny and would hold it up close to see it. After about 10sec I would feel weird and realize after 10sec or so, that I was feeling different from my normal self. I would start feeling the sensation of my body slowing down or loosing posture- but slowly.. then my eyes turn to the right and then I don't know really what happens but I could still be standing or walking but its much slower and I can still talk but its also slow..
I feel as if I am aware but then I'm not really and I notice it when I "come back".
My Mom would wave her hand infront of my face and that usually would stop them- but I think it was just at the end and when she noticed I was out of it, it was just about over when she would do that. She would say "quit staring off dear" as if I control it.
Now my seizures are longer and they start out with the aura. Those feel "good/weird, but scares the crap out of me because it comes so so fast- and I usually cannot speak hardly at all and if I do, its not like normal.
I know something is going to happen and I will be "taken away" to the land of E as I say.. hehe.
When I am "back" I feel like I have drowned, even though I never have been. I feel like I haven't been breathing- but found out that I don't as normal.

Sometimes when I have just the aura- it feels weird to just sit still and wait for it to end, because I am aware of it- just can't talk or move well. I try to stop it on my own- but I can't.
I just sit still and wait for it to be over with.

E/Seizures can be so strange. And to know that most people will never experience it strange to me. When I describe it to others, they don't really understand what I mean. Only my neurologist undestands..

[Cint]

I've never had a pleasant experience with an auras, seizures, or ictals.

Sometimes, my auras leading up to a tonic clonic seizure have been auditory.... bad voices of doom and gloom. And often times, after I have recovered, I have an awful headache for hours and those who witnessed the seizure may tell me of the pre-seizure attack of self-defense. Of course, I don't remember any of it.

Other times when I've experienced only complex partial seizures, I have the feeling of life going into slow motion, fading away, sounds getting so loud I cannot stand it anymore... then the seizure.... I stare into space for what seems like hours to me.... don't remember anything and it will take a bit longer before I am able to speak again.

Nothing pleasant about being stared at and constantly being asked by loved ones if I am okay.

[Endless]

Cint, the voices of doom and gloom sound horrid. As bad as the fear/terror seizures I hate the most.

I think a few of us with temporal lobe epilepsy have more varied seizures, some really bad, some not so bad.

[Chris515]

Nothing pleasant about being stared at and constantly being asked by loved ones if I am okay.

Yes I agree with that Cint. Whenever I feel a seizure coming on, whether it be simple partial or tonic clonic, I get the intense urge to be alone. I never want people around when I have one, and afterwards.

I have the fear/terror seizures. Awful stuff. The feeling like the world is going to end is almost indescribable.

[ersatz_angel]

This is amazing to read what everyone has written. I really feel - for the first time - people know what I will say AND will understand. When my seizure starts, if someone is talking to me, I feel like I know every word they will say next. I have an amazing feeling of euphoria. If I concentrate on trying to "guess" what they will say next, I am aware of a taste and smell that is overwhelming. If I continue to concentrate on these sensations I feel like I am "tunnelling" back and things are melting together. Now the weird part!! A cartoon character will talk to me and tell me I need to focus on these sensations.
I will then have a generalized seizure.
I have learned - or I think I have- to control the seizure by concentrating on NOT getting involved with all the sensations. I can't talk but I am aware of what's going on around me. People have not known anything was happening. When it passes I am exhausted and I've broken out in a clothes drenching sweat.
I am on Lamictal and have not had a seizure for over 5 months. I feel weird saying this but I've always felt like if I could stay conscious during all the activity - I would learn something amazing. Has anyone else felt this?

[Rae1889]

yeah,
i dont like people around when I have seizures.
but most of the time I dont recognize that Im having a seizure. even a simple partial. If I smell something funny I dont immediatly think "seizure" I think about where the smell is coming from etc. but it doesnt click that its a seizure until its over.

I also have funny colours and "growing/shrinking" or tingles or.... suddenly have a reall good time. *Yes endless, I have those ones too* But I dont like them. I some how always know that something isnt right.

[Endless]

Hi, Angel,

Gosh, I kinda hate typing this but the euphoria, tastes, smells, etc. might actually BE seizures - simple complex. So maybe you aren't completely seizure free, just t/c free. But t/c free is wonderful! Gives me hope about Lamictal, too, because I'm just ramping up on it. Maybe it will be a good thing for me, too.

[Endless]

Oh... I had an experience that kind of changed me. I was on vacation before my diagnosis, and I remember I'd have spells where I didn't recognize anythiing around me, didn't recognize people, weird smells, things looked abnormally big, etc. I think I had a couple of complex partials where I lost time and who knows what I did or where I went. Just in my hotel room, I think. Then I'd get fuzzy headed and need a good sleep. But it didn't upset me like it does when this happens at home. I was in a foreign place, and things should look unfamiliar, there should be weird smells, if I lost time who cares because I didin't have to be anywhere else, and there was plenty of time to nap when I needed it. It was absolutely okay to feel the way I was feeling. I think because of that I came home the most relaxed I'd ever been in my life. Almost zen-like.

It's hard for me to apply here at home because it really bugs me when I don't recognize where I am and I should, or there's a smell that shouldn't exist here, etc. But getting upset over it just stresses me out. I'm trying to get to the place where it's OKAY that I feel the way I do.

Nothing can help the really icky seizures, but the ones that don't actually hurt or create a negative emotion as part of the seizure - I am trying to learn to just ride the wave and not let it get to me. I want to be that relaxed person that's affected by my epilepsy but not too bugged by it - I know I can be this. I'm just gonna keep working at it. Who knows how long it will take.

[ersatz_angel]

Thanks Endless for your reply. I know I am having a partial complex seizure when the whole smell, taste, thing is going on but that hasn't happened since I've started the lamictal. It has worked very well for me - the first drug that actually worked for all aspects of my seizure activity. I really hope it works for you. My neurologist said it is a very "clean" drug with little side effects.
This is all very interesting to read what everyone experiences. The brain is amazing

[ktbuttons]

I feel weird saying this but I've always felt like if I could stay conscious during all the activity - I would learn something amazing. Has anyone else felt this?

ahh yes! that's so weird, but i feel the exact same way!
it's like an overwhelming feeling that you're on to something that is suuuper important/epic... lol.. but then it just goes away & i've completely forgotten what it might have been
makes me happy that i'm not the only one who has thought this!!!

[crazychick10793]

well i like my school nurse rushing me to the hospital where i can watch maury and play sims 2 and miss school. lol does that count?

[TeeTees]

Well, considering after some seizure's my whole personality can change, making me either feeling really down, or depressed, or irritable, unable to snap out off that 'doom and gloom' cloud, I agree with Endless : some seizure's can be 'liked', or more 'appreciated', by me anyway.

It's kinda like having that slap to get me OUT of the horrid mental state I can be left in, and feels great to be feeling positive in all aspects, once that cloud has been lifted by a seizure that changes back my personality to how I should be - happy and slightly nuts

[tripletdad]

They're horrible, sometimes debilitating, embarrassing, terrifying (esp when I feel them coming on). I've found that there is nothing enjoyable about seizures or E.