Hi, my name is Dan, I'm 30 and I come from the UK.
I was hoping for a little input please - I have a tendency to waffle on so I'll try my best to be concise. For quite some time now I have been having problems with frequent periods of dizziness/disorientation almost always followed by a good measure of cognitive impairment, personality change. visual disturbances, balance problems and nausea. Motor issues and dyslexic-like symptoms are regular occurrences. I frequently find myself staring into space/zoning out and I often have problems losing track of time. Quite regularly I experience emotional changes with these events such as anxiety, restlessness, short temper and anger (sometimes accompanied with deja vu). I do have headaches with these "events" but not always - I'd estimate 30% of the time or thereabouts. I regularly forget and mispronounce words once the dizziness kicks in along with stuttering and (sometimes very prominent) slurred speech.
The odd thing is I'm not always like this - I'm a web applications developer and was a qualified programmer just after I turned 16. One minute I can be a competent and highly functional member of the workforce and the next minute all my productivity, creativeness and capability just escapes me, rendering me almost useless for the next 3 or 4 hours.
I was diagnosed with adult ADHD back in January and have tried a few different medications but methylphenidate seems to help better than most. The down side is that I'm not spectacularly responsive to the medication - certainly not experiencing any of the life changing revelations that so many ADHD patients observe on medication. Recently I began to wonder if the ADHD (which appears to go back to childhood) is only part of the story. I've always had problems with mood swings, brain fog, concentration and attentiveness but these problems appear to be worsening as I get older.
Since being treated with methylphenidate I've become much more observant of the other problems I'm experiencing. As mad as it sounds, these events appear to be triggered by things such as fluorescent lights, opening the curtains in the morning (also moving from a dark room to a bright one), sometimes travelling in the car (always put this down to motion sickness) and most peculiar of all - reading. And with being a programmer this is highly disruptive. I seem to do better with certain colour combinations. Black text on white is quite a challenge - shades of yellow background seem smoother but not for all that long really.
I seem to be pretty hit and miss with various computer monitors - I've got a 24" LED monitor running at 60hz both at home and at work. Using the monitor during the day (both at work and at home) seems to be harder on me than in the evenings but that's not to say that evening use is a walk in the park - a little easier but it still gives me problems. I have similar issues with the LCD on my partners laptop and the OLED screen on my phone. The screen I appear to get on best with is my large screen plasma. I don't appear to have much of a problem with either strobe lighting or video games on the TV. Sometimes traveling in the car will set me off.
Recently these occurrences appear to have become more frequent and I may be experiencing some sensory hallucinations. One of these events was immediately preceded by the strong smell of burned toast and I experienced some phantom tastes in my mouth on Sunday. Much of the weekend was a bit of a write off to be honest. I spoke to my doctor and my mother (who works in care) last week and the subject of epilepsy and partial seizures was raised - I only heard of such things at the end of last week. My doctor has stated I am not allowed to drive and I will be seeing him on Friday for further discussion and investigation.
I do have a few conditions which may or may not contribute in one way or another - This is all new to me so I have no idea to be honest. I had untreated severe sleep apnea for potentially a large portion of my adult life (even earlier perhaps). I was diagnosed that latter part pf last year where it was discovered I would stop breathing completely for up to 90 seconds a time repeatedly during my sleep. I have been led to believe that prolonged untreated apnea can cause brain issues. I also have an eye condition called keratoconus - My right eye appears to be holding up well but I've had about 5 operations in my left eye. The difference in vision between the two is vast - with corrective lenses I can read the second bottom line on a chart using my right eye but cannot read a single letter on the chart with my left eye. The two contrasting images can prove overwhelming at times. It is also suspected that I may have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and am awaiting lab results.
In addition to this I suffered a mains electric shock straight to my head a couple of years ago (which was damp with sweat). I was hospitalised but no neurological tests were carried out prior to discharge.
Does any of this ring similar to anyone at all? Sorry if I'm not appearing particularly coherent. I'm trying to write this whilst "spinning out" at my desk after an entire day of writing code at the office (whilst spinning out). It's certainly somewhat concerning and I expect it will be some time before I work my way up the waiting list for tests so a little input or tales of similar experiences would go a long way.
Many thanks for reading,
-Dan.
Ironic postscript edit - memory problems. Once upon a time I had a pretty good memory. This is no longer the case at all - absolutely dreadful during/after the aforementioned events
I was hoping for a little input please - I have a tendency to waffle on so I'll try my best to be concise. For quite some time now I have been having problems with frequent periods of dizziness/disorientation almost always followed by a good measure of cognitive impairment, personality change. visual disturbances, balance problems and nausea. Motor issues and dyslexic-like symptoms are regular occurrences. I frequently find myself staring into space/zoning out and I often have problems losing track of time. Quite regularly I experience emotional changes with these events such as anxiety, restlessness, short temper and anger (sometimes accompanied with deja vu). I do have headaches with these "events" but not always - I'd estimate 30% of the time or thereabouts. I regularly forget and mispronounce words once the dizziness kicks in along with stuttering and (sometimes very prominent) slurred speech.
The odd thing is I'm not always like this - I'm a web applications developer and was a qualified programmer just after I turned 16. One minute I can be a competent and highly functional member of the workforce and the next minute all my productivity, creativeness and capability just escapes me, rendering me almost useless for the next 3 or 4 hours.
I was diagnosed with adult ADHD back in January and have tried a few different medications but methylphenidate seems to help better than most. The down side is that I'm not spectacularly responsive to the medication - certainly not experiencing any of the life changing revelations that so many ADHD patients observe on medication. Recently I began to wonder if the ADHD (which appears to go back to childhood) is only part of the story. I've always had problems with mood swings, brain fog, concentration and attentiveness but these problems appear to be worsening as I get older.
Since being treated with methylphenidate I've become much more observant of the other problems I'm experiencing. As mad as it sounds, these events appear to be triggered by things such as fluorescent lights, opening the curtains in the morning (also moving from a dark room to a bright one), sometimes travelling in the car (always put this down to motion sickness) and most peculiar of all - reading. And with being a programmer this is highly disruptive. I seem to do better with certain colour combinations. Black text on white is quite a challenge - shades of yellow background seem smoother but not for all that long really.
I seem to be pretty hit and miss with various computer monitors - I've got a 24" LED monitor running at 60hz both at home and at work. Using the monitor during the day (both at work and at home) seems to be harder on me than in the evenings but that's not to say that evening use is a walk in the park - a little easier but it still gives me problems. I have similar issues with the LCD on my partners laptop and the OLED screen on my phone. The screen I appear to get on best with is my large screen plasma. I don't appear to have much of a problem with either strobe lighting or video games on the TV. Sometimes traveling in the car will set me off.
Recently these occurrences appear to have become more frequent and I may be experiencing some sensory hallucinations. One of these events was immediately preceded by the strong smell of burned toast and I experienced some phantom tastes in my mouth on Sunday. Much of the weekend was a bit of a write off to be honest. I spoke to my doctor and my mother (who works in care) last week and the subject of epilepsy and partial seizures was raised - I only heard of such things at the end of last week. My doctor has stated I am not allowed to drive and I will be seeing him on Friday for further discussion and investigation.
I do have a few conditions which may or may not contribute in one way or another - This is all new to me so I have no idea to be honest. I had untreated severe sleep apnea for potentially a large portion of my adult life (even earlier perhaps). I was diagnosed that latter part pf last year where it was discovered I would stop breathing completely for up to 90 seconds a time repeatedly during my sleep. I have been led to believe that prolonged untreated apnea can cause brain issues. I also have an eye condition called keratoconus - My right eye appears to be holding up well but I've had about 5 operations in my left eye. The difference in vision between the two is vast - with corrective lenses I can read the second bottom line on a chart using my right eye but cannot read a single letter on the chart with my left eye. The two contrasting images can prove overwhelming at times. It is also suspected that I may have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and am awaiting lab results.
In addition to this I suffered a mains electric shock straight to my head a couple of years ago (which was damp with sweat). I was hospitalised but no neurological tests were carried out prior to discharge.
Does any of this ring similar to anyone at all? Sorry if I'm not appearing particularly coherent. I'm trying to write this whilst "spinning out" at my desk after an entire day of writing code at the office (whilst spinning out). It's certainly somewhat concerning and I expect it will be some time before I work my way up the waiting list for tests so a little input or tales of similar experiences would go a long way.
Many thanks for reading,
-Dan.
Ironic postscript edit - memory problems. Once upon a time I had a pretty good memory. This is no longer the case at all - absolutely dreadful during/after the aforementioned events
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