Experience AURA or AURAS?

Aura or Auras - What do you experience?

  • Vision / Visual

    Votes: 199 46.4%
  • Smell

    Votes: 121 28.2%
  • Audio / Hearing / Balance

    Votes: 181 42.2%
  • Taste

    Votes: 76 17.7%
  • Special Senses / Psychic Phenomena

    Votes: 220 51.3%
  • Physical Automatisms

    Votes: 138 32.2%
  • Nocturnal / Other

    Votes: 96 22.4%

  • Total voters
    429

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OMG, Im not crazy. After reading the many different types of aura's. I experience most of them. I get rigid and jerky, is that an aura also? I see lights with tails and they zip past real fast. I have glaucoma and i see flashes from my sides, but these are little pin point lights i see right in front of me high and low. I get the horrible folding squeezing sensation. Feels like im in a straight jacket. I also feel doom. It starts at the top of my head and when it gets to my stomach, I can hardly move. It takes all of my energy, it even makes it hard to breathe. This was truly helpful to me. Oh yea, I forgot one. I cant stay focused, I find myself trying to do multiple task at one time, cause I cant focus long enoough on one.
 
I also laugh and cry at the same time, see images that arent there and have crashed my hands into doors, walls because my depth perception is off. I hate that one. I have not experience convulsions, can anyone tell me if having experienced most of the auras will lead up to having convulsions? Im horrified not knowing what to expect next.
 
Hi, im a newbee and your post was really helpful. my seizres are tonic clonic and I imagined that every aura was a prelude to one of these little charmers x
 
Very pleased to meet fello aura sufferers as was convinced that my mind had left me, bags and all for a more stable environment x
 
!

I've just joined. I'm on Lamotrigine and have been grand-mal seizure-free for over 20 years. I've not really looked into auras as I didn't know what they were, but (don't ask me why - it's a quiet day at work!) I've just taken some time to have a look and I'm convinced I get them and I want to find out more!

These generally tend to happen when I'm not really doing anything special, although a couple of times lately, it's happened as I've been working (don't worry - I don't operate a chainsaw for a living!!)

The whole thing sounds ridiculous to me and I'm ready for being called a loonytune! <here goes...>

For whatever reason, I'll deduce that something somewhere is wrong - maybe there's a song on the radio and I would be convinced that the words being sung were wrong. That then starts an argument 'in my head' - with my 'reading' voice (please tell me that everyone HAS one of those, right?!) I might imply 'those words are wrong', and with that will come an involuntary reply along the lines of 'are you sure?'. This then ensues. Along with that will then come a sensation like mild electric shocks (it starts 'down below' and then sort of spreads outwards). My eyes then lock focus and everything appears to be 2D, which in itself is pretty mindblowing - more-so when accompanied by my hearing going into complete meltdown - some sounds get louder, others are muffled.

This passes after about a minute or so but I have to be alert enough to 'pull' myself out of it. The 'voice' in my head adopts are more 'right, you've had enough now - get a grip' approach, and more often than not I physically talk myself out of it. I've always managed to stop it, and am completely in control of it, but as it's actually a 'nice' feeling, I pretty much take it to its limits before I figure (whether it's correct or not, I don't know) that it might take effect as something more serious.

I'm really keen to know if anyone can get close to this with regard to their experiences. Since reading up on this today, it's fascinated me greatly...
 
Forgot to mention - some of the times (not all) I experience that 'freshly punched on the nose/aluminium' smell - quite pungent!
 
mr

please could i ask...has anyone who has experienced deja vu / premonition eplilepsy, lost contact with a biological parent or sibling. The reason i ask is because my long lost son and i were both diagnosed with the same condition after we were seperated. Both our symptoms have now ended since we have resumed contact with each other....spooky.
 
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The aura that I get before having a nocturnal seizure is extreme vertigo accompanied by fear that I will not stop spinning. I try to call out so my wife will roll me over on my stomach which usually stops the aura.
 
I voted on this poll some time ago when I thought I had SPS. I have major ongoing olfactory auras. I also did not realize that I have visual ones too, and have had the visual ones since childhood-dismissing the flashing bright white sparkly things as "floaters" when in fact they are not at all. I now get visual and olfactory sometimes simultaneously. And the aura/s used to not signal a headache, but now sometimes they do. I have since had SPS ruled out and for sure been diagnosed with migraines. Migraine disorder escalated this year to the worst it's ever been, but now with the addition of Neurontin, it seems to be the most improved it ever has been. I was on Keppra until recently, along with many AEDs tried which target both SPS and migraine. I'm on Lamictal as well now-so those are my two medications. I am on a baby dose of Neurontin, and I am hoping an increase next month will really help even more.
 
I think what amazes me... is there are so many types of auras.
My neuro doc really only talked about visual auras. In fact any doctor I've ever seen, neuro or FP, only mentioned visual. So now (if I have any more-- it has been almost 4 years), if I have one, I am going to try and see if I remember any OTHER types of auras....

I am so happy to have found this forum. Not even a week and I am learning soooo much!!
 
Oh boy let's see:
Vision/Visual: My auras are rarely visual, but I'll sometimes see coloured spots and waves, usually more before a migraine than before a seizure.
Smell: I've always had trouble explaining exactly what it is I smell, the best way I can think to describe it is it smells like someone set eggs on fire...I stopped eating eggs four years ago because of this aura haha
Audio/Hearing/Balance: Sometimes I'll hear a ringing in my ears, or the whoop whoop fan sound that Mr. Pibb mentioned. (Thought I was the only one haha). Most usually I'll hear a high frequency buzzing.
Special Senses/Psychic: I always feel I wouldn't call it dissociation, because I never feel outside of my body, it's more like time distortion, and derealization. I'll always experience a sense of anxiety, but one completely different than when I have an anxiety attacks. Definitely jamais vu and deja vu, usually jamaias vu; I'll be talking to my best friend-who I've seen almost every day for six years now, and suddenly have no idea what her name is. I started calling her Margaret (Her name is Shannon; I don't know a Margaret). Or I'll suddenly have no idea what an object is that I use daily, like my phone or alarm clock.
Physical Automatisms: My heart speeds up, sometimes I'll feel tingling and lose sensation in my hands, feet, or arms.
 
DITTO!!! Now I remember why this site was critical to me coming to terms with my adult onset epilepsy! It was sooo very hard to explain all this to my doctor(s) without feeling like a nut! Especially since soo many looked at me as though they had never heard of such things...ever! Now I finally have a doc that listens then says to me ' that's the seizures talkin'. I love that man! I told him he is not allowed to retire until I die or move which is unlikely, so he is stuck!! He chuckled and turned to his med students and explained that you don't have to be the smartest doc in the world, but you do need to listen to your patients...God bless him:banana:
 
Aura,aura,aura what can we say about you !! Mine start with the metallic taste, followed by the flood of heat from the lower limbs upwards. This is all hand in hand with a soul consuming feeling of terror that sets fight/flight in motion and gives me a least the chance to hit the deck. They are so very scary that in some ways I preferred not to have the warning but the last crash and burn T/C adressed that.
 
I never knew the whomp whomp whomp or buzzing like a bad electronic device was an aura!!!! I get those so often. About a week ago after tolerating one for over an hour i put it in my journal for the doctor.

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Hi,

I kind of wish I had an aura - a hint of what's coming. I've only had a three seizures in the last 3 years and I was really tired before them. I sometimes don't like to lie down, it kind of feels dizzy, maybe like before I've had them. I'm not sure what my triggers are, I faithfully take my AEDs and hope that I don't become too familiar with seizures. It's really rather scary.

I thought it was just me that suddenly felt super tired before a seizure. Just bang out of nowhere "I'm about to fall asleep" type feeling. I thought I had some weird aura. You've made me feel normal lol thanks :)
 
You're welcome, Quick question do you remember your diet intake those days that you had your seizure? When I, personally have a moment of vertigo(spinning) I can usually track it back to MSG input, sweetener, etc. That is just some of my triggers not necesarilly yours. - Sturg
 
Could an "aura" manifest itself in screaming? I know it is common for tonic and tonic/clonic seizures to begin with a shriek or grunt as air is forced out as lungs constrict. However, our little boy often will scream out very loudly in terror 3 or 4 times, and his eyes have a look of absolute horror. It's not the same type of sound as the "other" sound made when air forced out -- he'll scream, take a breath, and then scream again. When he was in the hospital, his screams could be heard throughout the ward.

His epileptologist commented that the screams and horrified look don't register as seizure activity on the EEG -- that the seizure itself doesn't actually begin until a few seconds later. So...does he sense it coming on? Is that what the horror is all about?
 
I believe that part of the entry & exit to the aura can be screaming. Personally only, I base this on what happens when I enter a vertigo aura- I am asleep, probably level 2, & I feel the spinning sensation coming on, I know that it all part of the seizure & I scream out to my wife to roll me over & wake me up. Although I think I am screaming it is very difficult, while this is happen inning to be heard. As a child I used to scream out to my mother at this time. After the spinning sensation ends, as a child, I used to scream to my mother to come & help me because I was so afraid from what just happened to me. Part of the problem is that the screams in some cases can be just interpreted as the end to a bad dream & neurological problems are never assessed.-Sturg
 
Oh Wow -- so, you're actually still conscious at this point? I've always wondered if he's able to hear me then?
 
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