Auras: what do they feel like for you?

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Ouarezki

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I suffer from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy....or PNES

I'm currently taking: Paroxetine and Topiramate

On one particualr night I felt very anxious and could not sleep I was wide awake. Infact I'd felt weird throughout the day and knew i was not going to sleep that night...
I also exprienced weird visual distortions when i closed my eyes (large shapes would grow and change size and vibrant colours would flash preventing me from sleeping).
In the morning I starting feeling nausea and sadness, the sadness built up until I exploded and started screaming from the pain.

Since then things started to get worse but eventually started to form a pattern.

The "aura" began like this: I would feel "uneasy" ....the uneasiness would buildup to become extreme anxiety, unbearable, I'd have insomnia, I'd have intense crying jags and I'd feel violent, extremely violent towards myself. This violence would send images flashing through my brain, scary violent images that i'd rather not describe. Some of my physical symptoms include burning up (ALWAYS), high blood pressure and staring into space.
So all of these symptoms would build up ( a bit like an orgasm haha!) until they reach their climax, at which point I stay away from anyone and grab something to release the tension, i cry a lot for a very long time and then i stare into space for what seems like forever.....and THIS i believe is MY seizure atleast MY form of seizure, temporal lobe seizure.
I now know that I was experiencing "auras"....they always began with an uneasy feeling in the afternoon which built up into anxiety and sadness followed by a horrible night of insomnia and end in the morning with what i believe (atleast according to the doctors) to be a seizure.
 
I've experience different auras over the last 14 years.

My auras used to be a dream like vision & the feeling that I needed to go to the toilet.

I had brain surgery in 2011 but started having seizures again in 2013 but it wasn't confirmed until last year that I was having focal seizures.
My auras are now a strange noise.
 
Wow, brain surgery?

Wasn't that scary for you? What kind of epilepsy do you suffer from?
 
It was a big step but not really that scary. Before I had my surgery I made sure I did my research plus I have amazing team of specialists and great surgeon.

So I have left front temporal lobe epilepsy due to starting on my left front temporal lobe. The scarring is what was removed in 2011, well what they could.
 
Hi Ouarezki,
Welcome to CWE.

I have TLE and my "aura" starts as kind of a weird feeling. I get a "what was that" feeling of alarm that can vary in intensity from "Hmm, I think something may have happened" to "holy crap something just happened, what the hell was that?"

The mild simple partial "aura's" rarely turn into a complex partial, if it turns into a CP it will happen within a couple minutes. The stronger ones often turn into a CP and it happens within seconds to 1 minute.

Normally there is a progression of simple partial symptoms after the initial "alarm" feeling that goes from deja vu to a queasy, nausea/falling sensation then a unpleasant smell then taste. If the seizure is going to go complex partial it happens after the taste.
 
Hi Ouarezki,

When I start to have a aura seizure I will get a funny feeling in my stomach like butterflies, then I start to see the colors of the rainbow in a zig zag pattern going back
and forth from one eye to the other and sometimes I will smell odd odours like natural gas or deviled eggs. This in turn sometimes leads into a complex partial seizure for me but if I catch it in time I tighten up the muscles in my body and make my hands into tight fists for a few seconds and this stops the seizure. My neuro taught me this back in the 1970's.
Just like you I have right temporal lobe epilepsy and since I have had surgery done the seizures were reduced 60% and my neuro put me on medical marijuana this past spring and it has done wonders for me stopping my complex partial seizures and I don't feel so depressed like I did before which is part of the meds a person takes as well as the E. causing the depression. You may want to look into taking that if you are interested. I wish you the best of luck and May God Bless You!

Sue
 
Ouarezki said:
Wow, brain surgery?

Wasn't that scary for you? What kind of epilepsy do you suffer from?
Click to expand...

I also had brain surgery on the left side. I have TLE and my seizures originate in the Left Temporal Lobe, deep in the hippocampus. I had auras before a CP seizure and they felt like I was slowly falling into the abyss. Someone would try to speak to me and I would not comprehend what was being said.
I was seizure-free for 14 months. Then the seizures came back with vengeance. I suffered with Cps and TC seizures. The SPs were basically my auras before a CP. And when I had a TC, the world would start slowing down and everything would get SO LOUD....then I was OUT! Don't remember a damned thing.
 
During some of my auras I'll get sort of confused. The things in the house might not look like their in the right place the sofa or tv might be on the wrong wall. I've heard people talking who aren't there. I'll get dizzy feelings. Sometimes my lips will tingle.
 
I get a weird feeling of butterflies in my stomach like Porkete, sometimes it's feels more like I have an upset stomach. I feel 'weird' it's really hard to explain. Everything seems a little dream like for a little bit.
I feel a really intense feeling of Deja Vu after that, I'm pretty sure that is the start of the seizure.
 
CQ:) said:
It was a big step but not really that scary. Before I had my surgery I made sure I did my research plus I have amazing team of specialists and great surgeon.

So I have left front temporal lobe epilepsy due to starting on my left front temporal lobe. The scarring is what was removed in 2011, well what they could.
Click to expand...

Oh, ok, are you better now on a whole?
 
Ouarezki said:
Oh, ok, are you better now on a whole?
Click to expand...
I'm still having seizures just not as bad as the seizures I was having before my surgery. For me the surgery has meant I am now able to work which was always my goal. Before I had trouble holding down a part time job, since 2013 I've been working full time at a job I love.
 
Ever had that feeling that you left a burner on your range when you are away from home? Mine are like that with a feeling of doom ahead.
 
I get a fuzzy head, and a fuzzy tongue. I can feel a little spacey. I also tend to get a building anxious feeling, or the feeling of being nervously scared. If I'm going to go into a complex partial, then I get a very heavy head and can barely keep my eyes open.
 
350spider said:
I get a fuzzy head, and a fuzzy tongue. I can feel a little spacey. I also tend to get a building anxious feeling, or the feeling of being nervously scared. If I'm going to go into a complex partial, then I get a very heavy head and can barely keep my eyes open.
Click to expand...

Do the auras persist with the meds for you and everyone here?

I'm not sure about the intensity of the anxiety for you but fr me it's absolutly unbearable because my epilepsy is temporal lobe so it cause pshycological symptoms that are pretty horrid. So for me the building anxiety gets so high that I kind of "switch" you know?
 
Ouarezki - my seizures are about 80% covered by my meds, but for those seizures that do get through, yes my auras persist. Yours sound more severe than mine though. My anxiety builds to what I can only describe as the anxiety you feel when you're watching a very creepy horror movie (unless they don't scare you! lol). I'm sorry to hear yours are that extensive - is it worth speaking to your neuro (if you haven't already) and asking if there is another combo of meds that can help counteract this, or something alternative you can do to help control them better?
 
All is very complicated with me really because my i've only had one major seizure where i was unconscious (bit tongue, salivated...etc) and it lasted long. It was a combination of postramitc birth stress , hormonal mess and also my pscytrist put me on a combo of anti depressants and anti anxiety meds that were believed to cause the seizure...but thing started as early as pregnancy......I should have done an EEG waay earlier.

Anyhow even though i don't loose consciousness and have not had another seizure or anything i just sort of "switch" and feel odd when everything builds up after the auras.

I still don't know anyone like me and to be honest the doctors are a bit buffled too.
 
Sorry the typing errors hurt the eyes i'm typing quick and feeding the baby at the same time haha
 
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