How can anxiety be blamed for seizures when everything is fine?

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Lucille

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Hello all,

We have an upcoming appt. to our daughters Neurologist. In the meantime are neuro feels that our daughters new seizure activity (simple partial) is caused by anxiety. I do not understand how this possible when she was having a good day and happy at that the time. And, since there is stress in life how do we help her? We, I, have tried so many things including meditation. She has tons of support and keeping it well balanced is always tricky.

Has anyone experienced a seizure from anxiety even when the day was going great? How do you handle it?

Thanks!
 
I agree. What makes me confused with what the doctor thinks is that she was not even thinking about seizures and we were having some great mother and daughter time. There did not appear to be any anxiety. I wonder can anxiety from a day or two prior(sprained finger already healed from injury at PE or homework be the cause of a seizure on a good day?
 
Seizures and anxiety/stress are close cousins for sure.
I have had it said to me that everyday stress can build up and then when you go to relax at the end of the day and sit down to watch tv that's when a seizure can zing you.
Also that if you try to be too strong and swallow your stress that the body expresses the stress through seizures even when nothing seems wrong.
Also that if there is a history of trauma that years later the body can express it through seizures.
I wish there was a simple way to deal with anxiety. I think we'd all like to know that secret!
It's great to hear that you have tried so many things including mediation.

My favourite things have been taking a mental holiday and picking a favourite memory or place and reliving it in your mind using your five senses. Imagine how it smells, looks, feels...
or sensory grounding techniques that help to distract you when stress seems overwhelming.
Simple things like hugging a pillow. Put a can of cold pop against your cheek, touch something soft, to remind you that the world exists around you too and not just in your head.

But that's just me!
Stress surrounds us and it's only the way we think about things and react to things are what we can control.
You sound like a great Mom giving her plenty of love, empathy, support and understanding to help her navigate through life and living with something that makes her special and unique.
 
Before ending up in emerg with tonic clonic and someone actually telling me I had E I would have strange episodes from time to time with seizures in my sleep. I would go to the hospital to see what the heck was wrong with me only to waste my time to hear I had anxiety but I knew there was something else wrong. They were just to lazy to test me...too busy in emerg. At least I know what's going on now...and the seizure activity on eeg. I am a happy and fun person but when something comes over you like that it's frightening.
 
To LJ-Bain,

Thank you so much for your response and your input. Everything you said is so true. I think I know that our daughter stress makes her seizure activity worse. It is just so hard to believe that it can hit her, anyone, on a good day at a good moment. It makes sense though. I shared your response with her. It helped her understand her situation but of course she was upset that stress could have such control over her body! Who isn't. I know what it is doing to mine! It is hard to admit but I do have some insecurity when it comes to the medical field. It just took so long to have her diagnosed and even then it took a few more years for an accurate diagnosis. Her EEGs always show that she has epilepsy, that is not in question, but I still fear that the doctors are going to blame it on her due to the obvious anxiety she has with school and school work. We already had a specialist tell us, my daughter and I, that others with epilepsy would rather have her type because it is triggered by stress and stress can be controled somewhat. We looked at each other and thank the doctor. WHAT, our daughter is a teenager, with adult sized issues she has been living with since she was an infant. She is not able to go to Tibet to master herself at this point in her life. Who knows, maybe someday. The doctor did not realize how she belittled my daughters situation with her comment. It felt like, she was saying, "well, your seizures are your own fault, learn how to deal with them otherwise you are on your on." Anyway, enough venting. Your advice was terrific and greatly appreciated!!

Thank you :clap:
 
Hello Electra,

I completely agree that emergency room doctors can send you home feeling worse and lost. I am sorry it took a Tonic Clonic to get them to run the right tests for you.

Some doctors, for whatever reasons, have been known to blame health problems on weight and stress. Sometimes it is true but I am more worried about the times it is not. We are all individuals and should be treated as such.

Although are daughter is one of the "lucky" ones that her seizure activity shows up on the EEG every time even with meds it is still worrisome to have the doctor say, it is anxiety. So, it is her fault? When she was 13 months old and running happliy around the room with her older sisters and parents laughing with her and she would stop, have a seizure, and continue(this is before we knew what was going on) she was not having anxiety! She had seizures before she had stress and now the stress is taking a toll and making her seizures worse. She can continue using some techinques but I am at a loss at what else she or we can do for her at this point.
 
I find that no matter how happy i am or care free,the thought off epilepsy will rear its ugly head in the back off my mind and il'l think......what if.So i don't really think you ever not think off epilepsy.It's always there,it never dissapears completly.Thats my take on it.
 
Crash said:
I find that no matter how happy i am or care free,the thought off epilepsy will rear its ugly head in the back off my mind and il'l think......what if.So i don't really think you ever not think off epilepsy.It's always there,it never dissapears completly.Thats my take on it.
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:agree:
 
Hormones could be a trigger for your daughter also, since you said she was a teenager.
 
Mentalpause (menopause) will not exist by the time I reach that stage because my system is so messed up now....lol I feel I have a stress threshold of 1 and everyone else has 10 before the physical craziness presents itself. Lucille I was told I had Shingles once because I bit my tongue during a grand mal in my sleep (my tongue was so swollen) and I my arms were so sore and I was very very tired (fall asleep sitting up) and my husband was questioning the doctor because he thought there was something going on with me but I didn't know because I was asleep. He is the one that started noticing seizures and told me there was something happening to me in the night and I that I needed to go see the doctor. I thought he was half cracked.
 
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