'Psychogenic Seizures'

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Whether psychogenic seizures exist or not, I DO lose consciousness with the seizures I'm having, and I DO have them in my sleep (causing me to wake up with memory problems). And I can only hope they put me on seizure meds (as opposed to Xanax) or I'm likely to kill somebody next time I get behind the wheel of my car.
 
I started having the Consious Seizures for the first time in my life a week ago today. They started 40 hours after my last dose of Keppra XR and Carbotral. I was admited to the Hospital for a VEEG, and thats what I experienced when I was there. Totally new to what I have had before, which was complex partial seizures. During these seizures, I experienced first the numbingness and tingling in my hands and feet, and the aura. Then came on the seizure, which caused my whole body to jerk all over. Half way into the seizure, my face, hands, feet and legs went totally numb! Like a heavy numb feeling! I could hear everything people were saying, I just couldnt get the seizure to stop. I couldnt stop the jerking. Before these occured, I also experienced stomach pain, like someone had hit me in the stomach and I felt sick to my stomach. After the seizure was over, I went back to being my normal self. Before, I would have the complex partial seizures where I wouldnt remember anything of the seizure, or what took place. So these were all very new to me. Now my dr said that he can still see spikes on my VEEG where he can see the epilepsy, but he wanted me to have a grand mal seizure, and I didnt. He said these were not epileptic seizures, but the more I google things, Im finding these seizures that occured, were simple partial seizures.

I have an appointment with a psych dr in a few days and I printed off some papers I found regarding the seizures I had while in the hospital. Ive never before had these seizures and my dr believes they were brought on by stress. But in my opinion, they are not stress related. My dr said it looks like I out grew the big seizures, since he was wanting me to have the grand mal seizure.

Im going to bring this up to the dr on friday, when I see her. I want her to know what took place and that these new seizures never occured before being taken off my anti seizure medications, Cold Turkey.
 
Well, I had more seizures on Wednesday, which is why I haven't responded. Do these sound like epileptic seizures or not?...

I woke up with memory problems on Wednesday morning (what day is it? what should I be doing? etc...), though they didn't seem too severe this time in comparison to others I've had (I came around sooner anyway), so I wasn't even sure if this was going to end up being a 'seizure day'.

But then I had one...a funny chemical taste in my mouth, along with a weird 'I'm not here' feeling, followed by a dizzy spell. I called my neighbor shortly thereafter, and he drove me to the lab to get my prolactin level drawn...once I remembered I needed my prolactin level drawn, that is! Apparently I had more seizures in the car, both going and coming home. I don't even remember the entire ride to the lab, and my neighbor told me later I kept asking him who he was...?

Then when I got home my daughter called me, and apparently while I was on the phone with her I dropped the phone and didn't respond. She called back, but the phone was busy because I didn't realize I dropped the phone, so I must've been out of it a while. She panicked and called my neighbor to come check on me, and my neighbor ended up calling an ambulance. While in the ambulance I seizured some more, and they said that during one of my seizures my eyes rolled back in my head and up to the right??? Doesn't that mean my seizures are coming from a certain area in my brain? My right side? My left side?

Sorry, but these have to be real seizures, don't they? I lose consciousness, at least partially, even though my eyes are open. I follow simple instructions (sometimes), but seem 'not all there'...

Oh, I almost forgot!...when I had that seizure while talking on the phone, I was smoking a cigarette at the time. I must've really been really 'out of it' because, not only did I drop the phone and not realize it, but I burned two of my fingers 'zoning'...didn't feel any pain whatsoever while it was happening...but now I have two blisters between the fingers I was using to hold the cigarette.

Sound like a partial seizure???
 
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I was sexually abused by a relative when I was 4 and when I was 28 I had a cocaine and drinking problem,Ive had serious bouts with postpartum depression and I havent felt mentally normal for as long as I can remember.I try to put on a good act for those around me.Ive isolated myself tremendously.Now,according to all this I am a perfect candidate for psychogenic seizures.Now I read where people who have epileptic seizures can exhibit these same behaviours because of the way their brain reacts or is conditioned to react.So which is it? ive come to the conclusion nobody knows and its like swimming upstream-just keep yelling and switching docs til you are satisfied.Shame it has to be like this.docs are what I term "repeaters" they spout whatever they are taught instead of true facts in each individual case.Add to this the fact that people can generally be lazy and label you with the quickest and easiest dx-whether its correct or not.
 
I too have burnt my fingers and cut myself but my big question is do you have gaps in your memory-short term from psychogenic seizure?I have little gaps all the time which makes me think that Im having seizures come back-dont remember a conversation or what I did with some money or that I gave somebody a house key just wondering if anybody out there has tiny memory blips and how its related to the actual seizure itself because I cant connect my blips to a seizure only to feeling weird but not like my other seizures
 
I know people can have epileptic and psychogenic seizures.How do you separate them?Does one cause auras and loss of memory and the other doesnt? I think Im having both and I want toknow what to look forToo many symptoms fall under both types-Id like to hear from real people,not an article by a doctor who is quick to categorize.And another nosy question-Has anybody been helped with psychogenic seizures by going the "psych" route? Did "talking" really help or did it make you more convinced you have epileptic seizures? Ive heard that the meds only work on ep seizures and if they dont,its psychogenic-but I dont think I believe that either.
 
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mel239 said:
I know people can have epileptic and psychogenic seizures.How do you separate them?Does one cause auras and loss of memory and the other doesnt? I think Im having both and I want toknow what to look forToo many symptoms fall under both types-Id like to hear from real people,not an article by a doctor who is quick to categorize.And another nosy question-Has anybody been helped with psychogenic seizures by going the "psych" route? Did "talking" really help or did it make you more convinced you have epileptic seizures? Ive heard that the meds only work on ep seizures and if they dont,its psychogenic-but I dont think I believe that either.
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after having a veeg done, my dr told me the seizures I were having were non epileptic seizures. He took me off cold turkey from both of my seizure medications and within 40 hours I was having seizures were I was consious through out the entire seizure. I looked more into why I was having these new seizures and found that when taken off cold turkey of medications, it can cause different and new seizures to come about. Which explains my situation.

My neuro did referr me to a psych dr, and I did go see her, just for the heck of it. After she asked me alot of different questions, she believes I dont have stress related seizures like my neuro thinks I had during the veeg. She thinks becuase they stopped shortly after I was put back on my Keppra XR, that they are most likely epileptic seizures that just are too deep within the brain to be picked up on a veeg.

I believe that they are epileptic simple partial seizures. I have pretty much all of the classic symptoms of the simple partial seizures.

Im eager to see what my dr will say in May when I have my folllow up appointment with him.
 
tossed from one soup bowl to another while we try to raise our kids and have a decent life-not even having a correct diagnosis is enough to bring normalcy to our lives and because we dont fall into their consistent pattern,its an uphill battle with cement shoes on and when we finally get appts,they are months later and I can hardly function for today!!
 
Got my 24-hour Ambulatory EEG report, and it claims 'non-epileptic seizures'. The problem with it is I experienced absolutely ZERO seizures that day, ZERO events similar to what had caused me to run my car into a ditch back in December and drop the phone and burn my fingers on a cigarette last Wednesday. I even noted this on my EEG log, but they failed to type that into the report?! No wonder my neuro isn't concerned with these espisodes.

I pressed the button several times during the 24-hour Ambulatory EEG...when I felt a needle-like pinch in my head, for example...but I only did this just in case it WAS a seizure. None of my button-press 'events' were like these other episodes I experience.

I'm so disgusted anymore.
 
elizzza811 said:
Got my 24-hour Ambulatory EEG report, and it claims 'non-epileptic seizures'. The problem with it is I experienced absolutely ZERO seizures that day, ZERO events similar to what had caused me to run my car into a ditch back in December and drop the phone and burn my fingers on a cigarette last Wednesday. I even noted this on my EEG log, but they failed to type that into the report?! No wonder my neuro isn't concerned with these espisodes.

I pressed the button several times during the 24-hour Ambulatory EEG...when I felt a needle-like pinch in my head, for example...but I only did this just in case it WAS a seizure. None of my button-press 'events' were like these other episodes I experience.

I'm so disgusted anymore.
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My VEEG that I had March 7th through March 11th, the seizures that I exerienced, my dr said were non epileptic seizures. They started out with the funny feeling, then my hands and feet would go numb and tingling feeling, and then the body jerking would come, and into the seizure, my face would feel like a zillion needles were all over it, the intesity of the numbness and tingly feeling increased in my hands and feet and went to my upper legs during the seizure too. I was fully aware of what was going on during the seizure too.

Are you having seizures like simple partials? I saw a pysch dr last week and she said she would sum up my seizures I had to simple partials that were too deep within the brain to detect on the VEEG.

Maybe thats whats happening with you too? Did you talk to your neurologist about the results?
 
thats what happened during my veeg-only one episode not like usual-I wasnt even going to press the button but I was talking to my boyfriend and my left arm got so weak and everything seemed far away and he said later that my speech was slurred I could hear him telling me to press the button and when they came in I couldnt respond to anything but then as it came back I heard myself telling them that this wasnt it-I had no smells or or bugs crawling on me or none of what I was used to.Whole thing lasted about 20 seconds-first I was there then I faded and came back but I had memory.They called it a paroxysmal event and my eeg was crazy but no actual seizure spike
 
I also had those wires inserted that are supposed to pick up deep seizures-I would imagine those are foolproof-they hurt enough even though I have no memory of even goig or nothing done to me-they said I responded normally but i cant even remember the hour long car ride.The nigt before my boyfriend pulled me from under the water in the tub dont remember that or packing to go.when it was time to go I found out I got to hospital in my pj's-that must have been a funny sight!In there for 8 days and was given ativan the first 3 and lyrica the last 2-I thought you went off meds?Was put in there because the week prior I went into my bank and closed all my accounts-no memory of that.My epi said my memory issues were interictal-that the seizures were breaking the connection that would build an episode into a memory and thats why I acted normal doing those things
 
I actually had some possible spikes on my first (regular) EEG, but because I clench my teeth CONSTANTLY (including during the EEG), they didn't know what to make of it...but I honestly believe this clenching is related to all of this. They kept telling me to relax my jaw, but I can't.

I wish now that I'd have never pressed the button.
 
Now she's going to try to do a 72-hour ambulatory EEG next, and I probably won't seizure during that period of time...my seizures are 9 days to 5 weeks apart, so figure the odds?

I definitely will NOT press the button this time around, unless I have an 'event' similar to the one I had driving.
 
Ok-heres my thought-if the meds are working and Im seeing a psych doc about once a month which my epi is insistent on-he says anyone with chronic illness or new diagnosis would benefit-and you have had at some point in time an eeg that had disturbances,spikes,slowing,funky rythyms or any flipping thing that correlated with any of the symptoms you have complained about,why not treat the patient and not the flipping paperwork requiring a diagnosis?Even my work requires an actual diagnosis for you to be covered from your job.
 
I think it's important that we DO recognize non-epileptic seizures as a very real thing (like we recognize stress as being a very real [and powerful] thing). It's fairly undisputed in the medical literature. They're often concomitant with epileptic seizures, and from what I've read can be just as debilitating, if not more so (granted not life-threatening). Our brains have some pretty outrageous coping mechanisms. I've been through traumatic experiences where I've lost all recollection of the events for more than a decade. I had no control over the memory loss, as I'm sure individuals experiencing non-epileptic seizures have no control over their altered mental states. Psychogenic does not imply faking seizures. Not at all; just that they aren't on account of electrical misfiring.
 
I read those definitions and personally I tried to hyperventilate and look at a strobe pattern to bring ine on because I wanted out of there and I did this on little sleep and a few packets of equal for aspartame-I got no where
 
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