Dissociation And Psychosomatic Seizures?

[missd84]

Last weekend, I was shopping and I thought I experiencing, more precisely, depersonalization, out-of-body experience precipitated by anxiety. Well, when I was discussing this experience at my support group for rape survivors with the facilitator (who's a licensed, practicing psychologist), she asked me if I ever had psychosomatic seizures. I said no because I never heard that term before.

When I was younger, I did have a seizure disorder. They were non-epileptic but they never said specifically what kind I suffered from. At the time I started having the seizures, I was terrified of this boy in my class who was so obsessed with me that he rubbed on me and told me he would rape me if I didn't shut up just two years earlier. I'm just wondering now if maybe if what I was experiencing was a psychosomatic seizure because sometimes when I think I'm experiencing depersonalization, it feels very similar....in a daze/trance like state, not in control of your body, difficulty talking. From what I have read these types of seizures are brought on by stress/trauma and can last awhile. I remember my doctors as a kid being baffled because my seizures would last for hours.

Anyone out there have any insight on this? I'm not asking for a diagnosis, just more information because it's something I want to understand better and quite honestly, it scares me that maybe I need to find a way to get in with a neurologist to stop this from happening (once I get insurance/job again). It's been happening a lot more frequently lately.

 

[Seneca]

Non-epileptic seizures do seem like red flags, since convulsions are a classic sign of "hysteria," which has been linked to sexual abuse. I have these all the time in front of people and it's extremely embarrassing. I feel like I'm doing it to be dramatic, but when I try to stop it, it just gets worse.

Here's an article that might be helpful. It's interesting that they say these are "somewhat more common among women," because back in the day, they were almost always associated with women. Being male, I would HATE to have lived back then. lol

[DLMURL]http://www.epilepsy.com/articles/ar_1112967056[/DLMURL]

 

[Gamereign555]

I think you might be touching on something here for some people, though there is not a lot of information on the topic. They do state that there is a slight but noticeable connection between people who have PNES, stating that upwards of 20% of the sufferers have Epilepsy. Ptsd sufferers should be especially aware and look into this if their 'dissociations' have resulted in falls, trembling and memory loss, not just spacing out. Although in a couple rare cases, only just spacing out was reported.
PNES is a seisure disorder caused by your brains reaction to stress. There is nothing to suggest that Depersonalization and Derealization episodes are related to PNES, but because they tend to play off of the rising anxiety levels in people, it certainly does make me wonder. However the article makes no mention of this being connected to DP/DR or the experiences of it during the seisures from PNES, which really does distance these as seperate from the topic.

An interesting note, on the article, it states that untold numbers of people might have been misdiagnosed with Epilepsy, because there is no reliable test for PNES, these people might actually be having seizures because of untreated PNES, and attempts to treat the misdiagnosed Epilepsy with anti seizure medications will likely not work. Also likely to happen is somebody who has Epilepsy might not feel like they have a handle on their condition, this because they also might be unaware and have undiagnosed PNES, which has slipped under the radar and mimicked itself as Epilepsy, though it seems like if you had PTSD along with PNES, you might already be treating yourself for the PNES with the anti depressants and other medications we commonly use.

 

[missd84]

Seneca, thank you for the link to the article. It was very informative. It helped me to understand a lot more. I'm going to have to look into this in more depth. I think it's a topic that like gamereign555 said, does not have a lot of attention paid to it. It would just be nice to make sense of what's going on with my body.

 

[lil_fighter]

I searched non epileptic seizures and found this thread which I see hasn't been active for a while but I hope someone will be able to help

I had a non epileptic seizure in october and have been off work since then, I am on a waiting list for CBT and had an assessment. The therapist said it's post traumatic stress disorder and mild depression and the neurologist made the same diagnosis..neither one knew of the diagnosis that each one had already made so it seems pretty likely which I have to say Im relieved about to an extent because epilepsy has been ruled out.

The consultant at the hospital said that he's concerned that CBT wont be enough and said it will just be 6 sessions and probably wont tackle the problem.

I read the article provided by Seneca which was really useful and would like to know how missd84 the original poster is getting along with the seizures etc.?

 

[Zef]

Not sure if this helps the conversation or not, but thought I would mention it since I am dx with cPTSD, possible DDNOS thought it might apply.

I've had my body want to go into seizures, but I have stopped it. Pretty much 100% rate when in public, but sometimes in bed, I'll start getting body tics and will "let" my body spasm for awhile.