Does Anyone Else Have Conversion Disorder?

[Stormy Eagle]

As a result of my traumas, I have suffered from Conversion Disorder, which I recently heard is a fairly common symptom of C-ptsd.

I was diagnosed with PTSD, and conversion disorder, after a fairly long stay in a hospital epilepsy unit.

Although my Neurologist, and the neurological Psychiatrist, explained that the two were connected - I was having seizures because I had been emotionally traumatized, and I was manifesting my emotional trauma physically - they led me to believe this was very rare.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

 

[Phoenix_Rising]

I have epilepsy, and I honestly--I mean I could be wrong--don't see how the two can be connected. I have heard of pseudo-epilepsy as a result of emotional issues. And epileptics often have more seizures under stress. But to actually have abnormal EEG results as a direct result? I would say if it was true epilepsy as a result of emotional trauma, it is most likely very rare. But you could just have epilepsy and trauma. Unless it is something like absence seizures, that could be dissociation, but again, it wouldn't be medically proven on EEG as epilepsy.

I know that there are parts of the brain that are identifiably associated with PTSD. This because in the throes of a particularly bad case of flashbacks, insomnia, dissociation, etc. I went to see the person who treats me with neurofeedback, and he told me that the areas in my brain that are associated with PTSD were off the charts. After that session, when he brought all that down, I was able to break free of all the flashbacks etc. I was experiencing, that were just like a loop that repeated itself over and over again and I couldn't get out of.

So honestly although I have a lot of first hand experience with this--and chronic pain, which could be a conversion disorder, that is what I have--I couldn't tell you. I would say no, because I just don't see how it could happen (unlike some other physical illnesses), but, it is still POSSIBLE.

Do you know why they think that? Many people have ideopathic epilepsy (including me) where the cause is unknown. That's very common. So I'm curious why they would think this is the case with you.

Anyway, I'm in no way invalidating your experience, so I sincerely hope I do not come across that way. But either way, it does not mean you do not have both epilepsy and trauma. If they are in fact connected and you do have an abnormal EEG then I would agree that that is highly unusual--or, you have a predisposition for some reason, and the stress from the trauma was a catalyst for the epilepsy.