Other Seizure disorders in ptsd

[cdinwv]

I am curious to know if anyone else suffers seizures with PTSD? One of my psychologists who specializes in PTSD survivors states that the brain can have scarring of "hot spots" deep within the brain from PTSD only detectable in real time while undergoing a MEG brain scan. When these "hot spots" become inflamed it can lead to seizure disorders in individuals suffering from PTSD.

I have never met anyone that has both a seizure disorder and PTSD. I have researched many documents, articles, youtube videos and such online but have not found a concrete link up between the two conditions or spoke with someone who has successfully under went medical evaluation to find the "hot spots" on the brain from PTSD that could possibly trigger seizures too.

I do not currently have insurance or the funds to pursue my own medical treatment at the moment but I hope to change that in the near future. So any input that anyone may have on this would be very much appreciative. Thanks.

 

[LoveFeelLiveAGAIN]

Hello there,
Well let me tell you that you are not the only one, and there is support out there. Im not sure about an MEG (not familiar with), but i know a EKG and an EEG will NOT show these "hot spots" unless you suffer from epilepsy or epileptic seizures. They are called pseudoseizures, if you research google documents you can find studies conducted and more information provided.and.done.by doctors that expertise are in this area. A seizure which is epileptic is neurological, yet a pseudoseizure is psychological. Therefore when you take these tests there is no such sign of activity. In time pseudoseizures have been called "fake" for that exact reason. But they arent. Not at all. All that we can do is learn what triggers them and our anxiety, THEN from there they'll slowlybfade. I have been seizure free for almost a year. Yet once our body, or in our case mind, has a seizure will ALWAYS be suseptable to them. A door has oened that can be shut just not sealed. Always know though, that you CAN live without for the rest of your life. So dont worry to kuch about the tests, because as long as you're not epileptic, it won't matter. STAY seeing someone:D, it helps me so so much. Positivity,.love,and acceptance got me through a lot. And knowing I wasnt alone or crazy. I hope the exact terminology helped and what i had to offer gave some piece of mind. You arent alone, it wass good to finally see im not either:). , hope, love, and brighter horizons to you. Sincerely Krissy

 

[LoveFeelLiveAGAIN]

*live the rest of your life WITHOUT SEIZURES!

 

[cdinwv]

Thank you for your information and what you have shared Krissy. I appreciate you taking the time to share with me about your seizures and your diagnosis. I do hope you are able to retain control and do not have anymore seizures. No, we are not alone in our diagnosis or seizures. I am too familar with the seizure terminology you used. As you are aware, all seizures and seizures disorders are different.

If you would like to share your type of seizures and years of your seizures experience, we can do this. I have supportive buddies who have different types of seizures, diagnosis and origins of why they have them too. From 1995-2011, I was diagnosed with Epilepsy while enduring the standarized testings. In 2009, I was diagnosed with PTSD. In 2011, I was in an epilepsy monitoring unit and confirmed as having nonepileptic seizures. I went 4 years from 1997-2001 without seizures. Then they came back. I wish you luck.

I should have better questioned this post. My main concern was if anyone had been through a MEG brain scan and their personal story with a MEG brain scan.

MEG scans can prove scientific evidence that PTSD does exist deep in the brain with "hot spots". These "hot spots" will light up in areas where the brain is damaged or dysfunctional in real time scans because of PTSD. It captures information like a sonogram would from what I have read. It is the most extensive brain scan that money can buy and pay for. It looks into depths of the brain that other tests can not find in scans or other brain scans are capable of.

MEG scans can also detect if these "hot spots or PTSD spots" get inflamed when triggered provoking inflammation or changes in the brain that can also produce seizures even tho, standardized epilepsy testing miss this in depth action of the brain where the problems occur. Seek out PTSD research on Google and you'll see what I mean or look up MEG scans for PTSD or seizures.

Now, pardon me for saying this, but if seizures and PTSD could be officially diagnosed and scientifically proven in the brain causing changes of brain functions, then the typical symptom checklist doctors use and the standarized brain scans would revolutionize the medical industry for PTSD patients and seizure patients as well. It would also cause a frenzy of mayhem with insurance companies to pay for these high price brain scans too.

This is my primary concern with a MEG scan. But if PTSD can officially be diagnosed by photographic images of the brain to prove PTSD and even seizures, I am sure alot of insurance companies would be floored and costs would excel beyond the roof along with doctor care. Patient cure and treatment could occur more effectively and efficiently finding the origin than the symptom checklist they use now.

I am not saying that people lie to get medical attention for disorders on purpose. But where I live in southern West Virginia we have many people getting federal funded benefits with financial monies and health care coverage for psychological conditions.

If MEG brain scans could prove scientific evidence of seizures and PTSD, how many would it prove that are falsely getting treatment for disorders they do not even have? How many more could it help if these MEG scans can prove isolation of brain issues and the complications from it and proper treatment, therapy and healing could occur because they found the origin instead of simple checklists of symptoms medical professionals use now?

I have spent many years researching any medical issues I have ever had to self-care and preserve my own life. If I would have always listened to doctors first and not sought support through my own research or from others that have been there and done that, I would not be alive now because of the medication roullette doctors have tried to use to "help" me which would have killed me with the harsh side effects.

As hard as PTSD and seizures can be to learn to cope with, seek healing and therapy for, I firmly believe that without us taking care of ourself first and what works for us,it will be medically detriment to our own health as an end result. I have seen too many abuse prescription medications and illegal drug abuse and even with my own mistreatment and medical disapproval because I do refuse to take a pill to cure me or go with the first opinion. I just won't do it and ask questions instead and seek out my own logical answers as I always have. This works for me.

Medically, we have to do what works for us. Asking questions and seeking support works for me.

 

[lil_fighter]

I had a psychosomatic seizure which was PTSD related in October, it had never happened to me before and was really scary..I think it was around that time I had to admit something was wrong because I tend to get on with life and put pressure on myself to keep busy etc. That was the time when I had to stop and accept help. I knew straight away that it wasn't epilepsy..deep down I knew but i went through the procedure, saw patronising doctors, consultants, had scans, tests etc. until I was diagnosed with PTSD in December.

The issue I have with seizures related to PTSD is not being taken seriously by those who's job it is to diagnose epilepsy and not being put into a box with 'Oh..it's ok it's probably just a panic attack' well..Im sorry but convulsing, arms and legs uncontrollably shaking violently, feeling like you're going to die..to me is not a panic attack. I've had panic attacks before and know how that feels..eventually they confirmed it was a non-epileptic seizure and the words 'you definitely had a seizure, there's no denying that' were strangely comforting after having PTSD symptoms for five years and feeling that it had all come to a head.

At the same time, I maintain that a combination of a change of environment, or attitude, therapy whatever is better for the individual is more ideal than pills and I know myself better than some doctor who choses to patronise.

I like this:

I do refuse to take a pill to cure me or go with the first opinion. I just won't do it and ask questions instead and seek out my own logical answers as I always have. This works for me.

 

[cdinwv]

lil_fighter, I do hope you continue on keep on fighting to overcome too:) I commend you for seeking help and hope you find support and the care needed to self-protect from the PTSD, seizures, and panic attacks. One condition alone is horrible but to deal with all three, is definetely no easy task and does take a lot of work, self-care, support and research to help ease symptoms and the triggers and stay on top of making the most quality of life a person can.

I agree with you about the doctors and medical professionals who lack to listen to the symptoms at hand. From what you describe, it is not a panic attack but indeed a seizure. Once a person suffers a panic attack, it is a world wind difference than a seizure and they are not in any way or form the same condition and PTSD only adds to the internal things on with a body and mind without doctors labeling something they truly do not know nor can not control or diagnose. That's my personal feeling of it of seeking medical assistance on many things.

I have had panic attacks as far back as I remember too before PTSD was diagnosed and even seizures began. Mine begins with a racing heart, chest tightness, palms sweating with and without stressful situations or any thing to contribute to it. Feels like I am having a heart attack and still does when I occassionally have them. I learned to inner calm myself through it by taking deep, long breaths to help me breath thru it now. I still don't know why I have them. After a few emergency room trips, I got tired of being asked what I was on or what I took and being treated like I was a drug addict. This is with no artifical substance or illegal substance in my body but yet I was labeled or treated as such. No thank you. I have learned through the years with research to cut back on caffeine and any thing I consume like sugars that could increase my already hyperviligance personality:) I allow myself an extra cup of coffee on the good days and sugars and on the bad days that things are a miss, I cut back completely or stay away from it.

I am learning more about my internal turmoil that my body and my brain are trying to eliminate of the years of stressful living, casting off the child abuse that still lives in my subconscious memory and apparently messed up even my body functions. Stress, abuse, and trauma are very hard to understand even living with the repercussions from it and gracious knows, what it really does do to the mind and body that we do not know about.

I just try life to the life to fullest on the good days and take it easy on the bad days. It's difficult. My gracious, my heart goes out to anyone who has a mental illness, has seizure disorders and medical circumstances that complicate and hinder life.

I personally feel compelled to assist others and share the journeys of even the nasty and darkest of health circumstances and life's complications so that maybe we can all help one another. My greatest hope is that one day a medical professional will read what is written by patients and consider what limits would they exhaust or do if the shoe was on the other foot so to speak and they were the patient too. Best of wishes and healthy preservation.

 

[eslucky]

I'm so happy I have found this forum and particularly this thread. My husband started to have seizures about 7 months ago and has had them about every 5 or 6 weeks since. The first one began on a day he had the flu and his Vietnam war memories surfaced to an extremely emotional level. He had his first seizure while sleeping that night (they have all been while sleeping).

He had a seizure Sunday night and then Monday while sleeping during the day. He is now experiencing "aura seizures" where things are usually very elated but today he has relived some Vietnam memories again and became very sad for a few moments.

All testing (MRIs and EEGs) have shown nothing. He is coming to terms with the fact that he has PTSD and is going to try and seek help through the VA.

Thank you so much for all of these very informative posts. Very helpful!

 

[LoveFeelLiveAGAIN]

Well ive asked around, and these MEG arent easy to come by. The few I was able to talk to sarcastically wished me luck. But hopefully I can get good referalls from my neurologists and psychiatrist and all my paperwork, then maybe i can get in to ucsf as trial maybe one day treatment. so thank you, it means so so much.. THANK YOU

 

[Anna]

I have experienced a seizure similar to an epileptic fit. This has happened on two or three occasions when experiencing emotional overload, normally during an argument with the abusive parent or my partner. I don't have it anymore because I can now control my emotions very well and have learned to control it. It was definatly psychosomatic for sure.

I have a partner who when we argue does not stop when I cry and keeps on going and going. Now they have learned to walk away or to leave the room if I get upset or cry. So this has helped stop it as well.

During the argument before we learned to deal with it, they would shout and shout. I would start to get upset, curl into a ball, put my hands over my ears, rock and shout "Stop it". They would continue. The pain in my head was extreme. Then I would shake and fall onto the floor and spasm. It was very very unpleasant and looked like an epileptic fit.

Possibly when triggered, certain circuits in the brain overload and can cause a fit. Especially during a flashback or if someone is causing you extreme emotional anguish.???

Hello there,
A seizure which is epileptic is neurological, yet a pseudoseizure is psychological. Therefore when you take these tests there is no such sign of activity. In time pseudoseizures have been called "fake" for that exact reason. But they arent. Not at all. All that we can do is learn what triggers them and our anxiety, THEN from there they'll slowly fade.

This sounds pretty much what I had. Thanks for the info :) I no longer experience them either since I gained control over my emotions.

Really interesting to read this thread. Never knew it was associated with PTSD. Terrible what the mind can do to the body.

 

[Emilie]

I don't exactly know if it's the same, but I recently have been having issues with twitching and shaking after a dizzy spell, sometimes after a panic attack. Because of the panic associated I am fairly certain it's psychosomatic.

My mother has had grand mal (diagnosed) real seizures all throughout my childhood. She also had a traumatic childhood and there's a possibility that she had PTSD but currently the consensus for her is psychopathy. There's a definitive link between real seizures as well as pseudoseizures in anxiety disorders, but no more than those with heart disease and the like running in families. Anxiety tends to leads towards many other issues in the long run. But also to consider is that an expected 20% of diagnosed epileptic people actually have non-epileptic seizures.

 

[ogster1234]

Hi, I think it's best to start with my story. I fell off a trailer around 3 years ago. I fractured my skull in 2 places, temporal lobe. I went through the claim system ( by the way not the fastest route but probably the more private route) to which I went to see a neurologist who suspected I was suffering temporal lobe epilepsy or generalised seizures.

I had an EEG and MRI. In the Video EEG during the breathing stage my body started to fit, I was fully conscious whilst this was happening and no EEG activity. The ones i had on a night time I couldn't do anything about they started the same way near enough everytime. Ringing in the ears (If you were to yawn you get a sound in your ear, but it was intermitant, fast. Faster than i can possibly do conscious) my body would lose control, sometimes I wouldn't move and just stare, sometimes they were painful like having an egyptian beetle crawling under your skin, pins and needles around your head or just at one side of my body on the right, FYI I hit my head on the right therefore the left should have been affected. I'd have them during the day, hard to distinguish but signs being staring, feeling a vocal cord in your throat which vibrates oddly when you speak, I wouldn't talk much sense after only noticeable that they happend after the look on a persons face when speaking to them.

After the MRI and EEG results collected, my brain hadn't become damaged and more importantly the epileptic part. The conclusion was that I had suffered Post Traumatic Seizures (PTS) as a result of the fall and after a year they had just dissapeared. I now get something not too dissimilar but to me they are far too suttle to be seizures. I tried to describe them to a Psychological nurse who said I hadn't suffered a seizure? lol and I just had panic attacks! The last 9 have definately to me been just "night terrors" but the things as I described to the neurologist last year are different by far. He didn't understand and he gave me this excuse of they are real to you.

 

[ogster1234]

I have never met anyone that has both a seizure disorder and PTSD. I have researched many documents, articles, youtube videos and such online but have not found a concrete link up between the two conditions or spoke with someone who has successfully under went medical evaluation to find the "hot spots" on the brain from PTSD that could possibly trigger seizures too.

I couldn't tell you about scarring on the brain is a cause, but it was mentioned in my medical report after an MRI. It stated "Most importantly no scarring" so that suggests to me it could be.

Generally in my experiance after i fell wrongly on my ankle around 8 months after my accident there seemed to be a conflict between my bodies reactions and my thinking. My body started to become in shock but in my head i'm asking myself what's the general problem and how my body seemed to over react to the situation. Problem is you'd have to assume your emotions are correct and my body was reacting as though i had broken it. I ignored what my body was telling me and hey presto i went back to work fine.

As hard as PTSD and seizures can be to learn to cope with, seek healing and therapy for, I firmly believe that without us taking care of ourself first and what works for us,it will be medically detriment to our own health as an end result. I have seen too many abuse prescription medications and illegal drug abuse and even with my own mistreatment and medical disapproval because I do refuse to take a pill to cure me or go with the first opinion. I just won't do it and ask questions instead and seek out my own logical answers as I always have. This works for me.

Medically, we have to do what works for us. Asking questions and seeking support works for me.

I'm in a similar position now, neurologist diagnosed me with PTS but the counsilor i'm seeing now doesn't reckon i've had any seizures, which is quite the statement when I spoke for 2 minuites describing them. He spoke so much crap about anxiety and panic attacks to appoint I ignored him. So now i'm going to have to pay stupid money to speak to a psychologist.