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Grand Mal seizures after night of drinking, advice please

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 22:12
Hi, I am a 22 year old male who is generally health, although for the last about 3 months I have been slacking off with exercising. As a child (younger than 3 years old), I had a few absence seizures (less than 10) and then apparantely grew out of them. 2 months ago I had my first grand mal seizure the morning after a night of hard drinking, I was out for a friends birthday and did not get home until 2:30am. When I woke up in the morning I started playing video games, and within about 20 minutes I had a the grand mal. After going to the hospital and getting a CT scan and EEG, both which returned normal. My doctor told me that it appeared I have a mild seizure disorder, and there was a very low likelihood of another seizure occuring. 6 weeks later I had another grand mal, again after a night of hard drinking and lack of food. Today, 7 weeks after my first seizure I had my third grand mal, again after a night of drinking, but this night I had eaten very well and drank plenty of water throughout the night. But did go to bed very late, and threw up in the middle of the night. It seems to me that my seizures are occurring as a result of drinking too much. I am just about to finish university and have so much in my life I still want to do, does anyone here agree that the seizures are occurring because of my drinking? If I were to quit drinking alltogether for a long period of time do you think I could raise my seizure threshold, and also not worry about having an unprovoked seizure? Thank you. UPDATE: First of all, thank you for your responses. After quitting drinking and continuing to have seizures, and visiting the doctor again it has been determined that I have Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy, and have been put on Valproic Acid for it.

Comments

Re: Grand Mal seizures after night of drinking, advice please

Submitted by greastipher on Mon, 2010-07-19 - 12:40
Do you have any thoughts on why I have all the sudden started having seizures. I mean I have overdrank to the point of a bad hangover before, so why now have I just started having seizures with my hangovers as well?

Re: Grand Mal seizures after night of drinking, advice please

Submitted by Jk606 on Tue, 2010-07-20 - 10:21

That's the $million dollar$ question, nobody knows.  You may get away with drinking heavily some nights and be fine, but why risk it?  However, since you have had seizures when you were little, you may be more at risk for having seizures. When I had my first seizure (tonic clonic) I thought it was just a one time thing and didn't have another one until 4 years later.  If I were you, I would start a diary writing down everything, that way you can get an idea of what may trigger your seizures in addition to alcohol and lack of sleep.  My triggers, for example, are lack of sleep, alcohol, stress, getting sick (cold or flu season I know I have to take extra care of myself), and not eating (if you combine all of those together its guaranteed I will have a tonic clonic).

I'm sorry I can't give you more info (but I'm sure you've already read all the info about epilepsy on this website), but I would suggest finding an epileptologist so you can get diagnosed and getting on meds (if you're not already on them).

Take care and good luck!!!

That's the $million dollar$ question, nobody knows.  You may get away with drinking heavily some nights and be fine, but why risk it?  However, since you have had seizures when you were little, you may be more at risk for having seizures. When I had my first seizure (tonic clonic) I thought it was just a one time thing and didn't have another one until 4 years later.  If I were you, I would start a diary writing down everything, that way you can get an idea of what may trigger your seizures in addition to alcohol and lack of sleep.  My triggers, for example, are lack of sleep, alcohol, stress, getting sick (cold or flu season I know I have to take extra care of myself), and not eating (if you combine all of those together its guaranteed I will have a tonic clonic).

I'm sorry I can't give you more info (but I'm sure you've already read all the info about epilepsy on this website), but I would suggest finding an epileptologist so you can get diagnosed and getting on meds (if you're not already on them).

Take care and good luck!!!

Re: Grand Mal seizures after night of drinking, advice please

Submitted by rikk on Mon, 2010-07-19 - 12:36

hi,

you have your own answer.  drinking causes seizures.  You are  not the only one, but stopping the drinking should not be a question any longer.  If you drink, more than likely you will seize.  make your own decision, just understand the results of your decision.

hope it helps,  rikk

hi,

you have your own answer.  drinking causes seizures.  You are  not the only one, but stopping the drinking should not be a question any longer.  If you drink, more than likely you will seize.  make your own decision, just understand the results of your decision.

hope it helps,  rikk

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