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Deja vu and Epilepsy

Sat, 09/06/2008 - 19:09

Ok I'm going to give a short version and a long version, as the long one might be too long for many...

SHORT:

-I'm 23, have had 5-6 deja vu episodes in 3-4 weeks. Daydream alot and have fleeting thoughts of normal things seeming weird or funny (but not necessarily unfamiliar). No family history, no grand mal, no head trauma. What's the likelihood of TLE? What else might it be?

LONG:

I'm 23 and have experienced five or six very strong feelings of deja vu in the last 3-4 weeks or so, which was enough to tip me off to possible temporal lobe epilepsy after searching around a bit. They generally last about 10-20 seconds and are not accompanied by the same dread, or stomach discomfort, or fear, or happiness that seems to be common with many TLE patients, but they're also momentarily quite strong (and frustrating!) for me.

I also have been having these thoughts every once in a while that ordinary things, objects, words, concepts, etc. (could be anything depending on the concept) seem somewhat silly or different than they normally would feel. In a way, I feel like I'm processing the world differently, almost a bit, yet not entirely, detached from it for just a few seconds or so. I'm not quite sure it's jamais vu since it's never had any sort of emotion or gut-type "feeling" that deja vu has, and I know what I'm looking at/touching/hearing/etc fine and not actually forgetting anything about it. As an example, it could be as trivial as say looking at a phone or hearing the word phone (or whatever else) and thinking "hm, what a funny thing with a funny name. never thought of a phone that way, i know it's a phone, but it seems kinda silly. kind of weird we use them" and then snap back into it and realize a phone is a phone and i've been using it and familiar with it my whole life. It feels like I'm a permanent stoner or something. Sorry if that sounds a bit nuts, just a quirky thing that I'm wondering if it's related to possible TLE or something else.

I also tend to have some issues fairly regularly with daydreaming or forgetting for a second what it was I was doing or wanted to do (momentary memory, basically), but I've always attributed that to lack of sleep, being a space cadet, or whatever else might cause it, and I'm not too sure if it's symptomatic of TLE.

In any case, I have never had head trauma, have no family history of epilepsy, and obviously never had a grand mal or anything like it. I saw a neuro who took history and notes before referring me to a specialist who's going to take a month to schedule an appointment and for an MRI in the meantime. He mentioned that there are psychological theories but no other neurological explanations aside from TLE to explain having 6 deja vus along with the other quirkiness. Obviously then, it would be frustrating if the MRIs and EEGs, etc all come back fine with no diagnosis made as I could be stuck with these spells (which are affecting my work right now).

That said, I'm wondering a few things:

1) What is the likelihood of TLE (given age, no family history or trauma, symptoms)? Also, what is the likelihood that someone non-TLE has 6 dejavu episodes in a 3-4 weeks timeframe?

2) What are potential alternative explanations if not TLE?

3) What can/will be done if everything comes back okay but I'm still having symptoms?

4) Would stress/lack of sleep cause the symptoms, or do they actually trigger the epilepsy which in turn triggers the symptoms?

Obviously any answers to any of the questions are much appreicated. Thanks and look forward to the discussion!

-Mikey

Comments

Re: Deja vu and Epilepsy

Submitted by mixuga on Fri, 2010-10-29 - 01:54
I have a niece and a granmother who are epileptic. My symtoms seem to be quite nearly identical to many posters here. When i was a kid/teenager I would often get tingling feelings as if the blood was rushing to the side of body that was closest to the floor if I was lying down on my side watching tv. My whole body and head would get numb and tingly. 2 times while smoking pot I have collapsed and broken out into a sweat had rapid heart beat. Within the last year after quitting my job I held for 15 years due to a hostile work environment, I have started having the deju feeling come on anywhere from 1x every couple of weeks to 7 times within the last 24 hours. It seems to follow with a feeling of "oh no, here we go again." I often feel like there is something evil in my presence suddenly or watching me from behind on my right side. I can have tunnel vision dizziness, light headedness, seem to almost forget to breath and rapid heart beat, exhaustion and need to lie down and either curl up or lie on my stomach with my eyes closed til it goes away. I break out into a sweat, need to turn on the ceiling fan and get very numb in my limbs and tingling. I also seem to drop things more than I used to. not able to grab onto things like I should. I have a history of anxiety, depression, suicide attempts, and for a while we thought I might be bipolar, then was placed on neurontin and valproic acid for a while. I went off all the meds cause I didn't think they were working rather making me more of a mess. I used to get horrible migraines when I was a teenager into my adulthood with nausea, vomiting, excruciating pain that would make me roll around on the ground or the bed and couldn't deal with lights or noises. This last 24 hours I have had 7 'episodes' had at least one while asleep. was up early this morning around 9 or 10. then had another one and went back to bed. I took a xanax I think last night or this morning cause this is the most I've ever had. I woke up this evening around 9:30 and couldn't figure out why it was still dark outside until I realized it was night time. But I couldn't remember anything prior to the night before...not getting up this morning or anything for quite some time. My mid back and calf muscles are delibilatingly sore all of a sudden and I chewed and bit my tongue on both sides so I have to be careful with what I eat or it will sting. I took an epsom salt bath twice, used an infrered heat lamp on my back, took 2 naproxen and still I've very sore and my headache is still here. My neighbor is a doc and he said it sounds very much like epilepsy, but none of the other docs seem to think its anything but panic attacks/anxiety. sometimes the episodes only get as far as an aura and then stop. sometimes it seems I can stop them. Sometimes they are almost enjoyable but the evil deja vue feeling is horrible. It has made me cry from feeling. I'm over it!

Re: Deja vu and Epilepsy

Submitted by princesskyles on Mon, 2010-12-27 - 19:58

I expereince this all the time

 

even when its not a seizure sometimes I get to the feeling that I think its a seizure but its not. I spent 17 days in a seizure monitoring unit and most of those feelings were not seizure related. I seem to daydream a lot too, I need a digital recorer for college. I think its lack of sleep or stressors around me that make me that way sometimes.

 

Good luck

I expereince this all the time

 

even when its not a seizure sometimes I get to the feeling that I think its a seizure but its not. I spent 17 days in a seizure monitoring unit and most of those feelings were not seizure related. I seem to daydream a lot too, I need a digital recorer for college. I think its lack of sleep or stressors around me that make me that way sometimes.

 

Good luck

Re: Deja vu and Epilepsy

Submitted by k5jrg on Sun, 2011-07-17 - 01:34
Hello! I too could not believe that others have these symptoms as I do. It seems that they can be different for everyone I suppose. I have never told anyone of these episodes that i have had. I am 36 years old and i started getting these Deja Vu moments when i was 12 years old. I never told anyone because I didn't understand it and thought that everyone would think I was crazy or weird. I didn't know how to explain it. My parents have told me that when I was a toddler around 3 or 4 I had seizures for a while but, it stopped on it's own. I really didn't correlate the deja vu with epilepsy until now. When it happens I get a strong feeling that I have seen or done something before. Sometimes I get thoughts of a dream I had. As soon as the thoughts come to my head I get dizzy. The dizziness sometimes is so strong that I need to grab ahold of something in fear of passing out. I also get a strong feeling in the pit of my stomach almost like going down on a roller coaster. Once this whole episode finishes I get disoriented. i forget things momentarily. It hasn't happened in a few months until about two weeks ago. I was at work on a register when it happened. When it was over I couldn't remember certain things I had to know at the register. I don't have medical insurance at the moment so i won't be able to get any tests I guess but I will as soon as I can. Thank you all so much for these comments.

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