Deja vu and Epilepsy

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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 TXcwgrl on Mon, 2011-12-12 - 12:39

I had my first 'episode of this deja vu, dizziness, nausea; ending in a cold sweat about 2 1/2 years ago.

Then beginning in Sept 11, I started having them more regularly. Since Sept, I have had 21 of these 'episodes'. I have had bloodwork, EEG, MRI, Ultra Sound and heart tests... and nothing is showing up.

I do have an appointment with a neurologist on Thursday.

Words of wisdom???

Signed...

Nervous :(

I had my first 'episode of this deja vu, dizziness, nausea; ending in a cold sweat about 2 1/2 years ago.

Then beginning in Sept 11, I started having them more regularly. Since Sept, I have had 21 of these 'episodes'. I have had bloodwork, EEG, MRI, Ultra Sound and heart tests... and nothing is showing up.

I do have an appointment with a neurologist on Thursday.

Words of wisdom???

Signed...

Nervous :(

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Hello Tired Soul I'm notsure

Submitted by Mr. Déjà vu on Tue, 2017-10-10 - 07:41

Hello Tired Soul I'm notsure that you'll ever see this since it's been over a year since you posted buthey if you do great. Your issue is probably the closest that I've seen tomy very own. I have what they call nocturnal seizures where I only getgrand mals at night when I'm sleeping and they say it has something to do withwhen I'm going into rem sleep. I had my first one in my early 40's butway before then, back in 4th grade, I stared to have the EVIL deja vufeeling. They would always make me sick to my stomach and the longerthey'd last the sicker that I'd feel. I slowly got used to themthroughout the years and while they would come and go in spells they finallywent to mainly night time when I'd wake up. I'd get so sick that I'd feellike there was no way that I'd be able to go to work in the morning but by theAM the feeling was always gone. One of the strange things, and I've seenanother person describe this, is that when I'm having deja vu part of me wantit to keep going, like it's sucking me in, but then the other part knows thatit's bad and it tries to resist it. I'm writing this for two reasons, onebeing that I've had several episodes in the last six months that have been alot more intense than usual, this past weekend I slid into a full blow partialseizure where I squeezed my wife’s hand, froze up, and I had no memory of anyof it happening. It freaked her out pretty bad. And then justyesterday I had another one that didn't go quite that far but it was far enoughfor me and it now has me kind of freaked out. The 2nd reason that I'mreplying to your post is that I'd really like to talk with you more about someof your occurrences to see how yours are similar to mine. This wholething has gotten kind really weird, and hey I've had deja vu for YEARS now, andit would be nice to have someone to talk to that goes through somethingsimilar. I'll watch for a reply from you and if you'd like toemail me you can do so at strouper2@gmail.com Thanks and good luck!

Hello Tired Soul I'm notsure that you'll ever see this since it's been over a year since you posted buthey if you do great.  Your issue is probably the closest that I've seen tomy very own.  I have what they call nocturnal seizures where I only getgrand mals at night when I'm sleeping and they say it has something to do withwhen I'm going into rem sleep.  I had my first one in my early 40's butway before then, back in 4th grade, I stared to have the EVIL deja vufeeling.  They would always make me sick to my stomach and the longerthey'd last the sicker that I'd feel.  I slowly got used to themthroughout the years and while they would come and go in spells they finallywent to mainly night time when I'd wake up.  I'd get so sick that I'd feellike there was no way that I'd be able to go to work in the morning but by theAM the feeling was always gone.  One of the strange things, and I've seenanother person describe this, is that when I'm having deja vu part of me wantit to keep going, like it's sucking me in, but then the other part knows thatit's bad and it tries to resist it.  I'm writing this for two reasons, onebeing that I've had several episodes in the last six months that have been alot more intense than usual, this past weekend I slid into a full blow partialseizure where I squeezed my wife’s hand, froze up, and I had no memory of anyof it happening.  It freaked her out pretty bad.  And then justyesterday I had another one that didn't go quite that far but it was far enoughfor me and it now has me kind of freaked out.  The 2nd reason that I'mreplying to your post is that I'd really like to talk with you more about someof your occurrences to see how yours are similar to mine.  This wholething has gotten kind really weird, and hey I've had deja vu for YEARS now, andit would be nice to have someone to talk to that goes through somethingsimilar.    I'll watch for a reply from you and if you'd like toemail me you can do so at strouper2@gmail.com  Thanks and good luck! 

Hello Tired Soul I'm notsure that you'll ever see this since it's been over a year since you posted buthey if you do great. Your issue is probably the closest that I've seen tomy very own. I have what they call nocturnal seizures where I only getgrand mals at night when I'm sleeping and they say it has something to do withwhen I'm going into rem sleep. I had my first one in my early 40's butway before then, back in 4th grade, I stared to have the EVIL deja vufeeling. They would always make me sick to my stomach and the longerthey'd last the sicker that I'd feel. I slowly got used to themthroughout the years and while they would come and go in spells they finallywent to mainly night time when I'd wake up. I'd get so sick that I'd feellike there was no way that I'd be able to go to work in the morning but by theAM the feeling was always gone. One of the strange things, and I've seenanother person describe this, is that when I'm having deja vu part of me wantit to keep going, like it's sucking me in, but then the other part knows thatit's bad and it tries to resist it. I'm writing this for two reasons, onebeing that I've had several episodes in the last six months that have been alot more intense than usual, this past weekend I slid into a full blow partialseizure where I squeezed my wife’s hand, froze up, and I had no memory of anyof it happening. It freaked her out pretty bad. And then justyesterday I had another one that didn't go quite that far but it was far enoughfor me and it now has me kind of freaked out. The 2nd reason that I'mreplying to your post is that I'd really like to talk with you more about someof your occurrences to see how yours are similar to mine. This wholething has gotten kind really weird, and hey I've had deja vu for YEARS now, andit would be nice to have someone to talk to that goes through somethingsimilar. I'll watch for a reply from you and if you'd like toemail me you can do so at strouper2@gmail.com Thanks and good luck!

Deja vu and Epilepsy

Comments

Re: Deja vu and Epilepsy

Submitted by TXcwgrl on Mon, 2011-12-12 - 12:39

How I Got My Husband Back

Submitted by pasty111 on Mon, 2017-04-03 - 20:33

Hello Tired Soul I'm notsure

Submitted by Mr. Déjà vu on Tue, 2017-10-10 - 07:41

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