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Simple Partial Seizures v. BiPolar Disorder
Wed, 01/05/2005 - 09:13Comments
Re: Simple Partial Seizures v. BiPolar Disorder
Submitted by Cthebird on Tue, 2012-06-12 - 12:11
I know this is an old thread, but perhaps there is someone else out there that is still reading it.
I have bipolar type 1 disorder and Simple Partial Seizures. My bipolar disorder seems to have started when I was 15, but wasn't formally diagnosed until I was 32. At 33 the bipolar disorder became so bad that I was hospitalized. Altogether I was hospitalized 10 times during a 4.5 year period mostly for mixed manic episodes, the rest for a manic and depressive episode leading to a suicide attempt. Somewhere between my earliest hospitalizations I seemed to have these "abnormal" symptoms that were either hard for the psychiatrist to explain or interpreted as being psychosis, which I did have with bipolar disorder. The thing is that some of these weird symptoms are rare ones for bipolar disorder as well.
When I was hospitalized the 4th or 5th (or 6th????) time a psychiatrist actually suspected I had some seizure activity involved. He ordered a CT scan and an EEG. The results were normal so they ruled it out. Later more and more odd symptoms occurred so my home psychiatrist ordered a PET scan (I had also had MRIs done). All turned out fine so as a last effort to explore it I was sent to a neurologist. I described what was "not typical" bipolar and she said it sounded like I had Simple Partial Seizures. A 48 hour EEG came back fine, but a sleep deprivation EEG showed seizure activity. That was interesting since sleep deprivation also affects bipolar disorder. I had my dual diagnoses.
I take Tegretol (an anticonvulsant moodstabilizer) as well as some Lamictal (ditto) and Klonopin (which helps anxiety and seizures). My "seizures" still show themselves but ONLY when I'm in a mixed manic or hypo/manic episode and mostly mild. Almost never when I'm just depressed. I used to get mild seizure activity when stable in the form of musical hallucinations, but a large dose of Tegretol has seemingly wiped them out. The Neurologist thought they were psychiatric-based, my psychiatrist thought they were seizure-based. I believe my psychiatrist. I'm getting to have a good sense for what causes what.
My course of bipolar disorder has been very bad. I've been home on disability for most of 7 years. My bipolar episodes have lasted months and months or as little as a weeks or two. I have seen stability during this period but for only a couple of months at a time max. I'm on a very extensive list of medications including moodstabilizers (some anticonvulsants) and antipsychotics. I have told my psychiatrist that I think I have a very special (not in a good way) type of bipolar disorder. Probably one that needs its own name. He sort of agrees with me. Not sure if the "Simple Partial Seizure" disorder is part of that, or seperate.
I know that people with Simple Partial Seizures have different symptoms from each other, but some of mine (that I identify as the seizure activity) are as follows: repeating words, gibberish, deja vu, adrenaline rush, desire to run or become violent with things, psychomotor agitation, staring into space (catatonic), falling (in worst cases), smelling smoke, musical hallucinations (mostly original music).
I know this is an old thread, but perhaps there is someone else out there that is still reading it.
I have bipolar type 1 disorder and Simple Partial Seizures. My bipolar disorder seems to have started when I was 15, but wasn't formally diagnosed until I was 32. At 33 the bipolar disorder became so bad that I was hospitalized. Altogether I was hospitalized 10 times during a 4.5 year period mostly for mixed manic episodes, the rest for a manic and depressive episode leading to a suicide attempt. Somewhere between my earliest hospitalizations I seemed to have these "abnormal" symptoms that were either hard for the psychiatrist to explain or interpreted as being psychosis, which I did have with bipolar disorder. The thing is that some of these weird symptoms are rare ones for bipolar disorder as well.
When I was hospitalized the 4th or 5th (or 6th????) time a psychiatrist actually suspected I had some seizure activity involved. He ordered a CT scan and an EEG. The results were normal so they ruled it out. Later more and more odd symptoms occurred so my home psychiatrist ordered a PET scan (I had also had MRIs done). All turned out fine so as a last effort to explore it I was sent to a neurologist. I described what was "not typical" bipolar and she said it sounded like I had Simple Partial Seizures. A 48 hour EEG came back fine, but a sleep deprivation EEG showed seizure activity. That was interesting since sleep deprivation also affects bipolar disorder. I had my dual diagnoses.
I take Tegretol (an anticonvulsant moodstabilizer) as well as some Lamictal (ditto) and Klonopin (which helps anxiety and seizures). My "seizures" still show themselves but ONLY when I'm in a mixed manic or hypo/manic episode and mostly mild. Almost never when I'm just depressed. I used to get mild seizure activity when stable in the form of musical hallucinations, but a large dose of Tegretol has seemingly wiped them out. The Neurologist thought they were psychiatric-based, my psychiatrist thought they were seizure-based. I believe my psychiatrist. I'm getting to have a good sense for what causes what.
My course of bipolar disorder has been very bad. I've been home on disability for most of 7 years. My bipolar episodes have lasted months and months or as little as a weeks or two. I have seen stability during this period but for only a couple of months at a time max. I'm on a very extensive list of medications including moodstabilizers (some anticonvulsants) and antipsychotics. I have told my psychiatrist that I think I have a very special (not in a good way) type of bipolar disorder. Probably one that needs its own name. He sort of agrees with me. Not sure if the "Simple Partial Seizure" disorder is part of that, or seperate.
I know that people with Simple Partial Seizures have different symptoms from each other, but some of mine (that I identify as the seizure activity) are as follows: repeating words, gibberish, deja vu, adrenaline rush, desire to run or become violent with things, psychomotor agitation, staring into space (catatonic), falling (in worst cases), smelling smoke, musical hallucinations (mostly original music).
Re: Simple Partial Seizures v. BiPolar Disorder
Submitted by rebmil on Tue, 2012-06-12 - 20:18
Hello all. My older brother has bipolar manic depression. He started to get sick after he graduated from high school and was working for a stereo company. He would go days and days with little sleep, hardly eat or not eat right. He came to my dad's work one day, talking fast, agitated, and my dad knew something was wrong with him. He went to the hospital and they diagnosed him with bipolar. He takes meds like lithium and mood stabilizers too. He has been in and out of hospitals most of his life. He likes getting manic he told me once. When he is manic, he talks about religious things and a couple of times he thought he had powers like filling up someones glass with liquid with his finger when it was empty. He also has hallucinations too when he is manic. Like once he thought it was raining out and it wasn't.
My older sister claims she has narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder where a person is asleep doing things like making a sandwich and they don't remember doing the activity when they wake up. I don't remember her being like that during my growing up years. All I remember about her is it was hard to wake her up sometimes when she would take a nap.
The brother who has bipolar also has sleep apnea and has to wear a mask when he sleeps. My older sister also has sleep apnea, and depression as well.
I have a seizure disorder. I have grand mal seizures only in my sleep. There is no epilepsy or seizure disorder in my family but mental illness is in my family. The brother who has bipolar, my dad's mother had something wrong with her but it was never diagnosed. This is how my dad would describe her and how she would act. When neighbors would come and visit, his mother would start to giggle like a little kid and start talking gibberish. It really bothered my dad's dad when she would get like that. They don't know what was wrong with her. My mom's dad had Alzheimer's and my mom suffered from depression. I have a few siblings who have depression and I have depression as well. My dad had panic attacks and I have anxiety too. But I am the only one in my family that I know of who has seizures only in my sleep.
I also suffer from auras. I have the icky feeling aura where an icky hot flash type feeling comes over me and travels from my head down my body to my feet. My vision goes tunnel vision and dim and my hearing goes dim as well. I look at my hands and they do not seem to be a part of me. I also have the thought aura. Where the thought, You're going to have a seizure tonight pops in my head and later that night I have a seizure. I also have the smell aura. I smell this smell of like sauce cooking. I think it is my mom's spaghetti sauce. The smell smells familiar but I can't place it. Weird.
But bipolar and seizures are connected somehow. So is depression and seizures, and anxiety and seizures. When I used to take seizure meds, my dr. also gave me an anxiety pill.
More research has to be done on these disorders and how they all can be connected.
I liked reading everyone's post and all take care.
Hello all. My older brother has bipolar manic depression. He started to get sick after he graduated from high school and was working for a stereo company. He would go days and days with little sleep, hardly eat or not eat right. He came to my dad's work one day, talking fast, agitated, and my dad knew something was wrong with him. He went to the hospital and they diagnosed him with bipolar. He takes meds like lithium and mood stabilizers too. He has been in and out of hospitals most of his life. He likes getting manic he told me once. When he is manic, he talks about religious things and a couple of times he thought he had powers like filling up someones glass with liquid with his finger when it was empty. He also has hallucinations too when he is manic. Like once he thought it was raining out and it wasn't.
My older sister claims she has narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder where a person is asleep doing things like making a sandwich and they don't remember doing the activity when they wake up. I don't remember her being like that during my growing up years. All I remember about her is it was hard to wake her up sometimes when she would take a nap.
The brother who has bipolar also has sleep apnea and has to wear a mask when he sleeps. My older sister also has sleep apnea, and depression as well.
I have a seizure disorder. I have grand mal seizures only in my sleep. There is no epilepsy or seizure disorder in my family but mental illness is in my family. The brother who has bipolar, my dad's mother had something wrong with her but it was never diagnosed. This is how my dad would describe her and how she would act. When neighbors would come and visit, his mother would start to giggle like a little kid and start talking gibberish. It really bothered my dad's dad when she would get like that. They don't know what was wrong with her. My mom's dad had Alzheimer's and my mom suffered from depression. I have a few siblings who have depression and I have depression as well. My dad had panic attacks and I have anxiety too. But I am the only one in my family that I know of who has seizures only in my sleep.
I also suffer from auras. I have the icky feeling aura where an icky hot flash type feeling comes over me and travels from my head down my body to my feet. My vision goes tunnel vision and dim and my hearing goes dim as well. I look at my hands and they do not seem to be a part of me. I also have the thought aura. Where the thought, You're going to have a seizure tonight pops in my head and later that night I have a seizure. I also have the smell aura. I smell this smell of like sauce cooking. I think it is my mom's spaghetti sauce. The smell smells familiar but I can't place it. Weird.
But bipolar and seizures are connected somehow. So is depression and seizures, and anxiety and seizures. When I used to take seizure meds, my dr. also gave me an anxiety pill.
More research has to be done on these disorders and how they all can be connected.
I liked reading everyone's post and all take care.
Re: Simple Partial Seizures v. BiPolar Disorder
Submitted by epicare on Mon, 2011-08-01 - 23:54
Anyone who says you can confidently arrive at a diagnosis for a mental condition for a teenager is wrong. The pediatric psychiatrist we worked with when my son was having problems made it very, very clear that diagnoses are not made for that age group. You can treat and run tests according to symptoms but it is inaccurate to stick a label on a kid of that age group.