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sounds trigger seizures?

Thu, 02/05/2004 - 18:14
I havent been diagnosed with epilepsy or with having siezures, even though I have been having what I call siezures for the last 6 years. I am going for an MRI next month, for the first time. I have had an eeg done 2 years ago and it came back normal. My question is...Can a sound or maybe even a certain song trigger on a siezure? I ask this because it seems like a sound or even the sound of a word makes me feel like I am going to have a siezure. I feel like a anxiety feeling inside me happens before I accually go into the siezure, when the siezure happens I am awake but unaware of what is going on around me, everything freezes and sounds become muffled and I cant understand what I hear. Another thing my husband has told me is when I feel like I am going to have the siezure and I try to warn him, I dont make any sence in what I am saying and sometimes it somes out like I am shouting. I dont know that I am not making any sence or even that I am shouting it, to me I have said " Im having a siezure" clearly. He also said my eyes get huge and my pupils dialate, also I turn white as a ghost. I think my siezures last for a few seconds, but he has timed them and sometimes they last as long as 5 minutes. After the siezure I dont remember anything prior to the siezure or anything during the siezure, all I know is that I had one. I also feel sick to my stomach and sometimes throw up afterwards, I get a extreme hot flash sometimes, but mostly I am worn out and extremely tired for about and hour or two after the siezure. A co-worker said that her brother has twilight siezures and what I described sounds identical to his siezures, he also said a certain song has brought on his siezure, which is what I have experienced twice now. I dont remember the song or even the words to the song, by the time I come out of the siezure the song has long been over. I have a siezure about 2-3 times a month. Does anyone have any simular triggers as I do? Does it sound like what I have is accually a siezure? Or am I just going crazy? I have been told maybe it is a panic attack, but I dont know why I would be having those because I am a laid back person with no or very little stress in my life. I have also awaken to a siezure, I dont think a panic attack happens in your sleep. Thanks for any input.

Comments

RE: sounds trigger seizures?

Submitted by melkcar on Wed, 2005-06-01 - 16:15

Hi,  everyone and thanks lIbrought her out of itaurie for posting this thread! I am Melissa a.k.a. Melkcar, I'm 18 years old and my mom is online with me as she often is - cause some graphics (animated) and other things put me into absence szrs. and I tend to "swallow my tongue" during some szrs.

My problems began just one year ago-Saturday was my anniversary-lol- 'cause if you don't, we'll cry That's my mom talking!  The first two doctors in two ERs spent hours talking about recreational drugs, until my mom said"Why don't you run a tox screen so you can stop asking if I'm sure she isn't on something/ And then maybe we can move on and actually DO something about this?" To compress several months into a paragraph we went to Sick Kids, where the neuro resident and his supervising doctor thought she has Tourette's Syndrome- probably because Melissa has a lot of vocalization (tics). Anyway, this neuro assured us that what we now know as absence szrs and atonic szrs were definitely common in TS. Well, he referred her to the TS Clinic at Toronto Western. After three weekly one hour appointments, they declared she does NOT have TS. We went to a neuro in a nearby town several times-he's pretty cool since we started speaking frankly to him-he makes referrals and orders tests AND he actually returns phone calls. He's the "co-ordinating" doctor -Melissa and I felt like every doctor was just passing us off to the next one- kind of like ping-pong balls- so this neuro said he would act as a primary doctor and co-ordinate things. Anyway, after Melissa had an atonic szr while walking from the waiting room into his office right by his side, he stood with his mouth dropped and the two receptionists came running in. I brought her out of it and the neuro said "What was that?" We said "This is what we've been telling you about-she can be walking, talking, doing anything - and then she just drops to the ground - no warning - just smack to the ground or floor. We've been telling you this for months. That's why she has been in a wheelchair at school. What did you think we were talking about?" (Sorry to you guys, i must sound like i'm ranting and raving - but you know how it is! you are probably the only people who know how it is!) And it is good that Dr.M. witnessed that episode - that's probably half of why he treats Melissa so attentively. But still it was Melissa who went on the internet, typed in types of seizures and found Epilepsy.com. By the way, i noticed the Editor of the site answered Laurie's initial inquiry, if you are reading this - thanks for your website, we've learned a lot here, and this chat room/message board idea is amazing!!!

Anyway, through the Types of seizures section, Melissa found the names for what happens to her - she has absence szrs, atonics, simple partials, complex partials, clonics, tonic-clonics and clonic-tonic-clonic szrs. Just two days ago, we discovered Reflex Epilepsy (I'm embarrassed to admit we didn't read the entire website sooner)  We are wondering if reflex epilepsy could explain why she has vocalizations? Loud noises - such as trucks passing/near us when we're in the car make her squawk or shriek, any unexpected noises, like a baby crying or just making loud vocalizations in a store or restaurant-make Melissa repeat the sound. Both the sirens and the flashing lights on Emergency vehicles make Melissa vocalize loudly. I should mention that Melissa has had a headache since May 28 last year when this whole thing started with what she thought was an ear infection - because at first it was just pain in her ear and a headache. During last summer, with the heat and humidity, she would be lying on the kitchen floor (the coolest place-and kind of the hangout room at our house) anyway, Melissa would be lying on the floor with pillows under her head, her arms and her feet crying for literally hours and shreiking at the top of her lungs when somebody turned on  their lawnmowers-because both heat and certain noise triggers make her headache escalate to what she says is like a knife going through her head again and again. This also happens when somone clicks quickly through tv channels with the remote. She always vocalizes or shrieks - and sometimes will go out. Absence/atonic szrs happen mostly when there is a light factor-either the tv or flashing lights on ambulances, etc. From reading, we know other people have szrs from light triggers but do any of you have the vocalization thing? I'm afraid to jinx it, but it sounds like Laurie and some others are having T-C szrs from lights - so far Melissa doesn't, just absences and atonics from strobe-like effects. She feels that heat may be a trigger for many of her T-Cs. When she first started AEDs she had zero T-Cs for about six weeks, then when the weather warmed up to the 70 degrees F and warmer, she is having muktiple T-Cs for several days at a time. What do you guys think?

Finding the Reflex Epilepsy information was also fabulous for us because so far we have no knowledge of any family history of Epilepsy, but on the reflex E info sheet it relates Reflex E to children with a parent who is also sensitive to flashing lights. That is a link for Melissa - I have suffered migraines for over twenty years and strobe-like light effects are probably my worst trigger. Also flickering lights, like an almost burnt-out flourescent, the cop cars, ambulances and tow truck lights, the sun flickering through trees, .... and Melissa also is affected by most, if not all of these. Melissa's older sister also has had migraines since she was 17 or so. Melissa's twin does not, neither do either of her brothers.

Sorry to have gone on so long, I apologize for ruining your eyes for the next hour or so (which happens to Melissa-espescially with textbooks or poorly photocopied handouts)

Melissa also has her own language, and after some szrs she finds she cannot talk at all, also sometimes she cannot move the left side of her body - but we'll have to get to those things another time. (people cringe).

Thanks for listening! and looking forward to some replies,

Melissa and her mom. 

 

 

Hi,  everyone and thanks lIbrought her out of itaurie for posting this thread! I am Melissa a.k.a. Melkcar, I'm 18 years old and my mom is online with me as she often is - cause some graphics (animated) and other things put me into absence szrs. and I tend to "swallow my tongue" during some szrs.

My problems began just one year ago-Saturday was my anniversary-lol- 'cause if you don't, we'll cry That's my mom talking!  The first two doctors in two ERs spent hours talking about recreational drugs, until my mom said"Why don't you run a tox screen so you can stop asking if I'm sure she isn't on something/ And then maybe we can move on and actually DO something about this?" To compress several months into a paragraph we went to Sick Kids, where the neuro resident and his supervising doctor thought she has Tourette's Syndrome- probably because Melissa has a lot of vocalization (tics). Anyway, this neuro assured us that what we now know as absence szrs and atonic szrs were definitely common in TS. Well, he referred her to the TS Clinic at Toronto Western. After three weekly one hour appointments, they declared she does NOT have TS. We went to a neuro in a nearby town several times-he's pretty cool since we started speaking frankly to him-he makes referrals and orders tests AND he actually returns phone calls. He's the "co-ordinating" doctor -Melissa and I felt like every doctor was just passing us off to the next one- kind of like ping-pong balls- so this neuro said he would act as a primary doctor and co-ordinate things. Anyway, after Melissa had an atonic szr while walking from the waiting room into his office right by his side, he stood with his mouth dropped and the two receptionists came running in. I brought her out of it and the neuro said "What was that?" We said "This is what we've been telling you about-she can be walking, talking, doing anything - and then she just drops to the ground - no warning - just smack to the ground or floor. We've been telling you this for months. That's why she has been in a wheelchair at school. What did you think we were talking about?" (Sorry to you guys, i must sound like i'm ranting and raving - but you know how it is! you are probably the only people who know how it is!) And it is good that Dr.M. witnessed that episode - that's probably half of why he treats Melissa so attentively. But still it was Melissa who went on the internet, typed in types of seizures and found Epilepsy.com. By the way, i noticed the Editor of the site answered Laurie's initial inquiry, if you are reading this - thanks for your website, we've learned a lot here, and this chat room/message board idea is amazing!!!

Anyway, through the Types of seizures section, Melissa found the names for what happens to her - she has absence szrs, atonics, simple partials, complex partials, clonics, tonic-clonics and clonic-tonic-clonic szrs. Just two days ago, we discovered Reflex Epilepsy (I'm embarrassed to admit we didn't read the entire website sooner)  We are wondering if reflex epilepsy could explain why she has vocalizations? Loud noises - such as trucks passing/near us when we're in the car make her squawk or shriek, any unexpected noises, like a baby crying or just making loud vocalizations in a store or restaurant-make Melissa repeat the sound. Both the sirens and the flashing lights on Emergency vehicles make Melissa vocalize loudly. I should mention that Melissa has had a headache since May 28 last year when this whole thing started with what she thought was an ear infection - because at first it was just pain in her ear and a headache. During last summer, with the heat and humidity, she would be lying on the kitchen floor (the coolest place-and kind of the hangout room at our house) anyway, Melissa would be lying on the floor with pillows under her head, her arms and her feet crying for literally hours and shreiking at the top of her lungs when somebody turned on  their lawnmowers-because both heat and certain noise triggers make her headache escalate to what she says is like a knife going through her head again and again. This also happens when somone clicks quickly through tv channels with the remote. She always vocalizes or shrieks - and sometimes will go out. Absence/atonic szrs happen mostly when there is a light factor-either the tv or flashing lights on ambulances, etc. From reading, we know other people have szrs from light triggers but do any of you have the vocalization thing? I'm afraid to jinx it, but it sounds like Laurie and some others are having T-C szrs from lights - so far Melissa doesn't, just absences and atonics from strobe-like effects. She feels that heat may be a trigger for many of her T-Cs. When she first started AEDs she had zero T-Cs for about six weeks, then when the weather warmed up to the 70 degrees F and warmer, she is having muktiple T-Cs for several days at a time. What do you guys think?

Finding the Reflex Epilepsy information was also fabulous for us because so far we have no knowledge of any family history of Epilepsy, but on the reflex E info sheet it relates Reflex E to children with a parent who is also sensitive to flashing lights. That is a link for Melissa - I have suffered migraines for over twenty years and strobe-like light effects are probably my worst trigger. Also flickering lights, like an almost burnt-out flourescent, the cop cars, ambulances and tow truck lights, the sun flickering through trees, .... and Melissa also is affected by most, if not all of these. Melissa's older sister also has had migraines since she was 17 or so. Melissa's twin does not, neither do either of her brothers.

Sorry to have gone on so long, I apologize for ruining your eyes for the next hour or so (which happens to Melissa-espescially with textbooks or poorly photocopied handouts)

Melissa also has her own language, and after some szrs she finds she cannot talk at all, also sometimes she cannot move the left side of her body - but we'll have to get to those things another time. (people cringe).

Thanks for listening! and looking forward to some replies,

Melissa and her mom. 

 

 

Re: RE: sounds or startles trigger seizures?

Submitted by AJAno8 on Sun, 2013-01-27 - 10:25
Check into Hyperekplexia and Klonopin. Also for people with seizures from sounds check into Hyperacusis Association as well as Tullio and Minor's syndrome. For our daughter, a flexion and extension cervical MRI showed problems that may be contributing. Don't rest till you find the answers! Hope this helps!

These seizures that you are

Submitted by Yarn95 on Sat, 2018-02-24 - 13:06
These seizures that you are describing sound exactly like my abscense seizures. I've had them my whole life and remember a certain song always use to trigger them off when I was younger. I use to describe them to my mum as my hearing was going in a rythm and it was almost like I was in a dream. My mum would also say that while I was having these, what I would call my 'funny moments', that I wouldn't make any sense and that my words would be jumbled and in the wrong order and I would usually panic. Doctors never knew what these funny moments were even though I had had them for most of my childhood and it started to increase as I hit puberty. It was only then that I started to have a lot of time off school, sleeping a lot and always waking up tired and having a lot of migraines. I was even biting my tongue a lot in my sleep and also wetting myself. These funny moments were also effecting my time at school, as teachers would tell me off for not paying attention in class. It wasn't until I was on holiday in a caravan when I was about 13/14 that my parents realised I was also having nocturnal seizures because the caravan started to shake. After having an MRI and ECG scan, we finally found out that I had mild epilepsy and was having seizures in my sleep and the funny moments that I was describing were actually petit mal seizures. I've never actually met anyone who has had the same kind of seizures as me so you're post has been interesting to read and it's amazing how close your description is to my seizures x

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