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I have seizures and they affect my speech
Tue, 01/25/2005 - 16:10Hi,
I am 33 years old and I have been having seizures now for about 3 years. It happened shortly after a toxic reaction to topomax. I was in the hospital for a week then and every since then I have had minor seizures off and on. When I do it affects my speech and I stutter bably and lose my thoughts and words. I feel so weird when this happens. I don't know anyone else like this. I have bipolar and dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality). I heard people with these illnesses can have seizures, I just don't know what type. I hate being like this. It makes me more depressed. I am getting so frustrated. I have two young boys and they don't understand why all of a sudden I loose my words or thoughts or I sound funny as they call it. My oldest one is 7 and he does ok. He helps me with my words and he answers the phone for me when I am having trouble talking. I just don't know what to do. My therapist wants to know more information about why it affects my speech but I have nothing to offer because I have been struggling to find information myself. Does anyone have suggestions?
Kym
Comments
RE: RE: RE: I have seizures and they affect my speech
Submitted by labspanielmix on Sat, 2005-01-22 - 11:58
>>
just don't understand a lot of the seizure stuff and it scares me to think I am going to be talking like this and feeling like this for awhile. I was talking real slow the other day in the grocery store so my sons who are 7 and 6 and don't understand what has happened to me, and the lady beside me thought I was deaf so she was using all these sign motions so I would understand. My oldest which can be a real smart alleck, said "Lady my mom can't talk she ain't deaf!" I was so embarassed but it felt good for him to stick up for me. He is a real trooper. He practices words with me most every day.
>>
I was at a grocery store once a few years back, ordering a sandwich from the deli. My speech was horrible but the clerk understood what I wanted. ... Maybe God put him in my way ... because he was obviously delayed and had some problems too. So he didn't judge me at all. I have had people make jokes. Not fun. That is great what your oldest child stood up for you. If only other people (and I mean adults here) could do the same.
The whole psychiatry-epilepsy mess is just that, a mess. So many neurologists want to "throw patients in the psych pile" and get on with their other business. Many of these patients simply have more complex cases. They take time. It is possible to have both pseudoseizures or psychogenic seizures and epileptic seizures in your presentation. In fact, this is the case in up to 40 percent (or maybe even more) of people with epilepsy. Anyone who truly has psychogenic seizures is not a liar or a fake. The seizures are simply an outward display of something with which your brain -- or your mind -- cannot cope. At least that's what I've been told. The situation is complicated even more because so much epilepsy junk can cause psychiatric symptoms -- anxiety, fear, depression, the hearing of voices, hallucinations, etc.
Just remember that medical professionals are "practicing medicine." That's what my wife says. She has epilepsy too and gave me the courage to fight for the right medications. ... We actually take the same ones, except I take them at higher doses. I also have a VNS (vagus nerve stimulator).
It's easy for me to tell you to be strong but it looks like your children are giving you strength. May the Lord lift you up as well, for He is the great physician.
Labspanielmix
>>
just don't understand a lot of the seizure stuff and it scares me to think I am going to be talking like this and feeling like this for awhile. I was talking real slow the other day in the grocery store so my sons who are 7 and 6 and don't understand what has happened to me, and the lady beside me thought I was deaf so she was using all these sign motions so I would understand. My oldest which can be a real smart alleck, said "Lady my mom can't talk she ain't deaf!" I was so embarassed but it felt good for him to stick up for me. He is a real trooper. He practices words with me most every day.
>>
I was at a grocery store once a few years back, ordering a sandwich from the deli. My speech was horrible but the clerk understood what I wanted. ... Maybe God put him in my way ... because he was obviously delayed and had some problems too. So he didn't judge me at all. I have had people make jokes. Not fun. That is great what your oldest child stood up for you. If only other people (and I mean adults here) could do the same.
The whole psychiatry-epilepsy mess is just that, a mess. So many neurologists want to "throw patients in the psych pile" and get on with their other business. Many of these patients simply have more complex cases. They take time. It is possible to have both pseudoseizures or psychogenic seizures and epileptic seizures in your presentation. In fact, this is the case in up to 40 percent (or maybe even more) of people with epilepsy. Anyone who truly has psychogenic seizures is not a liar or a fake. The seizures are simply an outward display of something with which your brain -- or your mind -- cannot cope. At least that's what I've been told. The situation is complicated even more because so much epilepsy junk can cause psychiatric symptoms -- anxiety, fear, depression, the hearing of voices, hallucinations, etc.
Just remember that medical professionals are "practicing medicine." That's what my wife says. She has epilepsy too and gave me the courage to fight for the right medications. ... We actually take the same ones, except I take them at higher doses. I also have a VNS (vagus nerve stimulator).
It's easy for me to tell you to be strong but it looks like your children are giving you strength. May the Lord lift you up as well, for He is the great physician.
Labspanielmix
RE: RE: RE: RE: I have seizures and they affect my speech
Submitted by labspanielmix on Sun, 2005-01-23 - 11:32
Picking up on what someone else said, there are a lot of patients with epilepsy who are mistakenly diagnosed with bipolar disorder. ... This is especially true for those with TLE (temporal lobe epilepsy). The temporal lobe controls speech, emotions and hearing, among other functions. I think finding a good neurologist or epileptologist is worth the work.
People with some types of seizures have a prodrome, meaning that they feel a certain way long before they have a seizure. In some patients, this presents as agitation and anger. In others, it manifests itself as a hyperexcitable, manic state. Of course, after the seizure, some people feel depressed or in a "low" state. Still others feel "just fine." To them, it feels like the seizure has done a hard reboot on their brain, resetting it to a normal operating state (for the time being).
Labspanielmix
Picking up on what someone else said, there are a lot of patients with epilepsy who are mistakenly diagnosed with bipolar disorder. ... This is especially true for those with TLE (temporal lobe epilepsy). The temporal lobe controls speech, emotions and hearing, among other functions. I think finding a good neurologist or epileptologist is worth the work.
People with some types of seizures have a prodrome, meaning that they feel a certain way long before they have a seizure. In some patients, this presents as agitation and anger. In others, it manifests itself as a hyperexcitable, manic state. Of course, after the seizure, some people feel depressed or in a "low" state. Still others feel "just fine." To them, it feels like the seizure has done a hard reboot on their brain, resetting it to a normal operating state (for the time being).
Labspanielmix
RE: RE: RE: I have seizures and they affect my speech
Submitted by labspanielmix on Sat, 2005-01-22 - 11:44
I have seizures that affect my speech as well. When they are simple partials, I almost immediately lose my speech or will only be able to make strange noises that my wife only describes as "wailing." When I come out of it, sometimes the only word I can say is her name. Before some of the seizures, my voice will change or I will have trouble speaking clearly. My wife has described my voice during these periods as sounding something like Jimmy Stewart. I have a VNS but this does not coincide with stimulation (e.g., beocming better and worse in alternating cycles).
My wife, who also has epilepsy, has seizures that presumably arise from the area around her left frontal lobe tumor. It's benign, thank the Lord. The neurosurgeons have said that it's too close to her speech center to remove without some morbidity.
It is thought that my seizures come from my right temporal lobe. There has been some conflicting information on EEGs but in the latest review of one of them, an epileptologist noted there were possible sharp waves or spikes in that area (and, interestingly, focal slowing in the other temporal lobe). ...
Know that you are not alone.
Labspanielmix
I have seizures that affect my speech as well. When they are simple partials, I almost immediately lose my speech or will only be able to make strange noises that my wife only describes as "wailing." When I come out of it, sometimes the only word I can say is her name. Before some of the seizures, my voice will change or I will have trouble speaking clearly. My wife has described my voice during these periods as sounding something like Jimmy Stewart. I have a VNS but this does not coincide with stimulation (e.g., beocming better and worse in alternating cycles).
My wife, who also has epilepsy, has seizures that presumably arise from the area around her left frontal lobe tumor. It's benign, thank the Lord. The neurosurgeons have said that it's too close to her speech center to remove without some morbidity.
It is thought that my seizures come from my right temporal lobe. There has been some conflicting information on EEGs but in the latest review of one of them, an epileptologist noted there were possible sharp waves or spikes in that area (and, interestingly, focal slowing in the other temporal lobe). ...
Know that you are not alone.
Labspanielmix