Epilepsy and Illegal drugs - experiences

since it seems as though i am the biggest pot head on this blog i will have to share my story.......... ok well i had my first seizure when i was 16.it was after a long night of drinking and smoking.....i had some vodka,beer, and then topped it off with some cap'n Morgan. so i go home then next morning very hung over and attempt to make a grilled cheese sandwich which is rudely interupted by a Gran Mal Seizure. my memory goes from sittin at my kitchen table to laying on the floor looking up at paramedics...........yeah that was fucked up......well anyway i was diagnosed and blah blah. so i was put on dilantin.continued partying and i continued having seizures.....then they switched me to trileptol and that works great.i drink when i want and i smoke 2 to 3 times a day....i never experimented with other drugs because im to scared and plus its not worth losing my license. so pot works for me but im not advocating it so dont be stupid and if something doesnt work stop doing it.

It's very interesting to read other people's insight on things. Especially people whom I can actually relate to in two ways, I can't explain how awesome it makes me feel to be able to know there are people who know what it's like to have tripped (lost their minds) while still suffered the paranoya of having a seizure. It's a real load of my chest. Definitely not something you can explain to any 'regular' person. So here's my input on this, well here's my story. <strong>1st Grand Mal Seizure</strong> I had my first grand mal seizure when I was 16. I didn't smoke, I didn't drink, I knew what they were but peer pressure has never been a problem for me. I've just grown up around around parties and drinking and pot all my life. So when it was ever offered to me it wasn't like it was something 'naughty' to do, which seems to entice most kids to start, therefore I'd just refuse it and hang out anyway. I remember I was talking on the phone. I was halfway between awake and asleep, trying to keep a steady concentration on what was being said. Then suddenly, I remember dinsticly having this twitch in my arm (the convulsion) that made me toss the phone across the room. My dad says, "Are you OK?" I say "Yeah, I'm fine." And then there was the paramedic. From then on, you know the rest, I'm sure most of you have been there. I found out I bit through my toungue that shit hurt, but that was about it, no real trauma. It wasn't long before I was seeing a neruologist, having MRIs, EEGs, and they put me on Tegretol...which gave me the weirdest auditory hallucinations ever, like changing a C note to a B note, but that's a different sotry. And then later I was moved to Trileptal..yeah <strong>2nd Grand Mal Seizure</strong> By this time, I'm 18 and in college partying my liver away. Somewhere between the time I had my first seizure and started college, I picked up the liking for getting plastered. I think it may have been high school graduation.Drinking A LOT like any other student, socially, never by myself. I never considered myself an alchoholic, because in the whole time in that year of college I never really paid much for alcohol, I just happened to be at the right place at the right time, or the right party. So I'm trying to work out with my doctor if I'm ready to come off my Zonegran yet, and by now I'm completely off it. For 2 weeks now. Actually I kinda cheated on the weening, shouldn't have but oh well. You learn. I go to sleep in my face down, wake up and my pillow is covered as if someone spilled water all over it. It was really from my mouth foaming. I look over and my roomate is in like horror. Eventually they drive me to the hospital. I didn't bit my toungue this time, but damn of all the things to do. I broke my shoulder blade with my muscle spasms. My muscles just clenched so tight the blade snapped. So I had to go back on the meds.....grrr.. <strong>The 3rd and Most Recent and Worst Grand Mal Seizure</strong> Ok, So I'm 20 years old now. It's amazing all the shit you can experience in 2 years. All the people you can meet. I've done stuff I never thought I'd do. I've learned more about myself that ever, but maybe that's all part of growing up. So this is the section where I begin to go into categories of what I've done, what indulgences I've tried and how they reacted with me. I hope it helps someone, if anything, it helps me to write it down <code> Alcohol - I already mentioned drinking earlier, but I didn't mention it's effect. Drinking for me, helps, SEIZURE-WISE. I've NEVER had a seizure because of drinking. In NO way am I saying that drinking is a medicine for me. It just never gave me that aura or paranoid feeling I get before an actual seizure happens. </code> <code> Marijuana - I can't honestly remember the first time I got stoned. I can remember the first few times or that era where I did nothing but get stoned every weekend with my friends. I do remember though, if I got to stoned, I would start twitching. I would twitch and then realize it and get paranoid and that would make it worse. Going to sleep was nearly impossible at the point because seizures only happened when I went to sleep so at all costs I had to stay awake. So as long as I could keep my mind on something funny I was good. </code> <code> Air Duster - Not something I would recommend to anyone at all. It's bad for you, but you don't feel it hurting you. I did this and had a distorted view of everything, but I definitely didn't feel like having a seizure. But maybe I'm different, so don't go trying that stuff. </code>Crack/Cocaine - I only tried just a little bit of this. I didn't have to pay for it so apparently it was 'steal'. Also I was pretty drunk at the time so I didn't know what I was doing, but to say the least. Seizures were the last thing on my mind. I had no paranoia. No anxiety. I woke up just fine the next day, no muscle/joint pain. I wasn't in a nospital. I remember everything. So I can safely say that this drug doesn't induce ME to have a seizure. <code>Xanax - If I had to pick a favorite drug, it would be this one. I've never been so relaxed. I can get about the same feeling taking 3 Benadryl or something. When I first tried a Xanax, it was a bar and I was drinking and I snorted it. I was also smoking a blunt that night, which I could have done without </code> <code>Rittalin - Never been so paranoid in my life taking this. They gave it to me as a kid for ADD and my dad took me off of it immediately because apparently I wasn't acting right, I can see why now. I don't know why but I snorted like 3 of these and wound up in my bed scared out of my mind. I was cold, I thought I was going to have a seizure, but I didn't. Just the thought though is scary. And this was on top of the fear of my landlord barging in my room telling to get out since I was just evicted that week, the stress really didn't help me out. </code> <code>Dextromethorphan(DXM) - You don't hear about this one much, but if you ever hear of people drinking cough syrup or taking "Triple Cs" or Coricidins or whatever, any form of overdosing on cough syrup, that's a DXM trip. Actually it's not quite that bad. Of any drug you'll ever take in you're whole life, it's the most messed you'll ever be. It's not something you would do at a party, you would make sure you have good friends around to keep you from freaking out. So I take it, and I'm feeling great. I'm on what's called the 2nd plateau. I start seeing trails and stuff. Eventually, I become dissociated, I had moved to the 3rd plateau. Yeah, being dissociated is a weird experience for the first time. I knew everything that was wrong with me, I was trying to sleep to get rid of the 'high' but kept having closed eye hallucinations. I would close my eyes and see colors and patterns instead of just black, it should have been awesome, but I was toooo worried I mean paranoid about whether or not I was having a seizure aura or not. Next thing I know I open my eyes, and see my friends looking at me (They were tripping too) and I remember seeing one of them shine a flash light. I close my eyes again and I'm in a white room looking at myself. It was as if I was in another house and I was not even the same person. I woke up and the EMT guy is with a light in my face. I doze off in the stretcher again and wake up to see more lights in the ambulance. I doze off again to see the lights in the hospital. Nothing but lights. Don't get me wrong, lights don't trigger my seizures but, it's just every time I see a particular light now it's as if I have a flashback and I starting tripping again. All in all though, I'll tell ya, if anything the DXM took a lot of my paranoya away. My self-confidence seems to have boosted up, and all the things I used to be afraid to tell people, like what was on my mind, just comes out. I never would have been able to write such a story like this before. It's as if I realized what reality was and how great it is to be......not tripping any more. I was still tripping when I got to the hospital, and frankly I didn't even care how I acted. But, I really really don't plan on doing it again. It was worth the experience, but not worth another seizure.</code> Again in this last seizure, I bit my toungue, and I think I hurt my rib from the seizure. The worst part about the seizure though is the dissociative leftovers of the DXM and the reaction of it with the seizure. Obviously you're brain has to re-wire itself after you have an episode, but it's hard to cope with such a thing when you keep thinking you're two poeple, when really it's just your mind thinking it's tripping still. Sorry for such a long post, I got carried away

hey im am 18 and i have eperienced seizures while smoking pot mixed with carbotrol.. and now my doctor is mixing kepra and trileptol.. and i was wondering .. if smoking pot would have any effect wit hmy seizures with those to medicines mixed together...