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Could seizures be psychosomatic?

Thu, 04/26/2007 - 18:10
I have had epilepsy for eleven years now. God, it sounds like so long when I say that. Anyway as with most people's seizures my doctor can give me very few answers about the cause of my seizures. I sure get a lot of "I don't knows" though. My seizures started when I was fifteen. I continued to have them every six months (almost to teh day) and recently have started having them every six weeks (almost to the day). I have tonic clonic seizures. I lose consciousness and bite my tongue. I have never lost control of my bladder or bowels. My seizures last from 1-2 minutes. In June 2006 I changed my medicine from Tegretol to Lamictal because I was starting to have seizures more often and the doctor thought that the Tegretol might be losing its effectiveness after 10 years. In all of the 11 years the only time that I have had my seizures is in the morning after I wake up, and luckily I have always had them in my bed. Since starting the Lamictal a few changes have occurred, besides the frequency increasing. I am now remembering events immediately prior to the seizure, including my boyfriend trying to make me focus in order to try to stop the seizure. THis did not happen with the Tegretol. A couple of months ago I had a spell that he did succeed in snapping me out of so now he is determined to do it again. I was in bed and felt "funny." I started to twitch, but was still conscious. I actually had the thought that I was about to have a seizure. I focused on him waving his hands in front of me and did not end up having the seizure. I am wondering if it was him, or another type of seizure, such as a Myoclonic (limbs jerking after waking) or an abscence seizure. I have definitely never had that happen before though. In the seizures that have followed I remember what he does prior to the seizure, but have had the seizure anyway. He can tell when I am about to have one and that is when he tries to snap me out of it. Partly because of this new development I have been starting to question the specifics of my case. This has led me to wonder about the strict schedule that my seizures seem to keep. The whole every six months and now every six weeks thing is puzzling to me and my doctor. I am now wondering if I am some how causing these seizures to happen by expecting them. I know it sounds crazy, but seizures are such a mystery that I think anything might be possible, even psychsomatic seizures. My questions for you are: 1. Is it possible to cause seizures to happen by expecting them? Do I cause them because I "know" and expect to have one every six weeks (or six months in the past)? 2. Has anyone ever heard of specific morning seizures like mine?

Comments

Re: Could seizures be psychosomatic?

Submitted by jacky99 on Fri, 2007-04-27 - 03:55
i dont know if this has anything to do with anything but the other day i had 2 auras and a simple partial seizure. in my head i could feel like i could lose control of my body. and i concentrated really hard on the work i was doing and that was extremely hard and instead of my limbs jerking like they usually do all that happened was my muscles were clenching... tightening and loosening. maybe it has to do with psychosis...

Re: Could seizures be psychosomatic?

Submitted by ac420ec on Fri, 2007-04-27 - 09:54
I know that there are pyschosomatic seizures,but if you have had ep for years and abnormal eegs I would guess they are real (I am not a dr.,just an opinion). I wanted to share my dd's experience w/ Lamictal. She has cp's (frontal lobe). Lamictal increased her seizures a lot. It was subtle, the frequency went up w/ each raise in dose and it took a few weeks for us to realize what was happening. By the time we realized it, she was having really long cp's almost constantly all night long (her seizures are only while sleeping). When we slowly withdrew the med her seizures went back to her typical pattern a few days after Lamictal was completely withdrawn. Just wanted you to know that some meds can make seizures worse and change their presentation. I don't know if this is the case w/ you but definitely a possibility. As far as morning seizures, in my research about epilepsy it appears just after awakening or early morning is a very common time. I hope this helps you at all and good luck!

Re: Re: Could seizures be psychosomatic?

Submitted by bex on Fri, 2007-04-27 - 10:16
I also took Lamictal and my seizures probably did increase slightly and didn't improve whilst taking it so I'm now on Topamax. In fact I was getting lots of hallucinations. As for your epilepsy changing, this has happened to me - I had grandmal seizures from 15 to 20 (took valproate) and now suffer with TLE partial seizures and now I'm down from 9 to around 3 a month which now they coincide with certain times of my period almost an exact pattern 2 during and one about 5 days later. I used to also have grandmal seizures around strong smells and my partials now can consist of me smelling strange things that are not there. 'I feel funny' is exactly what I say to people when I feel one coming on and just try and lay down. My neuro said the your e can go through active and inactive times, maybe yours does that every 6 months? Main thing is to try and stay positive (easier said than done I know) I think we never get a real explanation to some of this stuff and why it happens. Best wishes. Bex

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