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Deja vu and Epilepsy

Sat, 09/06/2008 - 19:09

Ok I'm going to give a short version and a long version, as the long one might be too long for many...

SHORT:

-I'm 23, have had 5-6 deja vu episodes in 3-4 weeks. Daydream alot and have fleeting thoughts of normal things seeming weird or funny (but not necessarily unfamiliar). No family history, no grand mal, no head trauma. What's the likelihood of TLE? What else might it be?

LONG:

I'm 23 and have experienced five or six very strong feelings of deja vu in the last 3-4 weeks or so, which was enough to tip me off to possible temporal lobe epilepsy after searching around a bit. They generally last about 10-20 seconds and are not accompanied by the same dread, or stomach discomfort, or fear, or happiness that seems to be common with many TLE patients, but they're also momentarily quite strong (and frustrating!) for me.

I also have been having these thoughts every once in a while that ordinary things, objects, words, concepts, etc. (could be anything depending on the concept) seem somewhat silly or different than they normally would feel. In a way, I feel like I'm processing the world differently, almost a bit, yet not entirely, detached from it for just a few seconds or so. I'm not quite sure it's jamais vu since it's never had any sort of emotion or gut-type "feeling" that deja vu has, and I know what I'm looking at/touching/hearing/etc fine and not actually forgetting anything about it. As an example, it could be as trivial as say looking at a phone or hearing the word phone (or whatever else) and thinking "hm, what a funny thing with a funny name. never thought of a phone that way, i know it's a phone, but it seems kinda silly. kind of weird we use them" and then snap back into it and realize a phone is a phone and i've been using it and familiar with it my whole life. It feels like I'm a permanent stoner or something. Sorry if that sounds a bit nuts, just a quirky thing that I'm wondering if it's related to possible TLE or something else.

I also tend to have some issues fairly regularly with daydreaming or forgetting for a second what it was I was doing or wanted to do (momentary memory, basically), but I've always attributed that to lack of sleep, being a space cadet, or whatever else might cause it, and I'm not too sure if it's symptomatic of TLE.

In any case, I have never had head trauma, have no family history of epilepsy, and obviously never had a grand mal or anything like it. I saw a neuro who took history and notes before referring me to a specialist who's going to take a month to schedule an appointment and for an MRI in the meantime. He mentioned that there are psychological theories but no other neurological explanations aside from TLE to explain having 6 deja vus along with the other quirkiness. Obviously then, it would be frustrating if the MRIs and EEGs, etc all come back fine with no diagnosis made as I could be stuck with these spells (which are affecting my work right now).

That said, I'm wondering a few things:

1) What is the likelihood of TLE (given age, no family history or trauma, symptoms)? Also, what is the likelihood that someone non-TLE has 6 dejavu episodes in a 3-4 weeks timeframe?

2) What are potential alternative explanations if not TLE?

3) What can/will be done if everything comes back okay but I'm still having symptoms?

4) Would stress/lack of sleep cause the symptoms, or do they actually trigger the epilepsy which in turn triggers the symptoms?

Obviously any answers to any of the questions are much appreicated. Thanks and look forward to the discussion!

-Mikey

Comments

Hi Olivia,I've been having

Submitted by Mr. Déjà vu on Wed, 2017-11-01 - 07:24
Hi Olivia,I've been having very similar issues since I was in the 4th grade, I'm now 45, and I didn't have my first grand until a few years ago.  Since then I've found out that the deja vu is indeed a form of a small seizure and the way that it was explained to me is that your brain is having a hard time fully explaining what's going on with it when they happen so it creates that deja vu feeling as a cover up.  I've noticed that a lot of times they get worse as the weather takes a huge swing or whenever it's very gloomy outside.    I think as you go on you'll find that the dream feeling is just another form of this and because you're having the dream issue you might be having trouble with your REM sleep.  All of my major seizure happen when I'm sleeping, and I've been told that they will remain that way, but I still have a lot of the deja vu during the day or early in the AM.  My symptoms vary from time to time but I always get that sick to the stomach feeling and the longer the deja vu last the sicker I feel.  This morning I'm having a really bad case of the freezes, kind of the cold from the inside out feeling, a small headache, and I'm EXTREME irritable, yeah my wife noticed that one.  LOL  My simple advise is to try to keep your parents up to date about what's going on with you and you might want to visit with a neurologist to kind of get established.  If the nuro doesn't know about deja vu find yourself one that does, and I personally wouldn't let them start stuffing a bunch of drug into you until, and IF, the issue moves to the next level.  Oh and BTW keep a very close eye on your memory ability.  They have no clue if these things actually effect it or not but mine has slowly been getting worse and it wasn't that great to begin with.  Good luck and by all means feel free to PM me for more info or just to talk.   

oh, great. It deleted half

Submitted by LaraOliver on Fri, 2017-12-08 - 14:22
oh, great. It deleted half the spaces I typed and f***ed up my whole comment

Hello Shawn,Based on your

Submitted by TheCarsSIU on Tue, 2018-01-23 - 20:45
Hello Shawn,Based on your comments it sounds like our situations are very similar.  I'd be interested in discussing further via email, although it looks like the admin edits out contact info.

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