Jamais vu Deja vu

Re: Thank you for your reply

Submitted by happycat2 on Wed, 2006-10-25 - 22:42

Hi Sol. We might not have the same name, and I might not be an artist. But I do have TLE, and I have read your links. I was interested in one of yours that points out... I'd (respectfully) suggest you get checked out via a physician. Why? To make sure it IS a non-evolving E, you have chosen not to take meds for..and not something that could have been prevented from getting worse. This I agree with, and so does my link...As mature adults we know that things are not always the same when people are trying to describe their type of seizure. Also, as we know, the brain is indeed a very complicated mechanism. It's not always as simple as it seems to decide which area of the brain is the origin of some one's seizures. The best person, or should be, is someone medically qualified. They might not get it right, and the reason is I've found it can be easy to jump to conclusions based on hearsay evidence. It can be difficult also to describe to a friend, or family member, let alone a stranger taking details down of what you are struggling to describe. Especially if they are in a hurry, or don't have good listening skills. Some people in the world still don't. That's why I like this site. People have time to listen, and are willing to understand, and share. As a teenager, I tried that. I found just trying to explain to myself, what the flashing balls of light I was seeing was impossible. There was no way I could share, or describe to my parents, or my other family members what I was going through, or seeing. Let alone to the neurologist my parents took me to see. I guess that I'm not the only one in the world that has felt like that, you must have done at some point in your life. If a simple seizure originates in the temporal lobe, quite a wide variety of symptoms can occur. This is because the functions of the temporal lobe are quite varied. As with all types of epilepsy, each person is different and straightforward comparisons are not always possible. Usually, someone having a simple partial seizure originating in the temporal lobe will experience an intense feeling, for example, sudden fear or happiness. They may have an extremely vivid memory flashback or strong sense of déjà vu. Unpleasant smells or tastes and an unpleasant sensation in the stomach are also possible symptoms. These symptoms are often called an 'aura' and can act as a warning for people with complex partial seizures. During simple partial seizures, the person remains fully conscious and the seizure is usually very brief. Often it is only the intensity and suddenness of these feelings that differentiates between someone having a usual déjà vu experience, for example, and someone having a simple partial seizure. The frontal lobe If a seizure originates in the frontal lobe, the person will experience a totally different set of symptoms. Because this area of the brain deals primarily with movement, the symptoms are sometimes called 'motor seizures'. The person may feel their head drawn to one side. Sometimes their arm or hand becomes stiff and is drawn upwards. Some people then experience some jerking movements in that limb. If this symptom spreads to other parts of the body it may be what is called a 'Jacksonian' seizure, a very rare type of seizure named after British neurologist, Hughlings Jackson. Sometimes this can spread to the rest of the brain and become a tonic-clonic seizure. If a person's head is drawn to the left or it is the left hand or arm affected by the seizure, this means that the epileptic activity is occurring in the right frontal lobe and vice versa. Because this lobe also controls part of our speech, some people experience 'speech arrest', resulting in an inability to talk or not being able to be understood. After this type of seizure, which again is usually only brief, the person can experience a short period of weakness. In rare instances people can be briefly paralysed and this is known as 'Todd's paralysis'. The parietal lobe The parietal lobe deals with our bodily sensations and simple partial seizures beginning in this part of the brain cause strange physical sensations. A tingling or warmth down one side of the body is typical. Because the parietal lobe is closely associated with the frontal lobe, people sometimes experience movement too. Known as 'sensory seizures' the after effect can be a period of numbness which wears off after a while. The occipital lobe The fourth area of the brain which can be the source of a simple partial seizure is the occipital lobe, responsible for our vision. It follows, therefore, that the symptoms of these seizures are to do with the way we see things. Flashing lights, balls of light or strange colours are typical symptoms, affecting half of the vision. Again, this occurs in the opposite side of the body to the lobe where the seizure originates. The brain is a very complicated mechanism, and it is not always as simple as it seems to decide which area of the brain is the origin of someone's seizures. http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/simple.html Psychic seizures: These seizures change how people think, feel, or experience things. They may have problems with memory, garbled speech, an inability to find the right word, or trouble understanding spoken or written language. They may suddenly feel emotions like fear, depression, or happiness with no outside reason. Some may feel as though they are outside their body or may have feelings of déjà vu ("I've been through this before") or jamais vu ("This is new to me"— even though the setting is really familiar). Who gets them? Anybody can get them. They may be more likely in people who have had a head injury, brain infection, stroke, or brain tumor but most of the time the cause is unknown. What's the outlook? These seizures often can be controlled by seizure medicines. Many people who have them eventually will become seizure-free without medication. What else could it be? Medical disorders such as, stomach disorders or a pinched nerve can cause some similar symptoms. Hallucinations can accompany psychiatric illness or the use of certain drugs. And some symptoms (such as déja vu) are experienced by almost everyone at some time. Whether the symptoms represent simple partial seizures depends on how often they occur and whether they are associated with other episodic changes or other seizure types. How is the diagnosis made? A complete medical history and physical examination can help to rule out other possible causes of the symptoms and assess the likelihood of epilepsy. http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/seizure_simplepartial.html Cat. "Many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1