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nocturnal epilepsy and cannabis

Thu, 04/02/2015 - 13:53

I've had nocturnal epilepsy since I was 7 years old. I'm nearly 24 years old now and until I was about 18 I was taking a lot of medication. I was taking 1500mg of Epilim and 150 mg of Lamotragine (lamicatal) I was so dopey most of the time, just from taking so much medication. 

When I was 18, my neurologist took me off Epilim because it can be very harmful to a baby when pregnant or breastfeeding. Since then I have been taking 300 mg of Lamotragine. I found that this didn't fully control my epilepsy and and so I decided along with my neurologist that I would up my dosage to 450mg. This led me to sleep ok, but I was falling asleep during the day which can be very dangerous for someone with nocturnal epilepsy. So in the end I had to stop taking 450mg and went back to 300mg.

Since I started smoking cannabis in the evenings/ before bed, i've found that my seizures have completely stopped, I am no longer jerky during the night, I no longer feel wierd or sedated. 

I know that peoples opinions on cannabis is very versatile however I really believed that it has helped me so much with my everyday life. I can get on with the tasks at hand, I can go to work knowing that I havent had any seizures, and I know that when I don't ingest cannabis before bed that I am a lot more likely to have a seizure, which I'm sure you all know can feel like the most horrible thing in the world and I know in the grand scheme of things, life could be a lot worse but it is horrible having to live with seizures and if a tiny bit of cannabis can make my life a whole lot easier, then I don't care what anybody who has no illness has to say, I am happy to carry on doing it and that I am able to live my life to the full.

Also, my neruologist said it is totally fine and won't affect my medication LAMOTRIGINE at all.

Happy days xxx

Comments

What most people don't

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2015-04-02 - 18:45
What most people don't realize is that MJ calms the central nervious system down. which means it is less active and if used at night then there are fewer electrical impulses going off wrong. I knew that back in the 70's. However back then it wasn't medical and peope started lacing it with outher things.I am waiting for other things and a seizure now and then doesn't bother me since almost all of mine are now seconds in length. I can have one while discussing something in a group of people and they wouldn't know about it.

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