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seizures and drinking
Wed, 04/18/2007 - 18:10i don't have seizures often. probably like once every 2 months. when i do they last 30 seconds or so. i'm on lamictal, keppra, carbatrol and something else. i drink alcohol with my friends about once every couple of weeks. i've gotten drunk many times and have been okay. i get seizures when i'm worried, stressed, or tired. do you think it's still okay to drink and everything? please let me know. thanks!
robyn
Comments
Re: Re: seizures and drinking
Submitted by rnapier12110 on Sat, 2007-04-21 - 16:04
thanks for letting me know that. i haven't really thought about it until recently when my seizures have been coming back. my seizures are mostly caused by stress and lack of sleep. i'm also on keppra. i'm also on lamictal and carbatrol so i'm heavily medicated. i shouldn't drink every couple of weeks with my friends because of it. drinking every so often is something i enjoy doing but i don't want to hurt myself in the process. i've never come close to having one in all the times i've been drinking but i'm still worried. i'm glad you know where your guidelines are. i hope your situation continues to get better.
Re: Re: Re: seizures and drinking
Submitted by mcouzens on Tue, 2007-05-22 - 16:39
i had to stop drinking because it simply was the easiest way for me to do it. i love alcohol, and i love being tipsy, but my brain hates it. i've got a type of epilepsy JME, that's really sensitive ("acutely" as my neuro says) to alcohol, and the last time i got drunk, i had a partial complex seizure and chipped off part of my canine tooth. the irony is that i don't have a very severe case of epilepsy! in theory, i can drink, but we simply don't know how much alcohol my body can tolerate, or if, let's say, i'm running on too little sleep, if a three glasses of champagne from two nights before could put me over the edge. my case is that bizarre.
so i guess with alcohol and epilepsy you just have to be very careful and know how it affects your system. i simply can't mess around with it anymore. of course i can have some occasional glasses of things here and there, but occasional. that's it.
Re: seizures and drinking
Submitted by romaboots on Sat, 2007-04-21 - 15:32
I drink wine and am on Keppra which completely controls my seizures. If I stick to no more than 3 glasses of wine over a 4 - 6 hour period with dinner, I'm usually fine. Drinking any more than that just makes me want to go to sleep. I'm also careful not to drink on an empty stomach. The only time I've had a seizure drinking was when I overdid it, and since all my seizures are nocturnal, I'd fallen asleep in a friends car (designated driver) on the way home from a party and had a seizure. That experience has made me very aware of how cautious I need to be about my wine consumption, and if I stick to the aforementioned guidelines, I'm fine.