Medication or no medication - that is the question!

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Hi all,

I have simple partial and mild complex partial temporal lobe seizures and have been given medication to control them, but so far I am shying away from taking the meds. I don't find that the seizures interfere massively with my life and when they do it's only for 3 or 4 days and then I'm "back to normal". Researching all the possible side effects of anticonvulsants however makes me think that I could end up being a lot worse - all of the time. So in terms of weighing up the immediate costs and benefist I wouldn't take medication at this point. I am however slightly concerned that seizures can get worse over time of not treated and the last thing I would want in my life are grand mals... So if that's a real threat I'd take the meds. At the same time I've heard that medication can become ineffective after years of use, so wouldn't you want to wait until you really need it?

I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts on this or any experiences/observations.

Thanks!

Shahar

Comments

I don't find that the

Submitted by just_joe on Tue, 2014-12-23 - 11:05

I don't find that the seizures interfere massively with my life and when they do it's only for 3 or 4 days and then I'm "back to normal". In drug studies side effects are listed. If yo uchecked the results and really looked into those side effects you would see that most of them are 5-8% of the people taking them and in some areas of the study it can go to 12%. You will find posts about the medication not working or the medication did this or that. Does that mean the medication does not work? NO it means the medication didn't work for the person taking it and posting. So in most cases that medication worked fine for 92-95% of the people taking it."Researching all the possible side effects of anticonvulsants however makes me think that I could end up being a lot worse" have you research teh side effects of your over the counter medications?? Asperin can kill a person. All medications have side effects. I hated and still don't like taking medications. However I take them daily because if I didn't my seizures would increase and get worse. As for side effects and medications. One of the ones on some medications I have taken is hair loss. I will take the loss of hair rather then have seizures I can control of they last seconds rather then minutes. Your seizures can and probably get worse if you don't start taking medications. If you started and stopped without a doctor telling you to and how to do it them you can go into status epilepticus (one seizure after another) and in them you may not know the type of seizure you were having. With me I stopped after not having a seizure for almost a year. Well doc knew nothing about it and I went into status. I was having 40 convulsive seizures an hour. They started arround 9:30 pm amd went on until after 7 am. I was briought out of it. Which I was told by the doctors treating me. Before my mother got back to the hospital I went back into status. All I knew was I was ipn my way home from Mom's house to my apt and came to 3 days later. At the same time I've heard that medication can become ineffective after years of use, so wouldn't you want to wait until you really need it? I hope this helps and you get the assistance you need. Joe

I don't find that the seizures interfere massively with my life and when they do it's only for 3 or 4 days and then I'm "back to normal".   In drug studies side effects are listed. If yo uchecked the results and really looked into those side effects you would see that most of them are 5-8% of the people taking them and in some areas  of the study it can go to 12%. You will find posts about the medication not working or the medication did this or that. Does that mean the medication does not work? NO it means the medication didn't work for the person taking it and posting. So in most cases that medication worked fine for 92-95% of the people taking it."Researching all the possible side effects of anticonvulsants however makes me think that I could end up being a lot worse" have you research teh side effects of your over the counter medications?? Asperin can kill a person. All medications have side effects. I hated and still don't like taking medications. However I take them daily because if I didn't my seizures would increase and get worse. As for side effects and medications. One of the ones on some medications I have taken is hair loss. I will take the loss of hair rather then have seizures I can control of they last seconds rather then minutes. Your seizures can and probably get worse if you don't start taking medications. If you started and stopped without a doctor telling you to and how to do it them you can go into status epilepticus (one seizure after another) and in them you may not know the type of seizure you were having. With me I stopped after not having a seizure for almost a year. Well doc knew nothing about it and I went into status. I was having 40 convulsive seizures an hour. They started arround 9:30 pm amd went on until after 7 am. I was briought out of it. Which I was told by the doctors treating me. Before my mother got back to the hospital I went back into status. All I knew was I was ipn my way home from Mom's house to my apt and came to 3 days later.  At the same time I've heard that medication can become ineffective after years of use, so wouldn't you want to wait until you really need it? I hope this helps and you get the assistance you need. Joe

I don't find that the seizures interfere massively with my life and when they do it's only for 3 or 4 days and then I'm "back to normal". In drug studies side effects are listed. If yo uchecked the results and really looked into those side effects you would see that most of them are 5-8% of the people taking them and in some areas of the study it can go to 12%. You will find posts about the medication not working or the medication did this or that. Does that mean the medication does not work? NO it means the medication didn't work for the person taking it and posting. So in most cases that medication worked fine for 92-95% of the people taking it."Researching all the possible side effects of anticonvulsants however makes me think that I could end up being a lot worse" have you research teh side effects of your over the counter medications?? Asperin can kill a person. All medications have side effects. I hated and still don't like taking medications. However I take them daily because if I didn't my seizures would increase and get worse. As for side effects and medications. One of the ones on some medications I have taken is hair loss. I will take the loss of hair rather then have seizures I can control of they last seconds rather then minutes. Your seizures can and probably get worse if you don't start taking medications. If you started and stopped without a doctor telling you to and how to do it them you can go into status epilepticus (one seizure after another) and in them you may not know the type of seizure you were having. With me I stopped after not having a seizure for almost a year. Well doc knew nothing about it and I went into status. I was having 40 convulsive seizures an hour. They started arround 9:30 pm amd went on until after 7 am. I was briought out of it. Which I was told by the doctors treating me. Before my mother got back to the hospital I went back into status. All I knew was I was ipn my way home from Mom's house to my apt and came to 3 days later. At the same time I've heard that medication can become ineffective after years of use, so wouldn't you want to wait until you really need it? I hope this helps and you get the assistance you need. Joe

You need to allow more than

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2015-01-07 - 01:19

You need to allow more than two weeks to evaluate it. I don't know what that time is but it was over a month when I heard people chatting about trying it.

I can relate. I'm 40, have

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2015-01-14 - 21:38

I can relate. I'm 40, have had complex partial temporal seizures all my life. I resisted taking drugs too, my first experiences with them were not pleasant.It's all up to you. I went without meds as long as I could, but eventually they just got worse. Maybe taking meds would have prevented them from getting worse? I don't know.