I believe I have been suffering from myoclonic epilepsy for over ten
years, and I definitely had child absence epilepsy as a child - but grew
out of it. I did go to the doctors regarding the jerks in my arms when I
was about 12, but they blew me off as a hypochondriac.. more recently
(as I want to learn to drive, and do veterinary nursing) I have realised
that my faith in doctors needs to be restored. I have had a routine EEG
scan where nothing prominent showed up, and am due to have a sleep
deprived EEG scan on the 11th of May. I just hope something is found
because I just want this to go away now.

I've found that the jerks in my arms are far more frequent when tired,
when I am concentrating on something involving use of my hands/arms (it
can be something as simple as just writing, but more often doing
something repetitive such as sewing, or deleting pictures individually
off my digital camera!).. I can also sometime feel when they are going
to happen. It's ALWAYS very embarassing when it does happen, I feel like
some sort of spastic, and few people have seen me do it... but when I
feel it about to happen I stop whatever I'm doing (necessary in my line
of work as serious consequences could occur) and I'm just constantly
worried people think I'm just being lazy when I'm really not.

I think the worst case I've had so far is recently when I went out for
the night and got horrendously drunk, and the day after I had to lie in
bed all day - and whenever I thought of something specific the jerks
would happen. It's usually only in my hands and arms. I'm not sure
whether it was me being half asleep, but I can recall everything going
dark and thinking "Am I having a full blown seizure???" when I got up a
few hours later the whole of my body ached (far more then it would have
done when just being hungover) and there was blood all over my pillow,
and on inspection of my face I found that I had bitten my tongue to
shreds, and had literally pierced it with my teeth... I've never done
this before... do any of you think it may have been possible I had had a
full blown seizure? This is really worrying me now... and am just
hoping my next EEG shows something helpful so this can go away. I will
let them know about this... but don't want to seem too insistent that it
was because I do realise it was self-inflicted from my excessive
drinking the night before...