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Ecstatic Seizures
Thu, 08/27/2009 - 07:32Hi
Has anyone experienced "ecstatic" seizures? I've had a series of them recently, and they are amazing: totally outside the range of normal experience and by far the best experiences of my life! I'm not religious or "spiritual" but recognise that they could be construed by others as deep and meaningful life changing events...evidence of the "divine" as opposed to neurological events.
I've been told by my neurologist they are very rare and I've not been able to find out much about them/share experiences.
Victoria
Hello all, I'm adding this comment just over a month after the original post having realised that the thread is now incredibly confusing and there are some misunderstandings following what seem to be random postings. You may want to follow the date order of the posts before making comments or coming to conclusions.
Regards,
Victoria
Comments
Re: Ecstatic Seizures
Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Thu, 2009-10-22 - 07:39
Hi Victoria and Zealot,
I've read in quite a few books that TLE across adolescence makes the person a perpetual teenager emotionally. I think they meant this in a Geschwind Syndrome manner though, instead of continuously and intellectually curious sense of an academic Peter Pan. Still, Peter Pan was right by refusing to grow up. My Philosophy of Science class was a lot more fun because of TLE, since if honeybees were going to get credit for saving bee's wax by making hexagonal honeycombs, I wanted the credit for blowing spherical bubbles so as to have the largest volumes of bubbles with the minimal bubble-stuff, which got many laughs and some understanding that Karl von Frisch's Dancing Bees weren't all that smart with minimal surfaces. More like dumb luck, than great evolutionary selection, with extremely annoyed University Professors along the way. Then, if bees think, I must of had a Bumblebee in gradeschool who thought I was a flower, since she got so excited to see me, even before she could verify I again had a drop of honey for her daily meal. Training Bumblebees would be just as good as training Clever Hans (the world's smartest horse ever)!!! Withdrawal from AEDs often gives people a mysteriously great/devilish Clever Hans effect, but has anybody explored it? I was going to mention that to the single poster about reading people's auras after AEDs, but I lost the post (concernedMother??).
Doctors come and go at the local clinic, with the better ones leaving the quickest to better locations (the best I had left to SF in 4 months). Only one neurologist takes Medicaid, and he's semi-retired at a different county's clinic that handles prisoners, which gave life to part of the Federal lawsuit for better medical care meeting Constitutional standards for prisoners. It's not reassuring when fellow patients are chained together before examinations. Wealth and mobility gives much greater choice for sure. I had the same type of problems in the California Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay Area, just differently named technicalities (my very first one-visit neurologist vanished after the 1989 earthquake(before that disappearance, the assistants were authourized to do everything)).
Flip-Flop technicality, "We the People..." is the Preamble, not the body, despite FDR, and it's living, but so dead, the Judges have to use a 250 year old dictionary to decipher any of the words, unless Walt Disney wants more Mickey Mouse copyrights protection, then change whatever with gusto.... I use the words foundling, fondling, floundering, founding, and others for the fathers. I'm really full of it tonight.
One "Kafka" movie, that struck Medicaid/Rehab home, was "The Insurance Man," set in Prague. The Department of Treasury gave me the KGB treatment with my IRS handicap job claims (I still have the official epileptic/deviant letter somewhere), to the point where I felt like joining Sakharovs' anonymous in the 1980's. Then, the smaller agencies were in the spirit of many of satirist Zoshchenko's short stories, and the agents cited Catch-22 to me endlessly. I know I've read Gogol, at least Dead Souls, but its been 3 or 4 decades ago, and some of Cancer Ward and Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn.
I have to be careful with books, just the other night I foolishly bid on a Folio Society edition of Petroneous, and luckily I lost, but now I have to pay for my brother's Kindle edition of Gogol (at least it's only a couple dollars).
Lots of Love,
Tadzio
Re: Ecstatic Seizures
Submitted by zealot on Thu, 2009-10-22 - 12:12
Tadzio and Victoria,
I answered the concerned mother's post. I said I was suspicious of the DX and just because most of her seizures were PNES, doesn't mean they all are and what she described sounded exactly like what we were talking about here. I also suggested that she take her daughter to see some of the practioners of the Eastern Arts before her daughter got shrunk to nothing.
I did not tell her that just because they can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there. There is a story from a woman (in the '80s I think) who actually had the neuros drill holes in her skull so they could stick electrodes in brain to make the Dx. She is epileptic. Duh. I carefully "grill" the EEG techs about what parts of the brain can and cannot be imaged. If it ain't the CC, not much. I also ask what they can expect to see in a Px taking 1800mgs Trileptal and 2mgs Ativan (anxiolytic and seizure protecting) and I was told, "Not much. We'll be lucky if we get a few delta waves.". So much for that. I've also had MRIs. What's that going to tell them? I'd be having more serious problems if there were gross anatomical abnormalities.
If she's still reading here any answers she gets can only help. She has good instincts.
Yes, Tadzio, I know it's the Preamble. I don't think I was being that specific. The Preamble states the purpose and assumptions of the document. That "all men are created equal IN THE EYES OF THE LAW.". I guess Justice really is blind, huh? Not lol :o(. That we are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.". Wrong on that one too, huh?
I even called the ACLU asking for help. They have advocating for the rights of the disabled all over their web site. I went through the Constution, starting with the Preamble through ticking off number by numbe, which of my rights had been abridged. I even dropped a very important name. Psychos like me apparently don't have any. Tadzio, as a self-professed "deviant," you might have better luck with them unless you have a Psych Dx.
If the Supreme Justices have to hit dictionaries to do their work, Hashem (G-d) help us all. With all of the appointments of Clarence Thomas and his ilk, I would not be surprised. They probably would not recognise a Constitional document if it hit them on their heads.
As for the Bumble Bees...
Well! Just because a bug is born with impressive genetically programmed architectural skills, and data collection/data transmission skill, doesn't make them smart. Your professor was obviously a bee brain! Or is that pee brain? Oh, I know. It's pea brain. That's it!
And this perpetually "immature" thing. What is that? TLE causes dissociative symptoms. But I'm confused about this (not!) because according to my stinky shrinks, I have PNES because of my PTSD and no one will do the tests because they are too expensive! I've had neueo consults, have seen the orders with my own eyes, transport comes from Neuro, "Is the Px ready for transport? No? Why not? Oh. We have to speak to the Chief? He's not available?"
This is just as expensive because the lab has been reserved and the techs and MDs are all on stand by, but it comes out of some one elses pocket! I still can't get a Dx so I'm just a psych. Oh, yes
Re: Ecstatic Seizures
Submitted by zealot on Thu, 2009-10-22 - 00:16
Victoria and Tadzio, I don't think this quite counts as abandoned mines, but as children we discovered a series of tunnels complete with fallout shelters, drums of potable(?) Water, and inedible K-Rations, which could only have served as projectiles had the Russians ever landed. I grew up with a view of the Hudson River and the Palisades and the sight of them, as well as the George Washington Bridge, which I could see from my bedroom window as an infant, still fill me with wondrous rapture. I now live on a street where the bridge looms large, just over the crest of the hill. It is extraordinarily beautiful when lit for the night. The saga of #/4>bqu medical care is not restricted to the State of California, Medicaid, Medicare, or anything for that matter. Our government is corrupt and it starts from there. We have the best Democracy money can buy. Unfortunately, "We the People of the United States" are not the people with the money. Oh, but wait. The Framers were the people with the money! What the h happened? I am close to Tadzio's age. I had to keep up with the shorthand and "emoticons" :o) because I used to be in the biz. The first thing that came to my mind when I first saw (lol) was little old lady because that was part of our slang lexicon. Lots of love is much nicer. Lots of love, Zealot P.S. Kafka is very good for Russian doom and gloom, but Gogol is especially good with the nightmarish Russian bureaucracy of the Stalinist era. Read it and weep (or cry from laughing so hard). The absurdity of it all is stunning. Btw, I was actually in a situation so frustrating that out of sheer exasperation I told someone to "Go google Gogol." Really. I'm not making this up. I've actually survived nightmares more like something out of the Gulag Archipelago and actually used Gogol and Gulag Archipelago in the same sentence. I hadn't planned either. When I get angry, my "gift of gab" makes its presence known. It is not always for the better, because it can be quite intimidating and off putting.