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Faking seizures?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 02:34

Hello everyone,

I came with a question I've been asking myself for a few days ... maybe someone here can help.  

I work at an adult education center.There is a studentl there (age 28) who regularly has seizures. I've only seen it happen four or five times in the 2+ years that this person has been with us, but she says that it actually happens quite often (1-2 times a month). She has always been quite adamant that we not call an ambulance when a seizure hits, so we never had until now. This past Wednesday, though, she had multiple seizures in relatively rapid succession, and that time we did call an ambulance.

By the time the ambulance came (about fifteen minutes after we called, since they had a bit of trouble finding us), the student was talking in full sentences and appeared extremely tired, but otherwise OK. It may have been another five minutes or so between her having the seizure, and us deciding that we were going to make that call. 

Among other things, the ambulance crew asked her what medications she was on, and she said Tegretol. I happen to know this is an actual anti-seizure med. My grandson took it for a while.The ambulance crew asked me to describe what had happened, and I did, as best I could. In hindsight, one of the most striking things, to me, was how this student repeatedly struck her head against the pavement.

After a while, though, one of the paramedics began asking me questions I hadn't really expected. Like whether she had talked or sat up while seizing. It seemed to me he was implying that the seizure might be fake. I did a bit of internet research, and found that some people apparently do, in fact, fake seizures for attention. The thing about this student is that she seems more bothered than pleased when people hover over her.

But then again, that paramedic got me thinking. There are a few things that seem weird about this situation. Like for instance: she is a crutch walker and an occasional wheelchair user. I have never witnessed her having a seizure while on crutches; always in the chair. And I don't often see her in the chair. Being in the chair means that she won't fall to the ground abruptly, even while having a seizure. Also, I witnessed my grandson having a tonic-clonic seizure twice, and both times, it took him at least an hour to come fully out of it. With this student, it's fifteen minutes at most. And even then, it seems like she's invariably aware of what's happening around her almost immediately after she stops seizing. She just can't or won't talk. What seems especially weird to me is that she's always trembling all over her body right after a seizure. Aren't her muscles supposed to be exhausted and therefore limp?   

Does anyone else have experience with any of these things? If she is indeed faking the seizures, I'd like to know. If attention is what she's after, it seems to me we souldn't be giving it to her anymore. Maybe then the fake (?) seizures might stop.      

 

Comments

Yes my first experience at

Submitted by Princemachiavelli on Fri, 2018-02-02 - 17:35
Yes my first experience at the ER I was told I wasn't really having a seizure. Thankfully I was able to get a great neurologist to nail exactly what was going on. Espcellialy in someone who's 36 with no history of seizures. My Dr did reffer me to some websites and groups to talk etc. Faking seizures is very common for attention witch is sad. 

My sister always knows when

Submitted by chris.miller on Sat, 2018-07-28 - 03:13
My sister always knows when her seizures are going to happen, though not consciously. She always finds someone and usually says that she doesn't feel right. She has also banged her head on the ground during a seizure before. Your student may always be sitting because she subconsciously know that she is about to have a seizure.

We have a lady at work who

Submitted by Sting1982 on Tue, 2018-12-18 - 19:18
We have a lady at work who fakes seizures, She is a scam artist. She got caught using customer reward points and When she got caught she claimed that she has cancer and her husband beats her and My boss fell for it and didn't fire her. My wife used to work with the mentally ill and said she had a client that would do the same thing for attention and My Wife would have to mark it down as faking a seizure. It makes me sick that people do this for attention. It's almost impossible to prove they are faking and Lying about it.

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