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Hallucinations with temporal lobe epilepsy
Fri, 01/20/2012 - 03:03I used to hallucinate at night. I would wake.up my family and let them know that there were spiders everywhere. Then I was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy / complex partial seizures. My neurologist said that these hallucinations were seizures. It took several years to find a medication and dose that worked for me, and the hallucinations /complex seizures at night eventually went away. My neurologist increased my dose of Trileptal two months ago to combat a sudden increase in daytime auras, succesfully. However, I am now waking up.at night to hallucinations again. It was been.YEARS since I have done this. Also, the hallucinations have changed from spiders to something else. It is still a visual hallucination and it terrifies me. I have had them four times over the last ten days.
I have gone to my psychiatrist, who believes that I am not suffering from some psychosis but that I am having seizures at night again. He spoke with my neurologist, and they agreed to lower the dose of my antidepressant because it may be lowering my seizure threshold. However, my psychiatrist expressed some concern over the fact that I am now evidently having breakthrough seizures. He and my neurologist agreed to try the medication change for now, and see if it helps before taking further action. However, my psychiatrist said it may be time to take a new MRI/EEG, since it has been over two years since my last ones. These tests would of.course be coordinated through my neurologist.
Here are my questions:
(1) Has anyone else out there had hallucinations at night as a form of seizure?
(2) Is there anything NOT scary that can cause a sudden increase in seizure activity? Obviously they would be lookinhlg for brain tumors as a cause but I'd like to think there could be something less frightening.
I am not taking illegal.drugs. I don't drink or smoke. I have not changed any medications recently (other than discussed above). I am not more stressed than usual. My general health has improved lately -- I had surgery to.remove (benign) tumors and have been.eating well and lost 20 pounds in 4 months. I fight depression but it has improves drastically over the last six months. I.don't understand why my seizures are getting worse very suddenly ( and I am very frustrated!!
Comments
Yes, I had excatly the same
Submitted by Vitalijap on Sun, 2018-07-15 - 17:44
Yes, I had excatly the same thing for seven years when I was little. I don't want to tell the whole story, but maybe some of it may help. I used to wake up at night and walk, sometimes try to jump out of the balcony ( thanks to my mum and grandma I am still alive). I would not remember heavier seizures, but I would remember smaller ones, or suddenly realise that I am up, but the begining was always the same. It still scares me to this day and I spent so many years looking for specific words to describe the feeling. It just clicked couple weeks ago while watching Stranger Things. The boy described his state,and my brain froze.. just clicked, and then I started realising that it was THIS feeling of heaviness, THAT THING was falling, pressurising me. It was unbelievable fear I have never experienced before. The little white dots floating in the air. As years went by it stopped. It only would accur if I was under a lot of stress or under drugs influence. The bizzare thing is, that sometimes I am very curious to experience it (for the sake of understanding what that is), and if I concentrate and stress my brain , I get very mild version of it. At that time (I am from one of the Baltic countries,and my seizures started just after the Soviet union collapsed) they didn't know or didn't have the medicine or God knows why, how to treat it right, me and another boy were the only ones with the same symptoms I went through so many experimental mixes of drugs that scares me, but eventually they got it right. Stay strong!
Yes my sister she has very
Submitted by Nikita_5bc8441a5d0d3 on Thu, 2018-10-18 - 04:28
Yes my sister she has very scary hallucination of unknw ppl which is only seen by her.. Doc said its TLE she is on medication but it has stopped woring on her.. She has dreadful headaches and body aches she stays unconcious for nearly 10 mins.. And when she wakes up she gets cold n blabbers something.. If u guys know anything plz help us.. We too are desperate my no. +917908270025 u guys can whatsapp me.
Thank you so much for posting
Submitted by HallieB on Wed, 2018-02-21 - 08:34
Thank you so much for posting this! My brother has horrible spider & bug visual, tactile, auditory and gustatory hallucinations since he was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury & epilepsy last summer. They crawl in his wounds and spray red & black clouds. They get on his groin, head, food, refrigerator, cupboards, etc. It's been a nightmare. Just recently, he found if he kept his TV at low volume and darken the room, they're gone.