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Hallucinations with temporal lobe epilepsy

Fri, 01/20/2012 - 03:03
I 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

If you were on the medication

Submitted by Jmh041188 on Thu, 2019-01-17 - 22:01
If you were on the medication for awhile could be youre getting useto it. My husbands nero said every once in awhile when seizures become more frequent all of a sudden medication needs to be adjusted bc your body/brain is getting useto it so its not helping as much! Hope that helps.

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