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Concerns about potential Simple Partial Seizures

Thu, 09/20/2018 - 20:35
Hi everyone. I'm 28 years old, and have had OCD and Generalized Anxiety Disorder since I was in grade school. It really started to pick up after puberty, and I began treatment on an SSRI. I'm still on SSRIs to this day. I also willingly admit that I have health anxiety, with hyperchondria tendencies (If I feel a pain in my abdomen, im concerned about gulbladder, pancreas, diverticulitis, etc). The type of OCD I have is more obsessive thoughts, worries, and less ticks or cleanliness etc at this point in my life. I also have hashimotos thyroiditis, and am clinically obese. With all that in mind, I'd like to discuss what I've been experiencing lately. I have had several episodes where I will randomly smell a particular bad odor - it doesn't matter where I am, or what im wearing, but it is pretty infrequent - perhaps once a month. It will last maybe 5-10 seconds. And then no matter how hard I try I cant smell that odor anywhere, or on anything. But it is the same odor, its almost ammonnia-ish or otherwise strong and bad in nature. Hard to describe beyond that. More concerning, I have episodes where I get brief, but quite intense, bouts of deja vu. They usually come when I stay up too late, and especially if I am trying to use my brain (Solve a puzzle, play a mentally demanding game, try to write a paper. Just today it broke the pattern a bit, where I was trying to write a paper which required thought, and I looked at some of the text and felt like I was there before. Anxiety began to swell, throat closing a bit, feel "zoomed out of myself", and then I smell a strange smell... its not the same one, but was also unpleasant. This all lasted less than 10 seconds, but leave me feeling a sense of dread, anxiety, and hopelessness. Like I never want to feel that way again, and I want to shut down. I have had panic attacks, and these are similar, but not as intense. When I do some googling, I see Simple Partial Seizures, almost verbatim... strange sensations (Smells, in my case), deja vu, fear/anxiety. I have had 2 EEGs in the past, both normal, and I once had a brain MRI which was unremarkable (years ago). I am very concerned I'm developing epilepsy, and that these episodes are in fact little seizures. Does anyone else have a similar experience, with or without epilepsy? I'm hoping they just go away, or its just a manifestation of OCD, but it is starting to interfere with my job as it requires focus and attention on writing software, as when I focus too much it can sometimes trigger these "events", especially when tired.

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