Anxiety or epilepsy?

I'm interested by this as I have recently been having these episodes where I feel very hot and bothered with a really hot head and I go into an odd state where I can hear people but don't respond and don't feel like I can talk I don't black out in them but definitely miss stuff and they can last over an hour without me realising afterwards and during I am very tired like I can fall asleep where I am. After one episode in which I kicked and screamed a lot - not sure if this was purely because I was being held down and moved by the people around me but I was taken to hospital and they thought these episodes were not seizures due to the clear eeg but instead psychological due to anxiety. However I am not a great believer in eegs as they have only picked up my epilepsy when I have had a seizure during the eeg and since these episodes reducing because I resist them I have found if I resist them a few hours later I will have a bad complex partial seizure so I don't know if they were warnings or not. I have limited knowledge as I have not seen my specialist about it as when these episodes were happening I was abroad but I'd be interested to know if what I describe sounds like what you are experiencing?

Hi lesley, I saw my neuro and told him the same, like I feel this strange sensations (don't know how to describe it). He said that it's a Simple Partial seizure, that were once called an Aura but now have been renamed. Best wishes Karen

Hi Lesley

I'm sorry about this negative info, I've been on many drugs and they haven't completely worked for me. I've since found out that simple partial szs are difficult to control, NOT like the other ones.

But everyone is different, a good drug for these is called Clobazam, but if you can get them try Perampanel.

I wish you all the best, incidentally I'm going thru the change too, I'm 57, if you are using HRT your Dr might tell you to wean yourself off it.

Karen x

I panic also when I feel my hand jerk, it's natural.

I heard my brother say "God why my sister" as I can hear but cannot control the seizure.

Good Luck, been 4 years since my last fit. !!

Win

I was wondering what the doctor called it instead of an aura?

Nancy71585

hi lesley

i know the feeling of "having" an attack, and the real feeling of having an attack.does that make sense? ill try explain. I have epilepsy and suffer from frequent seizures,and although sometimes i do panik im going to have one, ill hurt myself....ect ect....on a regular day, even though there are plenty warning signs and i no the percentage chance of me having a seizure is high, i stay calm and belive that all will work out ok. im not in control, so theres not much to do. i would like to say it doest effect my social life at all....but that wldnt be true.

i do panik, i do sometimes choose to not go out because of the fear of havingf a seizure, but overall i try have a positive, healthy attitude and say whateva will happen, will happen and life has to continue, let people take me for who i am. good luck with it all. 

Hi Lesley61388,

I've had epilepsy all my life & I'm now 55. During most of my adult life I thought my 

seizures were well controlled as I hardly ever lost consciousness.  Over the past few

years I started getting what I recall being warning signs only thankfully without

blacking out.  As the frequency increased, the more scared I became until I asked to

be referred back to a Neurologist, having not seen one for years.  My symptoms 

range from feeling as though I'm about to nod off to sleep then jerking awake again

even when I'm not actually tired (my old warning sign that a Grand Mal was in the 

offing) to what I always believed to be butterflies in my stomach.  With the advent of the internet I now know that this is a form of seizure & not the butterflies that people without Epilepsy experience.  Ignorance was once bliss! The butterflies 

sensation  with an almost overwhelming feeling that I want to cry lasts a few seconds

 to maybe a couple of mins & sometimes comes in waves. It can also feeling like a shivering squeezing feeling (again in my stomach) & I want to clench my teeth. Sometimes my eyes have a brief fluttering sensation or I may be talking & get this weird tiny sneeze accompanied by spluttering my words.  Thankfully the last one is only once in a while. Rarely I experience a morning where I can't make sense of anything.

Somehow or other I am able to still carry on working but my memory is getting worse.  Thankfully I am able to blame my poor memory on my age but I have been told that the seizures are to blame. 

I am currently changing my medication from Phenobarbitone to Lamotrigine, a scary thing to do after all these years but the Pheno are clearly not working for me.

The hardest thing of all is trying to describe your symptoms to someone who has never had Epilepsy.  My Neurologist didn't believe it was Epilepsy & even said I'd probably outgrown it & didn't see any point in doing an EEG. I was so infuriated that I dug my heels in, I needed to know.  As it turns out I had several seizures during the test, a hollow victory but thank God I didn't go home & throw away my meds............