I am so scared again reading this

Hi Alesha, The problem we have is the neurologist in my case keeps saying it is not seizures and is related to anxiety so their is nothing that they can give me. This was a letter I received a while back. Its kinda long but worth a little read.

I would like to comment on this. let me first please summarise that I saw you last on 14 August this year with reoccurrence of deja vu symptoms and as you know I saw you together with your mother, Yvonne, I went through all the clinic letters in recent years and in my assessment I did in 2014, I thought that these symptoms were not related to epilepsy. You told me that you have had déjà vus on every alternate day and also had a faint just before you saw me when you attended North Manchester A+E. for further details please see me my letter.

I summarised my impression from that clinic appointment that the deja vus are related to your anxiety and I would not consider any further investigations. I thought the reintroduction of Citalopram hopefully will improve your symptoms.

In your email from 22 August 2017 to Jill you queried 2 things which you forgot to mention. The first issue is that you said you have these intense waves of fear coming over you and which you are getting numerous times daily. You said that it feels like the whole room went colder and darker and your vision becomes cloudy. You find it hard to communicate because it was so intense. You have memory dream flashbacks and déjà vu feelings. You wondered if these were possibly simple-partial seizures. Also, you wondered what they could be if they will progress.

My comment: simple partial seizures are normally one sided symptoms with numbness or repetitive movements. These are normally one sided, so either leg or an arm on either side of your body is moving rapidly. You can also sometimes have twitches which are simple focal seizures. They often generate into so-called complex focal seizures where you have altered consciousness, you then stare into space, do certain chewing mouth movements and also repetitive movements. The difference between simple and complex focal seizure is that the simple focal seizures you are always conscious which is not the case with complex focal seizures.

Reading your email, I don’t think you have either of them and that these symptoms are really caused by your anxiety.

The second issue was that you have a massive fear of seizures and that is constantly in your thoughts. You wondered if anxiety can create these feelings and symptoms.

My comment: You are absolutely right that this anxiety can cause these emotions. There are a lot of patients nowadays who have a fear of organic symptoms. Not surprisingly this is often a symptom we find with people working in the health business who deal a lot with cancer symptoms. I for instance have had several staff members from Christie Hospital here in Manchester who are highly anxious that they will develop some cancer disease because of the daily fates and quite frightening patient stories they are confronted with.

There are also patients who have a high fear of seizures and we normally differentiate them in patients who have actually have had seizures and who have not had seizures. The patients who have epilepsy have sometimes have a warning sign of epilepsy which is also a kind of fear. We call this aura. Then the other group of patients are just frightened of having seizures due to their anxiety. I would quite openly say that you probably belong to this group.

Let me please say that if the medication is not successful you should seek the opinion of a counsellor. I am not sure if you are covered by a private insurance but the Priory Hospital has excellent therapists and psychiatrists who can offer advice for anxiety and depression. You should really seek the opinion of those even if you have no suicidal thoughts. If you have any thoughts of suicide then please attend a local A+E Clinic or let one of us doctors know on this.

I hope you do not mind that I point this out again just for everybody’s and especially your reassurance.

Let me please point out that I am not a consultant who easily labels organic symptoms as psychogenic or anxiety related. I always think that you have to look at every patient’s story very closely and before coming to such a conclusion once should be absolutely sure of one’s verdict. Obviously, us doctors can be wrong at times but given now my 30 years of clinical experience in Neurology and dealing also with patients with similar symptoms like you, I think I can be pretty convinced that your symptoms you describe are related to your anxiety.

I hope this reassures you and I send you and your family my very best wishes and kind regards. Please contact me again if necessary.

unless they saw something on a scan they would do nothing. they would not give seizure meds to anyone they dont think needs them as they would damage you.

yes doctor and neurologist keep telling me its anxiety but who do i believe them or genuine people with epilepsy who describe their symptoms which sound similar to mine??

I would believe the doctor and neurologist because they are trained in setting a diagnosis and see people with your kind of complaints all day long.

Forgot to mention: I had quite severe migraines for a while which caused the same symptoms. I still have them once in a while.

I am trying not to think it is seizures but every time these feelings come over I think this is it. This is the time I am going to go into a seizure and all these weird episodes are leading up to it. I mean this morning it happened again I was lying watching tv in bed and then all of a sudden out of nowhere the feeling washed over me and I felt adrenaline go through my arms and legs and a kinda of hot flashes feeling before it disappeared about five seconds later. It is weird what is this?

I dont want anymore EEG tests I am too scared

Hi Jan how do you know that you dont have epilepsy? The reason i ask is I have been told that I dont have epilepsy but I still get the symptoms and when I read online on epilepsy forums I am convinced I have it as my symptoms are identical.

I am trying not to think it is seizures but every time these feelings come over I think this is it. This is the time I am going to go into a seizure and all these weird episodes are leading up to it. I mean this morning it happened again I was lying watching tv in bed and then all of a sudden out of nowhere the feeling washed over me and I felt adrenaline go through my arms and legs and a kinda of hot flashes feeling before it disappeared about five seconds later. It is weird what is this?

I do get where you are coming from but you are just reinforcing that fear of it being seizures by research and googling. Honestly I've had that wave of panic, warm sensation, adrenaline rush in arms and legs and hot flashes too mamy times but its just my anxiety.

Give social media a break for a short while, you'd be amazed what a break away from reading about illness can do for you in terms of physical symptoms.