Irrational fear of seizures. Anyone else? :/

Posted , 17 users are following.

Hey guys - hear me out please.

So I started on Zoloft 2 weeks ago. Doctor wanted me to start on 12.5 then raise to 25mg. I have also been taking .25mg of klonopin daily for maybe a month and a half (under dr supervision and was going to wean off within a few weeks) so it came to the point where it was time for me to raise to the full 25mg of Zoloft and stupid me went on google and found articles of people saying that after raising doses they started experiencing seizures. I know that is probably EXTREMELY rare especially in someone that has no other risk factors and is not epileptic like myself.. But it scared me out of continuing the Zoloft so I quit (gotta love anxiety)

And I've been terrified of having a seizure ever since.

I have never had a seizure, no one in my family is epileptic and I'm even taking klonopin which is an anti convulsant. It's such an irrational fear but I can't get it out of my head and now my anxiety is causing me to get weird sensations like headaches and my body feeling all shaky and whatnot.

And then my doctor brought up the fact that she doesn't want me to cause myself to have a "psuedoseizure" which set off my fears even more.

Now I don't know what to do. Part of me wants to wean off of the klonopin and just try to handle my anxiety in med free ways, but then another part of me wants to stay on the medications because to be honest they were helping me. But I know if I start up the Zoloft again that fear won't leave me.

Has anyone else ever had irrational fear of seizures? Sorry for the long post. This just sucks. I was doing so well then anxiety slapped in back in the face. Please no negative words either.. I'm just looking for some support.

2 likes, 21 replies

21 Replies

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  • Posted

    Hello,

    I have a fear of having seizures, the only difference is my family has a history of seizures and I have had seizures since I was eleven. I have grand-Mal seizures which are broken down to photosensitive, nocturnal and cateminal. The one that is a problem is having seizures in my sleep. Maybe it is actually having it in my sleep or passing out and feeling like I was asleep. Either way, I have no recollections of going into the seizure. For a long time because of that fact, I have trained myself to have problems sleeping. It is not easy dealing with something like this. I am sorry but no advice because I have not got rid of my own fear, but can talk if you want someone to talk to.

  • Posted

    My wife has epilepsy. She had seizures 4 months after we got married. We went to the doc and he said its a one time thing so just gave relaxants. Then after 3 months she had another seizures. So the epilepsy medicine started. We had a baby boy one year after the second seizure and then the doc increased the doze. Then a year later we had another baby and she had a seizure again after a week. Then the doc said you shouldnt have more babies for 3-5 years. Because the body and brain is not prepared to handle that pressure. Its been 4 years shez on keppra. No babies after that and no seizures as well smile Thank God sooo much! Now recently the doc reduced her dosage from 500 mg to 250 mg. Increasing dosage on doctor advice is not harmful and you should not quit these medicine all of a sudden. You have to quit gradually. Dont worry..u dont have epilepsy. You wont get a seizure. But one thing id recommend, dont take these medicines without doctor approval. Or increase or decrease dosage without doc permission. Dont worry. Relax. You are perfectlt fine. Enjoy life smile
    • Posted

      I am sorry, but something you said bothers me. Just because one does not have epilepsy does not mean someone can and wont have a seizure. Usually in order to have epilepsy some insist it has to be three or five frequent seizures. There is a reason for it, it could be something wrong with the brain or overdose. Anything can be strong enough to cause a seizure, it depends on what it is. Also, some doctors feel that being pregnant, which I know several people who have seizures and gave birth to healthy children is bad. No one knows how a seizure works and what it is capable of handling.
    • Posted

      Hi. Sorry. I couldnt make it clear. I did not mean to say that you cannot have a seizure if you do not have epilepsy. You can have a seizure without epilepsy as well. Sometimes high temperature, medicine overdose also can lead to a seizure. But the person who mentioned did not have a seizure or had anyone in the family with epilepsy. She is suffering from anxiety. So i tried to calm her down that people dont just get seizures because they are afraid of getting them. And my advice was that dont start or stop these medications without your doctors approval.
  • Posted

    Omg i am so glad to see this thread😂 im 18 and have such an intense irrational fear of having a seizure. Ive never had a seizure, neither has anyone in my family.

    It seems that whenever i log onto my social media something related to seizures pops up, or on youtube and they start saying about having seizure it makes me freak out. Ive had panic disorder since i was 5.

    When i was 11 or 12 they thought i was having complex partial seizures and i was tested and it was just panic attacks.

    But within the last few months that is consuming my mind and im terrified of having a seizure, when in reality ive never had one and most probably wont. But its so debilitating constantly thinking about seizures and nobody seems to understand because i know its so irrational but still thats all i can think of?

    I wake up suddenly in the middle of the night because im terrified that i just had a seizure in my sleep😂 again i tell myself, ive never had a seizure, so why am i constantly thinking about it

  • Posted

    Hi so I know that I’m pretty late to this discussion, but I’m 19 and Ive had generalized anxiety disorder since I was 7. I started to have the irrational fear of seizures every since I was sitting with my cousin who started to have one. However I know that his was most likely drug related, but only being that young I didn't understand what was happening and it scared me. So, I decided to look up the possible causes and what they were in hopes of getting a better understanding and that maybe I wouldn't be so terrified. After that I became even more terrified so I have been living in fear for almost 13 years. Now, I'm pregnant, and it has definitely not been easy, and been quite sick since, not to mention stressed to the max, so much so one night my whole body started tensing up causing my whole body to shake and then stop and then start again. Almost as if I was shivering but I just couldn't get it to stop. My head felt floaty like I was beside myself. On the way to the hospital I went into SVT which is just where your heart rate is 120 or above. I was so afraid it was a seizure but they said it was a severe panic attack. Ive had a few more of those shaky attacks since then so i went to the doctor and they all say its not seizure related even though they haven't rain any test. I want to believe them so bad but my mind just gets the best of me and every time I get a headache I freak out, I need help its ruining my life and my relationship.

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