[susan888]

Has anyone ever heard of seizures caused by stress or past trauma? My daughter was at the park with her boyfriend and grandson and just dropped to the ground in a seizure. She spent 4 days in my hospital's ICU and was transferred to our university hospital's ICU. Test results came back that she was not epileptic.

They have been living with me and my husband for 2 months. She went 3 weeks without a seizure and I took them home. Two days later she calls me at work saying that she had a seizure, so I leave work and pick them up and bring them back to my house.

To be totally honest when she was living here she developed a good friendship with my neighbor. I totally supported that friendship. Last Friday.....my grandson was with his dad....my daughter didn't come home until 4:30 AM. Turns out that my neighbor has a brother living with her who is a heroin addict. My daughter decided to ditch her current boyfriend who is every Mom's dream of a son in law and have sex with this dude.

I took her home on Saturday....it was time....

Tonight she is calling me crying saying that she doesn't know why she does what she does. I told her that she needed to go to her counselor (which she has only seen one time for intake) and ask if she could be bipolar.

This is destroying my marriage, my grandson's perspective of who is his authority figure, my ability to function at work, my mental health......
Any advice would be welcome..... I am desperate....we have serious financial issues going on at the same time.

OMG..........I can't deal with all of this.....

Thank you for any advise you have,

Susan

[notz]

I've not heard of such a seizure but I'm not a medical professional. I hope she gets whatever diagnosis and treatment she needs. As her mom, this has to be so stressful.

I wish I had good answers or even suggestions for you. I'm sure there are others who have gone through some of what you describe. I can certainly relate to the financial problems. It's been tough on many people during these difficult times.

I just wish I knew what to tell you. It's just so much you have on your plate. Do you think your daughter will get back with the ideal boyfriend? What about the safety of your grandchild, is he ok?

Susan, please keep writing.

[elliemay]

If there is any doubt that there may have been illicit drugs in the mix then all bets are off as to the etiology of the seizure.

IMO, it's the heroin that you need to ferret out.

It might have been an overdose.

[Elysium]

There are also some folks who have seizures that are not directly related to Epilepsy or Neurological issues.

There is a disorder called Conversion Disorder which is when the emotional and mental stressors a person faces internally manifest outwardly as neurological symptoms such as seizures, extreme weakness in the limbs, paralysis, muteness. It is a Somatic disorder. This does not mean a person is faking; what it means is that a person is so stressed that their mind and subconscious get overwhelmed and instead of the issues manifesting mentally/emotionally, they manifest in ways that seem to be Neuro related.

I'm not saying she has this....but it's one disorder I can think of where a person can have seizures not related to a Neurological problem.

I agree with a previous poster though; if she was taking any substances, it would be very difficult to know what the cause of the seizure was. I would suggest that if she keeps experiencing seizures and/or other neurological issues and the Neurologists can't find anything, it might be a thought to get her evaluated by a PsyD.

Hope things improve for you all!!

Hi there,

I have Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, and the first time I had a seizure they sent me home because the doctor said many people have just one seizure and never have one again, so they had to wait and see if I had a second one. Even after the second they were reluctant to diagnose me with anything. Eventually they did though. Also, I have had scans done where nothing abnormal was shown. Sometimes things can be missed.

I agree with the above posters...if she used drugs, that could definitely cause a seizure. If it turns out that she didn't use drugs, and keeps having seizures, definitely take her to see a neurologist ASAP so they can figure things out.

I hope you find out what caused these seizures as soon as possible!

[Sunna]

another non-epileptic seizure-like event could be vasovagal syncopy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_response

Quite often people just go down so fast they can't even put a hand out to break their fall. Usually there is profuse sweating. It's been described as "waking up in a puddle of sweat".

Whatever the cause is, I hope your daughter does something soon. Sorry this whole thing is so awful for you and your family.

[krisakira]

I have this and they are called pseudo-seizures. Your body thinks it's having a seizure, and responds as so, however there is no seizure activity. I have had many of these, sometimes almost every day, but lately it has not been a problem anymore for me. It is stress-related, and perhaps some sort of conversion disorder. I was put on depakote for them. It helped some.

[susan888]

She was drug tested at the hospital and that was OK. She is on Depakote and they recently upped her dose. All of her tests come back normal (MRI, EEG, CT Scan).

Last Sunday we took the boat out (me, my husband, daughter and grandson). Had a great day tubing and boating. We were going slow getting ready to beach the boat and swim and I saw her just let go of the tube and start seizing in the lake (thank God she had a life jacket on). My grandson is afraid to be alone with her now.

I understand that neurology is a "grey" science, but it is so frustrating that they cannot come up with a diagnosis.........