Psuedoseizures?

So I saw my pdoc today for the first time with her. My t came in the office with us (I've seen him 4 times now) to discuss possible medication. While speaking with her she brought up a term I'm unfamiliar with. Psuedoseizures. I'd heard something about them in passing before, my t has also mentioned my recent seizures possibly being caused by stress and anxiety. Well she brought up the name. We didn't have much time to go into detail about it since it was the first visit, I'm still planning to see the neurologist to rule out actual epilepsy (if it can be ruled out) and still working with my regular doctor to have tests done (another appointment next week) but does anyone know anyone or have these themselves? I've looked it up online now and all I seem to find really are medical forms about it, in doctor lingo. I'd really like to know about it, in english you know? I'm relatively smart and have a general idea, but I'd just like to know the experience of others who have seen this first hand. What happened to you, how did it feel when you had these, how long it took to know they were psuedoseizures and such... Anything you're willing to share please. Or of you know someone who has experienced this, anything at all you would like to share. Like, is it curable? Can you get your license back eventually? You know, the general idea of what this is and how it effects someone.

I don't know if there would be a thread for this, so I'm posting it in general mental health, if you want to move it though, please feel free to! Thank you for any help

I used to get pseudo seizures. They weren't grand mal or anything, but stiffening of my muscles and difficulty breathing. Everyone thought I was faking them, but I really had no control over it. My friend really did have seizures that were similar, so I think my body mirrored it due to extreme stress I was under at college. That's why they thought I was faking, to mimic my friend. But seriously, even though they are "pseudo" which means "fake" they really are NOT. It just means there is no evidence in the brain that a real seizure occurred. I was put on depakote for them and it helped a lot, except it made me tired. A year later I decided to go off of depakote and surprisingly I did not have problems with the pseudo seizures anymore. Sometimes I feel one wants to happen but it doesn't.

Thank you. I've only ever seen one seizure before and it was nothing like what I experienced. My ex's Grandmother had seizures but hers, she would just start moving her arm back and forth and saying loudly "HEY!" or "Hey you!" She wouldn't respond if you asked her questions or anything really but that's about what she did. With mine, the first was a "grand mal" seizure, but to be fair, I was experimenting with a "no no drug" mushrooms so it was all blamed on that. No one considered the fact that I had a panic attack about taking them before I even took them, still unintelligentally took them as to not ruin everyones night, continued having anxiety until the seizure happened. The second one wasn't a "grand mal" but I basically stared blankly, went limp and fell into my fiances lap, he had to hold me up while he was driving, that's when my body tensed and I collapsed again and then came back vomiting. Before the second seizure I was in the middle of a panic attack. My last thought was "there is no way I can go to work feeling like this" because of the anxiety.

I don't remember anything at all, I just go blank. I'm just going by what my fiance has told me I do. When I come back to my ears are ringing I have a headache and I throw up. But haven't wet myself or anything of that sort, no bitten tongue etc etc.

Do you remember when you have them, what happened? How do you feel going into them and how do you feel getting out of them, I know it can be triggering to talk about and apparently cause one just to think about sometimes, so you don't have to answer questions you don't feel comfortable with. I'm just so worried about these, it's truly scary. And I honestly don't want to have epilepsy, it's hard enough trying to function with my dissociation and such, add on a seizure disorder and IDK. I am so worried I may have these the rest of my life. So it's kind of, and I mean slightly, comforting thinking it isn't a problem in my brain (if it is these psuedo) and more of a stress problem, stress can sometimes be easier to fix then could a brain... But I know nothing about this, I'd just like to learn more in case it is what I have...

At first I would get to feeling like I was shutting down, dissociating, zoning out... then I couldn't move my body. Then my shoulder or arm would start shaking some and my abdominal and neck muscles would tense up. Sometimes I fell to the floor, and don't remember it happening. The times I DO remember it happening, I couldn't breathe very well and would go like a minute without breathing at all, and when I did it was squeaky and shallow. Then I would go limp and just lie there for a long time... 5-10 minutes. It was really draining. I really thought it was some sort of different panic attack at first. But when I told all that to my GP he called them pseudo seizures. I had all sorts of tests done, EKG, EEG, MRI, tilt test... all came back negative.

Hi, PFM - I have epilepsy and suffer from partial complex seizures (formerly called petite mal seizures). One of the things that indicate epilepsy is an aura. An aura is a strange feeling when a seizure is starting or in progress. If you have epilepsy, you may have auras or strange feelings as you are transitioning from being awake to falling asleep. An aura - a sort of magical feeling or sensation - feels like things are slowing down and is very peaceful. However, when the seizure starts, you are paralyzed and cannot speak though you may be slightly conscious and hear others talking or see them moving. If you are speaking when a seizure starts, you may mumble. (I used to do this.) I take a medication to help limit my seizures and also have to watch what I eat and drink. In particular, I have to be careful with sugary foods, particuarly alcohol products. As for pseudoseizures, I do not know anything about them. I wish you the best.

I think my "aura" was the zoning out feeling

Thank you to both of the replies. Kris, mine sound similar to yours, in a way. I don't know if it's an "aura" but before both of them, as unhappyguy mentioned, I do feel like everything is getting far away, kind of like I am being pulled away from my body into my brain or something. It's hard to hear or talk to others. I mentioned in a previous post that I was experiencing something similar feeling to this a few days leading up to my second seizure and have in the past as well as just 2 days ago it happened quite a bit the other day. But no seizure came from the feeling. I kind of feel like I'm being pulled away but at the same time, feel like I'm in a fog and when people talk to me, ask me questions, it's very hard to answer them because I don't even really realize they are talking to me or expecting an answer. Everything just seems so foreign to me when I feel this way. Only twice has it led to actual seizures diagnosed by doctors. But with both of those seizures, I have no memory of the event whatsoever, only before I collapse and after I come back from it. I can and have, especially in the last year since the first one, get this feeling but never have one. When I feel this way I try to fight it and fight back, typically it seems to work but I tried it with the second seizure and it didn't. I felt like above mentioned and tried to talk to my fiance to keep in the "here and now" sense, but it didn't work at all, I just went off into lala land or whatever, I don't know where I went lol. Mostly it does help when I try to focus, do grounding skills I learned from the DID doctors, it's all different, but in a way it all feels so similar.
I have blackouts that seem very similar to the seizures, the feeling on my end at least. I get the spacey getting pulled back thing and bam, I come back hours/days/weeks/months/a year later not knowing what happened in between. The blackouts aren't accompanied with vomiting though, just a severe headache that lasts weeks sometimes. I can see though why my t thinks they are connected and why a couple other doctors before wondered if I had seizures, it's a very similar feeling. Just not the aftershock really.

unhappyguy, I'm sorry you live with epilepsy, I can only imagine with what little experience in this that I have, how scary it could be. I hope you've found comfort and a way to cope, something I'm still searching for.

The p-doc commented that my case is "very complex" I apologized... I know I'm a mess. I know I make no sense. I only say what I'm feeling, I have no clue what is happening to me. I feel bad that these doctors are trying to help me when who knows if we will ever find out what is wrong.

Are any of y'alls seizures followed by vomiting, ringing in ears and headaches? I don't know if I would call what I experience before hand an "aura" because it's not really a peaceful feeling, I'm not disturbed, I just am confused at this state and distant, feel very unattached to my body etc.

http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=231134

The link I mentioned about posting about this feeling I've been getting

I am in Neurophysiology. I do long-term electroencephalographic monitoring of patients with seizures. The term "Pseudoseizures" has fallen into disfavor, and the term replacing it is "Non-epileptic seizures."

The only way to distinguish between seizures and non-epileptic seizures is to do long-term monitoring. Patients are admitted as in-patients in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) of a hospital. Electrode leads are put on the scalp of their head - typically a total of 28 leads. They are fastened on top of the skin with a special glue. The equipment is put in a backpack and the patient is usually free to walk around their room. The goal is for the patient to have their seizures while hooked up. Most EMU studies last a minimum of three days, but it can be as long as seven days. Once the neurologist is satisfied that the patient has had a sufficient number of "events" that are representative of what the patient experiences, then a diagnosis can be made whether the events are seizures or non-epileptic seizures. A genuine seizure will be captured by the electrical activity generated by the brain, which is transmitted by the electrodes the patient is wearing, and recorded for the neurologists review.

There are many seizure-types. Some can be simple and brief staring spells, others can be the classic stiffening and jerking. Still others can include symptoms like sudden, unexplainable fear, de ja vu, unusual smells and tastes, and even fits of laughter. Not all seizures include loss of consciousness.

Anxiety can cause seizure-like symptoms that are non-epileptic, usually as a result of 'over-breathing' or hyperventilation, which can accompany anxiety.

Since you describe being unaware, it's possible that you are having what we call "absence" seizures. They are usually brief - maybe 3 - 5 seconds. The patient will have what we call a "behavioral arrest" where they literally stop while in action - and when it's over - they resume right where they left off, but are completely unaware that the "pause" ever happened. This type of epilepsy usually starts in childhood. It's often outgrown, but can persist into adulthood.

I would suggest that you see a neurologist, who will hopefully order an outpatient electroencephalogram (EEG). This is a test that usually lasts 1.5 - 2 hrs (45 min-1hr for hookup, and 30min-1hr to run the test). If that test does not produce diagnostic results, that's when they will usually start talking about long-term monitoring in order to capture the events.

An "aura" is any sensation that predictably precedes a seizure. It can be a headache, ringing in the ears, just "a weird feeling," tingling sensations, suddenly being unable to form words, and a host of other odd-sounding symptoms. Auras are most often found with seizures originating in the temporal lobe, particularly "simple partial seizures" and "complex partial seizures."

Thank you for the explination crescent. Ive got an appointment with my doctor thursday and am hoping he can put in for an eeg, his office works close with our local hospital and they can order tests through the hospital for little or no charge. If not idk, i dont have 300 to see the neuro(we only have 2 in town, one i already saw and have been advised to go to the other one instead of the first one i saw) and im sure i dont have enough for an eeg. I applied for medicaide and was told i made 50$ too much a month so i dont have insurance.

Money aside though, i dont remember the seizures at all, i just know when i come back that something happened. It kind of feels like my conscience mind is a rubberband and i get pulled back and when i come back from the seizure i like snap back into consciousness, the same thing happens with my blackouts, tge seizures though lasted 3-5 minutes but the blackouts could last hours months to a full year. But before the seizures, i wasnt really hyperventalating or anything, my heart started to race, i started to get dizzy and wanted to put my head down, i also started to tingle really badly in my private area, which was something new, but the other dizzy heart racing panic feeling is how i get when im having a panic attack.

I really hope we (the doctors and myself) can figure this out, maybe long term monitoring would be good, the full seizures were over six months apart but a few of the things you mentioned do happen and have for years, but they only last a few seconds and i remember them so i never thought too much about it.

Thank you again for such an informative response. It really helped me understand more

My pleasure.. :-)

After reading other postings..I have another thought that might add some clarity.

A seizure is diagnostically specific. in that in order to be called a seizure, the symptoms must be correlated with rhythmic neuronal firing in the brain. Normally, the electrical activity in the brain is very random. When neurons begin firing in a synchronous fashion that is rhythmic, that is what produces a seizure. Seizure-like symptoms can be caused by other things, like anxiety, panic attacks, substance abuse, etc. It`s reasonable to think that even dissociation could `look` like a seizure. However, without an EEG that captures rhythmic electrical discharges from the brain, events cannot be classified as seizures with any certainty. There are people who have epilepsy.. confirmed seizures, who also have pseudo (or non-epileptic) seizures. Antiepileptic medications will not treat pseudoseizures.

Hope this helps!