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Psychic-Type Epilepsy?

Fri, 11/08/2013 - 11:54

Hi Community,

I just responded to another person's question with my story, but I decided to reach a larger group by posting myself.

I had a major gran mal a little more than a year ago. I thought it was my first, though I was 45 then. After many discussions with my wonder Mayo Clinic doctors, 2 EEG studies, and 2 MRIs, it is confirmed that I have had epilepsy all my life. One side of my hippocampus is shruken and scarred. Mesial Temporal Scelrosis, I believe it's called.

I had no seizures during either of my EEGs. So after the last one, I was given a surprising diagnosis: Epilepsy- Psychic Type. I had never heard of this before, and actually thought the doctor made it up to appease me, but it is real.

This is very hard for me to accept on the one hand, because I always thought my psychic abilities were a spiritual gift, not syptoms of a disease. One the other hand, I feel quite vindicated to know that I am not crazy, or mentally ill. I have since decided epilepsy and psychic ability don't have to be two different things. But it is hard for me to tell, when I am noticing a psychic event, if that is an aura or not. I have never had a gran mal seizure while on a ghost hunt. I only have them while I am asleep on the couch, or perhaps at night. So are my psychic abilities themselves seizures? One doctor in my Mayo Clinic group thinks that, yes, these are seizures. Which means I am having seizures all day, every day, despite 1,000 mg's of Keppra a day.

Is there another person on this forum, or any doctor, who has any experience or knowledge of my particular diagnosis?

 

Thanks

 

Comments

Re: Psychic-Type Epilepsy?

Submitted by thesary on Fri, 2013-11-08 - 17:29
Hi radiosmom, You have addressed something here that I consider to be very personal and private, that I would very much like to talk about further. I have had... suspicions of such things for myself. I am 25, originally diagnosed with epilepsy when I was 3 years old. I have shared your experience, but have never been sure how much I could associate it with my epilepsy. I hadn't really heard of "psychic epilepsy" as a diagnosis. For quite some time, though, they thought that I may be having "psychogenic" seizures, as my seizures were not showing up electrically. In the last 6 months or so, it was learned that I have partial seizures caused by a cortical displasia which could not be found by EEG because................. (no one knows) If my psychic experiences are seizures, then I, too, am having them all day, every day. My seizures have never been able to be controlled by medication, and after 20 years I am still trying. Recently, brain surgery was presented as an option for me, and all of my hesitations come from this one thought: Will this remove these psychic/spiritual/whateveryouwanttocallthem gifts? They are so much a part of me, and I believe they may well be connected. I wrote my thesis using this particular theory, and I will say that there is much history that does support the relationship between seizure activity and psychic activity. If you think about it, it makes sense. A seizure, loosely defined, is only something working not-quite-right in your brain... in other words, not normal. Apparently, psychic abilities are not normal, so that makes sense, right? As an issue of trust... trust in the things you learn from those seizures/episodes/intuitions, attributing them to something going wrong in your brain can be tough. But experience tells the story, and I at least have learned to have faith. I would love to talk more about this or get into more detail. Perhaps we could chat on a messenger or via email or something. Sary

Re: Psychic-Type Epilepsy?

Submitted by elis on Sat, 2013-11-09 - 20:21
This is very interesting. I have had epilepsy since I was 11. Throughout my life I have had many episodes that one could attribute to psychic abilities. For example when I was younger I had a lot of experience with de je ve (sorry don't know how to spell it) and when I was a child I remember knowing that there was a ghost in our house who was watching out for me. When I was a young woman I told friends around me that a good friend of ours had lost her baby before any of us even knew she was pregnant because of a dream that I had. When we go house hunting some houses I can't go into and then we find out that there have been murders there. Well you get the drift. I have just gone onto Lamictol and for the first time in my life I think I had a hallucination. It was like a ghost - the blurry outline of man standing behind my dog- it remained visible for about 3-10 seconds until I looked away. My heart was pounding and I was very frightened. The episode has left me very frightened. I am wondering - and it makes me feel crazy - but I wonder if the drug lowers the threshold between this plane and another plane of existence and if I really did see a spirit. As a child it was easy to accept a friendly spirit. It was my friend and protector but as you get older one is taught to disbelieve these things........... elis

Re: Psychic-Type Epilepsy?

Submitted by rebmil on Sun, 2013-11-10 - 15:56

Hello. I just read this post and feel I had to comment. I started to have grand mal seizures only in my sleep starting 5 years ago in 2009. I had all the tests done, CT Scan, MRI, and EEG. All came back negative and showed no seizure activity. I was put on Dilantin 100 mg 3xaday. It was changed to 2xaday. Then it was changed to Phenytoin 2xaday. Then because of stomach upset and frequent throwing up my dr. changed it to Tegretol. The new pill was not good for me, it was making me become angry, so I switch back to Phenytoin. I took the seiz. med for a year and a half. Eventually the med started to make me lose my memory. So I decided to wean myself off the med. Now I take no seizure med for my grand mal seizures. I still have them only in my sleep and they only happen 1 maybe 2 times month.

But the reason why I wanted to comment is because after I started having grand mal seizures only in my sleep, I started to notice that I was having dreams that seemed to come true the next day. Like one time I dreamed my boyfriends uncle who lived next door to us was mowing his lawn on a chariot style riding lawn mower. The next day the uncle mowed his lawn on his riding lawn mower. Another time I had a dream that my boyfriend and I got a present from his dad and step mom and the next day they gave us the same present I dreamed about. Sometimes I also know things before they happen. I tell my boyfriend about something that is going to happen and it does. But he tells me that really does not mean anything because nobody but us knew about the thing that happened.

I know these things could be considered a coinscidence and don't really mean anything, but it just makes me wonder. I only started having dreams and feelings about things that seem to happen only after I started to have grand mal seizures in my sleep. I have never mentioned this to any dr.s because down here in Louisiana, they would think I am nuts. But nobody in my family has seizures but me. My mom had some psychic abilities. She knew things before they would happen. When my older brother got sick with Bipolar Manic Depression, she knew he was going to get sick before he even did. Nobody else in my family has any psychic abilities, just my mom and me. 

There needs to be more research done about this topic. Do psychic abilities happen in people with seizures and epilepsy and does seizures or epilepsy cause people to have psychic abilities?

Well take care everyone.

 

Hello. I just read this post and feel I had to comment. I started to have grand mal seizures only in my sleep starting 5 years ago in 2009. I had all the tests done, CT Scan, MRI, and EEG. All came back negative and showed no seizure activity. I was put on Dilantin 100 mg 3xaday. It was changed to 2xaday. Then it was changed to Phenytoin 2xaday. Then because of stomach upset and frequent throwing up my dr. changed it to Tegretol. The new pill was not good for me, it was making me become angry, so I switch back to Phenytoin. I took the seiz. med for a year and a half. Eventually the med started to make me lose my memory. So I decided to wean myself off the med. Now I take no seizure med for my grand mal seizures. I still have them only in my sleep and they only happen 1 maybe 2 times month.

But the reason why I wanted to comment is because after I started having grand mal seizures only in my sleep, I started to notice that I was having dreams that seemed to come true the next day. Like one time I dreamed my boyfriends uncle who lived next door to us was mowing his lawn on a chariot style riding lawn mower. The next day the uncle mowed his lawn on his riding lawn mower. Another time I had a dream that my boyfriend and I got a present from his dad and step mom and the next day they gave us the same present I dreamed about. Sometimes I also know things before they happen. I tell my boyfriend about something that is going to happen and it does. But he tells me that really does not mean anything because nobody but us knew about the thing that happened.

I know these things could be considered a coinscidence and don't really mean anything, but it just makes me wonder. I only started having dreams and feelings about things that seem to happen only after I started to have grand mal seizures in my sleep. I have never mentioned this to any dr.s because down here in Louisiana, they would think I am nuts. But nobody in my family has seizures but me. My mom had some psychic abilities. She knew things before they would happen. When my older brother got sick with Bipolar Manic Depression, she knew he was going to get sick before he even did. Nobody else in my family has any psychic abilities, just my mom and me. 

There needs to be more research done about this topic. Do psychic abilities happen in people with seizures and epilepsy and does seizures or epilepsy cause people to have psychic abilities?

Well take care everyone.

 

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