Worried about seizures (again..) help!

[deejaay2]

Hi, everyone! Good morning.

I've posted a thread on here earlier and didn't get any answers for it. But my fear of having seizures has came back. :weep:

I've suffered three episodes of panic attacks. Two of them was yesterday and third one (last night)

Before I have the attacks, I get this pressure in the back of my head (tight and squeezing) my eyes felt like they want to roll upwards (weird) but didn't. My heart was pounding, shortness of breath and dizziness.

Can't forget upset stomach and muscle slightly shaking too.

But, is that normal feeling for the eyes while suffering from a panic attack? Like I said, they didn't roll back and it feel like they want to. Which I'm excessively worried about it cause' I went to Google. Dr. Google to see why and they said it might be non epileptic seizures. :lac::weep:

Please help.

Thank you!

Deanna J.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi Deanna,

I'm afraid anyone can suffer a NES. Mental health conditions can raise the risk but let me put it this way...you must be about the 3rd/4th person raising a thread about this in the years I've been here and then it was "could I" as opposed to "did I" in all of them (one might have had one from memory). How many cancer threads have I see? Or brain tumour threads? Or ALS threads? So, frequency of perceived possible symptoms on here are low compared to the more regular feared problems we see.

I've known someone who had a NES. He had no mental health problems but put himself under ridiculous levels of stress for many years. It just happened one day. He ended up seeing a neurologist who did the usual scans to rule out epilepsy and came to the conclusion it was a NES. Years on, it's never happened again. They don't need treatment, it's whether there is a root cause like mental health issues that do.

They really aren't on a par with other types of seizures and whilst they are scary, they are nothing like the scenarios that exist around the others so it's purely the anxious mind catastrophizing.

[deejaay2]

Hi Deanna,

I'm afraid anyone can suffer a NES. Mental health conditions can raise the risk but let me put it this way...you must be about the 3rd/4th person raising a thread about this in the years I've been here and then it was "could I" as opposed to "did I" in all of them (one might have had one from memory). How many cancer threads have I see? Or brain tumour threads? Or ALS threads? So, frequency of perceived possible symptoms on here are low compared to the more regular feared problems we see.

I've known someone who had a NES. He had no mental health problems but put himself under ridiculous levels of stress for many years. It just happened one day. He ended up seeing a neurologist who did the usual scans to rule out epilepsy and came to the conclusion it was a NES. Years on, it's never happened again. They don't need treatment, it's whether there is a root cause like mental health issues that do.

They really aren't on a par with other types of seizures and whilst they are scary, they are nothing like the scenarios that exist around the others so it's purely the anxious mind catastrophizing.


Does that mean I can get it from generalized anxiety disorder? Like I said, it didn't roll back. :weep:

Nervous about having these, really.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It means anyone can have one. You don't need to have an anxiety disorder for it, sometimes stressful events can cause them to happen in some people.

The Epilepsy Society explain them in detail and how they can manifest:

https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/non-epileptic-seizures

Notice they say...

Panic attacks can happen in frightening situations, when remembering previous frightening experiences or in a situation that the person expects to be frightening. Panic attacks can cause sweating, palpitations (being able to feel your heart beat), trembling and difficulty breathing. The person may also lose consciousness and may shake (convulse).

They state anti-epilepsy drugs are not used to treat them (although drugs like Pregabalin may be used to treat GAD from this category). Therapy is.

[deejaay2]

It means anyone can have one. You don't need to have an anxiety disorder for it, sometimes stressful events can cause them to happen in some people.

The Epilepsy Society explain them in detail and how they can manifest:

https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/non-epileptic-seizures

Notice they say...

Panic attacks can happen in frightening situations, when remembering previous frightening experiences or in a situation that the person expects to be frightening. Panic attacks can cause sweating, palpitations (being able to feel your heart beat), trembling and difficulty breathing. The person may also lose consciousness and may shake (convulse).

They state anti-epilepsy drugs are not used to treat them (although drugs like Pregabalin may be used to treat GAD from this category). Therapy is.

Oh, so it can only happen once? And I haven't been under a lot of stress, but experienced bullying and death of loved ones.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It can happen more than once. But it's not something seen talked about on here hardly so that tells you how prevalent it is in anxiety sufferers on here.

What you describe could be something which triggered a panic attack.

[deejaay2]

It can happen more than once. But it's not something seen talked about on here hardly so that tells you how prevalent it is in anxiety sufferers on here.

What you describe could be something which triggered a panic attack.

Maybe I was thinking about something or drink that Pepsi lol. I haven't been drinking dark pop or any caffeine after suffering a full blown panic attack last month.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Quite possibly.

It's clear your anxiety focusses on seizures so it's not surprising things like NES sound scary to you but in reality they are little more than fearing a basic cold or headache. They can't harm you, they are just unpleasant.

We tend to fear lack of control in our lives and seek to control it rigidly. Things like NES take that away momentarily so we worry. Some of us have that issue with allowing ourselves just to go to sleep at the worst of our anxiety.

[Fishmanpa]

I know about seizures as my wife suffered a grand mal at the onset of her illness. They're caused by a genetic pre-disposition (epilepsy), traumatic brain injury, trauma etc. In my wife's case, it was inflammation due to encephalitis.

First off, at your age, if you haven't been diagnosed with epilepsy and you haven't had a head injury or swelling of your brain, there's just no way you're having seizures. What you describe are classic panic attack symptoms due to stress and frankly, there's just no mistaking a seizure.

Positive thoughts