This doesn't sound anything like Epilepsy or seizure disorder. Perhaps you might try re-posting this in the Depression group AND the Bipolar group.

It is possible that the same thing may have happened to someone there. If it happened to you it had to have happened to others too.

Are the docs treating you somehow? diagnosed how? with what exactly? Did you go for a follow up to get some more answers....I strongly suggest you do that. Good luck.

Hi there - I'm the tinynina's fiancee - we weren't sure just where to put this, admittedly... the cause is bipolarity and misdiagnosis, but the symptom that's causing distress is effectively a seizure... we're asking advice on other aspects of her condition in other sections too. Really though, we'd just like to hear from anyone experiencing any remotely similar...

similar...i have siezures. I have been awake, concisious, aware during almost all of them, except for the one that lasted 45 mintues,i just blinked in and out of that one....

i have small seizures, only a few recently, where i am totally awake and concsious, and i get a very sick feeling(auora) and i have no control over my movements...but I am awake or aware/concious.

Do you feel sick before hand, or have a distinct smell/ see lights?

again...this is just similar.

It sure is refreshing to see, Pulsecode, that you are so supportive and actively searching out answers for your fiancee. Sometimes I have seizures that are 'similar', just as JBT said. Sometimes I'm conscious, sometimes I'm not. Some last long or continue as a series of small ones and some aren't as long.

I think seizures are so individual, even though they are put in a broard classification, they vary with each person and each episode.

From what I understand about seizures themselves, they can be caused from so many different things even when they are not from Epilepsy. Maybe when all is said and done, she will eventually be diagnosed as Epileptic...maybe something else or maybe both things.

It's very common for the process of diagnoses to take years and for the docs to diagnose as one condition and it turn out to be something else.

They really only have symptoms to go on usually. I'd like to suggest that you and your fiancee both...make a list of symptoms as they occur, each and every time she has an episode. Both from your view as an on looker and from her view as the one having it. Her initial feelings before and after....and your initial view of things. This can have a real effect on the docs diagnoses and how they treat the symptoms. (and take this list with you to the doc.)

I'm glad that you did make similar posts in other communities, I'd be interested to hear any update you may get on this....it could surely help others as well. Best of luck.

Thank you so much for responding. I've learned a lot from your post RuthMH. We'll make sure to record everything the next time it happens. jbtcarbon, I don't think it's the same... I don't really feel sick beforehand or experience the lights like you say, I'm just really really stressed/hyperventilating/twitching. I was wondering if other people felt trapped within it like I do, the conscious part. I hope you both are well and thank you again for your responses. :)

Something else, actually, that's just occurred... a while back we were playing a computer game, and she was using a character whose strength is speed. He moves SERIOUSLY fast, with lots of lasers and so on... after a short while playing, we had to stop, because she was getting shaky, and starting to feel like she was going to seizure. It was a pretty isolated incident, but seemed worth mentioning...

Thank you both for your replies so far - it's done her the world of good just to know that she's not alone, it really has.

Ahh, pulsecode, that is a great clue! Sometimes, some seizures are brought on by flashing light, lasers etc....sometimes an aura is triggered by the same thing.

That happens to me sometimes but not always. Definately add that to your list on paper. Make sure you record the time of day, what she was doing at the time, what you SAW, how exactly she felt.

Each and everytime a symptom happens, write it down even if it's a repeat of something that happened the day before or whenever. (along with time of day, what she was doing etc...)

If I had done all these things early on when my seizures started, it wouldn't have taken years for a diagnoses for me. It took me a while but I eventually learned. lol

These will all be clues to help in a better diagnoses. Make sure you take your lists with you to the Doc.

Just as an after thought....what I do is make a couple copies of my lists. I give 1 to my Family doc.... 1 to my Neuroligist....and 1 for me.

I'm a bit of a details type person though. Things like this are one of my ways to make me feel like I have some control on things and I like having a record to remember what I've told the docs. I just copy them on my scanner/printer/copier from home. (just a thought.) Once I started concentrating on small things like keeping notes on all this, I started to feel a bit like my whole world was falling apart and me too. I just knew that somehow I had to get back on that horse!....I needed to get back to living.

What I meant to say at the end of my last post was: Once I started concentrating on small things like keeping my lists, that's when I started to feel LESS like my whole world was falling apart.