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massive pseudo seizure with Son

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Posted 10/17/2008 4:32 AM (GMT 0)

My son has been diagnosed with "pseudo seizures".  They look like full blown grand mald seizures and according to the paramedics that responded said that there is no way to "fake" a seizure.  My son says he is faking it to "get out of something" or when he is bored.  The episoids are happening infrequently like every 3-4 months but do seem associated with a high stress event.... taking a test, meeting a new girl, appearing on stage in a play.  We had him tested a few years ago EEG's, heart murmmer, blood chemistry, brain chemistry and currently is being treated by a Psychiatrist and is not taking any medication.  During his seizures my son stiffens and convulses, heartbeat races to 155 beats/minte, expeience rapid eye movement, eyes roll back, unresponsive, throws up.  The episoides last approximately 15min - 45 min and he is very larthargic when he comes back around.  These episoides are very scary, very real and can fool the experts so to speak.  A couple of days ago he had a seizure at school in the middle of taking a test.  The last episoid was earlier in the summer, so 4 months ago.  I picked him up at school because the school has been instructed not to transport, he then had 2 more seizures after he got home.

My son says he faked the first one to get out of the test because he is so committed to getting straight A and there were a couple of questions coming up that he was unsure of the answers, so he needed to get out of there and that became more important than what his friends might think of him. 

My real question is (instead of babbling on) can pseudo seizures be faked to the point of fooling trained medical personnel?  And, can a person cause himself to throwup, have high heart rate and REM at will?

I am so lost on this whole thing and don't know what to believe.   

Posted 10/20/2008 2:16 PM (GMT 0)
Hi there,

Sorry I missed your post the first time round. I am not a medical professional but I would suggest that pseudo seizures are pretty hard to fake when we are talking about medical professionals.

Vomiting, REM & Unresponsiveness are pretty easy to fake / induce. But eyes rolling back & acute increase of HR is pretty hard to do, let alone doing it convincingly. Try rolling your eyes back whilst looking in the mirror... you will see what I mean.

Darren
Posted 10/21/2008 3:57 AM (GMT 0)

Thanks for the reply...

Any insight on why my son would say that he did cause it?

Posted 10/22/2008 8:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hi,

I dont know if this helps or not, but he could be embarrased that something is wrong. When my seizures started, i would "keep time to the music" with my head. Or thats what I told my parents anyway. I didn't want anything to be wrong with me. I wanted normalcy. So whenver they asked if i was keeping time, i would say yes. Course the seizures in time increased. And no longer could i just say I was keeping that time. I went from wanting normalcy to wishing i had told the truth.

Janet

Posted 10/24/2008 9:18 AM (GMT 0)
I think Janet has hit the nail on the head really. Its probably about wanting normality and rejecting change.

Darren
Posted 11/8/2008 2:22 AM (GMT 0)
Janet is exactly right...

I started having seizures in 6th grade (maybe a bit earlier unconfirmed first seizure). Honestly, my parents only knew because the what I shall call the 1st one in 6th grade was in their presence while I was eating breakfast before leaving for school. My parents on my wishes told no one about my situation. I had never told any of my teachers, friends, etc. Only my parents and my sister knew besides me.

I had one on a school field trip in 8th grade and that is when everything went crazy for me. We were 2 hrs away from the school and no one had any idea what was going on because I hadn't told anyone.

I have had seizures now for over 16 years now, and all I have ever wanted to be was "normal". I have gotten past that initial phase and now I do actually tell the people around me, but I still find it hard to tell people that I don't know. I will also admit that I have used having seizures to my advantage in more then one situation. Anything from getting out of going somewhere because I was tired and felt "seizure-ish" to getting people to feel sorry for me and getting something from them.

I have tried to "fake" a seizure before, and I can fool someone that had NOT seen a seizure before. But, I cannot fool my parents, doctors, or friends that have even seen me have one. So, it is not easy to fake any kind of seizure.

I can't speak from a parental view, and I am just beginning to understand the parent side as I am finally seeing what my parents went through all those years. Just make sure he knows you are there for him. I look back and I never gave the appreciation my parents deserved for helping me through the tough times of my childhood
Posted 8/8/2009 11:35 PM (GMT 0)
I started having siezures when I was about 7 or 8 years old. But as I got older they got really strange. I didn't go uncontious. The doctors were all so stumpted and didn't know what to do. I tryed to convince my parents that I was faking them cause I didn't want to say that it was something that I didn't have control over. Because in my group of friends they were all in charge of their lives, but I wasn't. I would have a test to do or I would have to read a book up front and I would have a seizure. My parents didn't know what to do. So they pulled me out of school. I didn't know until I was about 18 that what was wrong. I would go any where form 2 days to 2 months to even almost a year with no problems. But now that we look back it was usually a stressful situation that caused a seizure. I was afraid that if I admitted that I had no control of the seizures everyone would act so strange around me. At the time I thought I prefurred people being mad at me for supposidly making myself have a seizure than have them feel sorry for me. But now my family know how I feel and they are nothing but supportive. I am 22 years old and well I still have problems. I am only on medications for when the seizures get out of hand. Other wise I am not on any medication for the siezures.

I am hear if you need anything, and my mom said she is willing to give you some advice. She has a lot of experience with this. I am the first known case in my area. That was hard.

Good luck.

Posted 3/28/2010 8:17 PM (GMT 0)
MY WIFE"S PSEUDOSEIZURES HAVE STOPPED!!! My wife was diagnosed with pseudo-seizures last summer. She has a very severe bout of food poisoning which was preceded by a ton of stress. No medical professionals had any answers for us. EEG's were normal during the seizure event. All MRI's were negative. At the onset, my wife was having up to 7 seizures per day. She had massive fatigue and had lost much of her motor strength. There were no medical answers and the neurologists were perplexed. As a chiropractor having a solid understanding of the nervous system, I began to research. Her problem was with the central nervous system I found a company called neuroscience, inc. Many MD's, and DC's use this company and its testing in their practices. The company tests neurochemistry levels. The lab work revealed my wife had major depletions of cortisol, serotonin, epinephrine, Norepinephrine, GABA, Glutimate, etc. To restore depleted neurochemistry, a patient will supplement with the raw materials your body uses to create these neurochemicals. Mostly specific amino acids and the nutrients involved in converting these proteins to hormones and neurotransmitters. We have been using this approach for the last five weeks and have noticed major improvements. No seizures since starting and she is gradually, but noticeably regaining her strength. I'm not saying this is the cure for everyone, but it addresses a major foundational issue. Learn more at neuroscienceinc.com. It has given us hope.
Posted 5/25/2010 6:39 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you, my 24 year old son who was always been in perfect health except for a year before was put on Adderal for ADD that really helped him to focus at work but lost alot of weight with a poor diet.  After stoping the medication, two months later, he started last August having(they say after all testing comes back negative) pseudoseizures. He slumps, or faints, from anxiety, he stays out for about ten minutes with very shallow breathing, then starts hyperventilating with arching his back, hands shaking, holding his chest, moving around the floor, then goes out again.  This pattern continues for up to an hour or more with strong strength if he grabs us. It took days to regain any energy.  January I found a doctor who treats with psychosomatic medicine, diet, vitamins and exercise.  He had four months without any seizures.  But now being on unemployment, with insomina, he has had three seizures in the past two weeks.  Due to the sleep problem, depression, not caring has developed.  His doctor is just trying different sleep and anxiety meds and probably anti-depressants drama...Are you saying that chiropractic adjustments are making a difference? along with supplements? We need advice. I did read neuroscienceinc.com
Posted 11/3/2010 8:59 AM (GMT 0)

jlauer said...
tongue  MY WIFE"S PSEUDOSEIZURES HAVE STOPPED!!! My wife was diagnosed with pseudo-seizures last summer. She has a very severe bout of food poisoning which was preceded by a ton of stress. No medical professionals had any answers for us. EEG's were normal during the seizure event. All MRI's were negative. At the onset, my wife was having up to 7 seizures per day. She had massive fatigue and had lost much of her motor strength. There were no medical answers and the neurologists were perplexed. As a chiropractor having a solid understanding of the nervous system, I began to research. Her problem was with the central nervous system I found a company called neuroscience, inc. Many MD's, and DC's use this company and its testing in their practices. The company tests neurochemistry levels. The lab work revealed my wife had major depletions of cortisol, serotonin, epinephrine, Norepinephrine, GABA, Glutimate, etc. To restore depleted neurochemistry, a patient will supplement with the raw materials your body uses to create these neurochemicals. Mostly specific amino acids and the nutrients involved in converting these proteins to hormones and neurotransmitters. We have been using this approach for the last five weeks and have noticed major improvements. No seizures since starting and she is gradually, but noticeably regaining her strength. I'm not saying this is the cure for everyone, but it addresses a major foundational issue. Learn more at neuroscienceinc.com. It has given us hope.

I would like to be able to contact jlauer.  My 18 year old daughter has had almost a parallel experience the last 60 days, including having 7 seizures per day.  We need some help and some information on this case, if there is willingness to help us.  Please consider contacting me so that we can talk further.

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