What does a seizure feel like?

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Thanks guys, for all the info.

I feel like what happened to me probably wasn't a seizure.

Now for a quick description in case anyone actually knows what I'm taking about.

Pretty much, both times I was just standing there. All the sudden I started feeling really weak, in one specific instance I had to grab on to a window sill to keep from falling. I felt like I had lost all motor skills as I was trying to gain some kind of composure. I probably /looked/ like I was having a seizure. All limbs felt like jello and I was flailing around trying to figure out what the hell was going on or how to stop it. I just remember the nasty sound of my limbs hitting the wall as I tried to stand up straight several times. Could have lasted anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute, I'm really not sure. The second time it happened my limbs were a little less like jello but I was far more disoriented (different place, different time, perhaps?). I ended up walking into the same wall several times as I tried to make my way upstairs where I was originally heading. I think this one lasted a little longer than the first, again, not sure how long though. Not more than a couple minutes.

Both times I was aware enough to be scared and feel "ret*d" for having lost control of my body like that, yet still not right enough to not keep walking into that same wall...

Yeah, like I said, strange to talk about. Never heard of anything like this.

Any ideas appreciated.

That sort of thing can be a seizure, it'd probably be some kind of partial seizure affecting muscle tone if it was. (Partial seizures can affect nearly anything.) It can also apparently happen in some kinds of migraines (as I said, they're weird things and not limited to headaches, can even happen without them), in narcolepsy, and in movement disorders that might go with being autistic. Or for all I know it could mean something really serious happening in the brain or nervous system, and since we're not doctors on this forum you might want to go see one.

I used to get a lot of sudden muscle weakness and it was thought to be possibly related to narcolepsy, but then it turned out to be because I wasn't eating enough (because I wasn't able to, not because I chose not to). When I got enough food to eat (through getting services) it went away for the most part. And since I had a messed-up sleep routine from lack of circadian rhythms, I had what appeared to be other things that'd suggest narcolepsy like daytime sleepiness and a lot of hallucinations while half-asleep -- which is an important thing to keep in mind too, sometimes if you have two or more things going on, and people are looking for only one thing to explain all of them, you'll get misdiagnosed. I still get a bit floppy sometimes but it's more out of exhaustion than anything since I still have low stamina, and now that I take muscle relaxants (for spasms) that'll sometimes do it too. (Which reminds me -- are you on any medications, like tricyclic antidepressants or anything in the same family as Ativan, that are also used as muscle relaxants? Because that can do it too, and not everyone is told that's what those medications do in addition to treating depression or anxiety or sleep disorders or whatever.)

The weird thing that I still don't understand where it comes from, is that at one point (it's happened more than once, but this was the most obvious time I remember right now) I was extremely overloaded, and had a bad migraine, and I have a movement disorder that becomes worse under overload. And straight down the center of my body, my right half went overly rigid and the left half went overly limp. I still want to know what my brain was doing that day.

No medications, no. It happened a couple years after I'd stopped taking any and all meds I was prescribed to. Also can't see a doctor really, I don't have insurance. I'm not overly worried about it, just more curious than anything because it was so mysterious.

Also... lack or circadian rhythms? How can one dx that? I've always said "I have no internal clock". My body has no idea what time it is or whether it's dark or light out, never keeps a schedule that even remotely stays the same every day. Just wondering.

i have intractable epilepsy meaning my seizures cannot be controlled by anything including all medications..

i commonly have myoclonic seizures (daily) with the occasional grand mal but the grand mals require something to trigger it, pain and major stress along with electrical shock easily triggers grand mal.

i also have severe spasms in my back that cause arcing on a daily basis, i become very tired after this one and go to sleep for a few hours

I used to have seizures. The only difference with mine is that they were pseudo seizures. It was all in my head. Just like everything else in my life. All psychological. I only had them really badly for a few months. My seizures looked like the grand mal type. It felt like I lost control over my body. Sometimes I remember them and other times I don't. Most of the time I do remember because they were fake. I was diagnosed with conversion disorder as a result of the seizures. Not epilepsy. I knew they were fake before the doctors because my whole life that has been the case.

First of all, you need to remember that there are a lot of different kinds of seizures. I don't even convulse when I have mine, and a lot of people have witnessed me having one and don't even know it. If you were to see me have a seizure, it would look like I was just staring blankly, but if you tried to get my attention I would be non-responsive. I don't actually remember the seizure itself but I have a period of feeling a little bit dazed, and sometimes tired coming out of it.

When I have random seizures not triggered by something environmental like flashing images or lights, I sometimes get an aura prior to them. "aura" is just any variety of symptoms that may happen prior to a seizure, they are a good warning one is coming. As I said, the aura can be any variety of things. Some people have visual-related auras, while other people smell things that are not there.

I haven't had any seizures for ten years but this is what I remember:

My most common seizures are what they call temporal lobe seizures. Anything could set them off. I would not lose consciousness, and I would be aware of what was going on. What it felt like coming on was a feeling like when you get water up your nose. Then images would start to fill my mind--nonsense images, cartoon images, like Bugs Bunny or Roadrunner, don't ask why--and there would be a feeling of being pulled somewhere. But I could fight it. I could stop it. Even though one of my neurologists said that was not possible. I would focus on something outside myself and pull myself right back. Most people never even knew that I was having one. If I was talking my speech would become hesitant like I had lost my train of thought (which basically was what was happening). One time it was really strong and I was aware of talking gibberish. But the person I was with knew what was going on because I had told them about my condition.

The one time I know of that I had a grand mal (there is evidence I had one in my sleep), I was at a friend's house. She asked me if I wanted coffee and I said "Sure." That is the last thing I remember, except that I fell asleep and went into a dream immediately after the seizure and then I woke up really confused. The whole thing only lasted about 15 minutes. I was sitting in a chair the whole time. My friend said that I had had a seizure, she said I was shaking and trembling and convinced me to go to the emergency room. That's when they found about about these other spells I had been having and said they were seizures too.

The whole experience has made me wonder about dying and out of body experiences. Where was I being pulled to, if it is not possible to live without the body? Would I have died if I had not resisted? I don't know.

If that is the case then I probably had some when I was on aricept. The main things were electrical activity, spinning room, inability to keep my eyes open, everything really fast, hallucinations, high pitched noises, etc.

Actually I did try to fight it too. I would return to room but not necessarily the real room but in my head. Then it would start spinning again. Eventually it would be the actual room. Then I would try keep my eyes open no matter what. It was difficult I failed several times. If you have to hold you eyelids open soon enough it becomes like sand paper.

And technically, an aura is a simple-partial seizure that just happens to happen before a more complex or generalized seizure.

I am not really familiar with Aricept and its side effects and I am not a neurologist, but yes, you could have been having some kind of drug-related seizure. And if it was drug-related that was probably why you weren't successful in pulling out of it, your resistance was weakened.

I am very concerned about the incidence of medications used to treat ASD's, especially in children. It frightens me that there seems to be very little information about long-term effects of these things. I was treated with Ritalin and Phenobarbital; the Pheno made me psychotic and I have no idea if the Ritalin is a time bomb ticking away. And Ritalin is mild compared to some of today's drugs.

I am not against medications when necessary but I believe the general public has been sold a bunch of myths by the pharmaceutical/medical industry. There is no such thing as a totally harmless drug. Yet far too many people run to the doctor and pop the latest and greatest drug into their bodies (or into their children's bodies) without asking questions.

Yes, thank you for mentioning that The aura is usually the hardest part for me to explain to others. Though a lot of people that get migraines also get them, and know exactly what I mean.

The aura, and the slight disorientation after is all I really remember of a seizure though.

Seizures are mentioned under 'Some patients reported having...'. However I've had seizure symptoms before going on aricept. I think the aricept definitely did trigger the seizure though. Actually it was the doctor's fault he said go up to 10mg after a couple of days, when in the blurb it doesn't recommend doing that for 6 weeks. I went back to 5mg for 6 weeks. Then went up again but my health started to deteriorate. I didn't quite have the major seizure, but believe I have micro seizures all the time anyway. Anyway I quit because it wasn't helping my executive dysfunction and making me worse.

This thing about limbs spontaneously jolting up. That happens to me once in a while. I had it when I glanced at a flickering florescent light and also with no apparent external trigger.

Hmm, well I have psuedo-seizures, or non-epileptic seizures caused by abuse and a few weird psychological reactions to stress and sometimes I'm awake during them.

For me I can just feel all my muscles tensing and sometimes its painful. But after about an hour, I tend to forget most of it.