I thought I had a handle on this

Page 1 of 1 [ 2 posts ] 

stardraigh
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 May 2013
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 744

22 Jul 2013, 7:29 am

Last night, I went to a birthday party for three people I know. Two friends, I game with, and another good guy that I met through them. I wasn't doing well with the social interaction. I never do, but I was surviving. At some point it came up about HeroMachine, and how I was fairly decent at it. I can make passable characters with it. Here's an imgur gallery of several chars I've made for various things -- http://imgur.com/a/pvwGY

So I was showing others some of my heromachine creations, and then as a girl moved in to the left of me, the Deja-Vu/Derealization triggered. Felt like I was co-located in the same space as my body and I had done this before, and by that I mean the moment had already occurred and I was reliving it. Then somene who wasn't there was to the right of me, shaking my arm, repeating my name, and the girl who was to the left of me was doing the same thing on her side, and I had the initial feeling of disorientation, and two of the people there had dissapeared, and I was confused, and my anxiety triggered, and I turned to the girl, and said, I think I just had a seizure. She said I was spacing out, and I asked her how long, and she said about two minutes, but I think she overestimated the length of time that occurred.

I was surviving so far at the party, not really socializing all that much, and this just killed it for me. I ended up sitting by myself for around the next half hour until the girl came and tried to see how I was doing, and I lied and said, I'm okay, I'm good. But really I wasn't.

I've only had four of these events this year so far that I'm aware of. I've never had them around others. I've seen a neuro-specialist who gave me a clean bill of health with my brain structure and brain activity about them. I thought I had a handle on this that I would have these events every so often, and no big deal, and it was really disturbing. I feel really unsettled, even a day after, and maybe it was just the fact that this time I was around others and they noticed it, or what, but it just really got to me this time.

I have an appt with my counselor later this week and I'll bring it up with her. I just need to vent about it. Feel free to give input. Thanks.


_________________
Hell is other people ~ Sartre

My Blog
Deviantart Page


Carbamide
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jul 2013
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 3

22 Jul 2013, 7:45 am

Although you're probably already aware of this, it does sound like an absence seizure. The 'neuro-specialist' wouldn't have really found anything structurally to cause it and any tell-tale activity that would indicate a seizure would only occur at the point of seizure and immediately afterwards.

Your best bet is to seek a second opinion and to have an EEG while the specialist is attempting to determine triggers for the episodes. There are medications that can control this (e.g. many drugs of the racetam family), also being more aware of your personal triggers that cause the seizures is also of benefit. What many people do not realise is that seizure triggers are by no means limited to visual input and can be caused by auditory, olfactory and tactile sensory input as well. The noise, smells, sights and tactile sensory input of the party would have all been very likely triggers.

Try to make your friends aware of the potential problem of seizures and what they can do to best support you in such situations, as this will also help with the feelings of embarrassment/shame you seem to feel.