Hi there,

I am a new member here but I am hoping someone might be able to help me with a problem that has recently started. I will try and go into as much detail as possible to see if anyone has any ideas what is going on as I am a bit stuck!
First here is some background information about me and my character:

My name is David and I live in Athens, Greece. I am originally from the UK and moved over here almost a year ago. I am 24 years old, gay and in a steady and very happy relationship. I work at a publishing company here and the job is fine. I started there a few months ago and my job is fine. They are really happy with me and have given me a pay rise. Also I have had another job offer, which would mean moving to London, which I should be doing in a few months time, which I am really looking forward to. So everything in my life is going absolutely fine. I am a very happy, cheerful and social person. Of course I get in bad moods sometimes like everyone else on the planet but these pass fairly quickly. I don't feel under stress or pressure, and am happy. My general health is fine, i smoke about 10 cigarretes a day, don't drink much and have never done drugs. Also, my mother has had clinical depression for most of life. This is mainly becuase she bottled things up for years in her life, and finally it all exploded and came out and started affected her life. I am exactly the opposite, I talk about everything and am very open. Any problem I have, I talk about it straight away. I had a happy childhood, so I consider myself very lucky.

Now onto the problem.

Last friday I was out at dinner with my boyfriend. Towards the end of the dinner I started to feel a little woozy. Not light headed exactly, but just not quite myself. We left the restaurant and got into a taxi at about 11.30pm. In the taxi my boyfriend told me to close my eyes and try and relax. But I couldn't close my eyes. As soon as I did they would just reopen. We got back home and I lay down on the bed. Since leaving the restaurant my speech had started to degrade, and it felt like my cheeks were pressing into my mouth. Although all this was happening I felt very calm and knew exactly what was happening, and could have coherent conversations. Next my eyes started blinking very fast and I would just stare off into the middle distance. Soon my arms started tingling and then they started twitching. Soon my legs did the same. Then my head. After about 10-15 minutes my arms and legs and head were moving about quite wildly. Again though, although this was happening, and nothing like this had never happened before, I felt calm, and felt no anxiety. I was always aware what was happening, and although my speech was impaired was still coherent.

We went to the hospital (arriving there at about 2 am) and they put me on an IV with sodium chloride solution, and did a blood test. The results came back entirely normal. They then sent me to another hospital to see a neurologist. I was still fitting and convulsing at this point. Eventually they gave me something in the IV to send me to sleep. I had been convulsing for about 3 and half to four hours. While I was asleep they gave me a CT scan and apparantly that was fine. They discharged me at 8.30 a.m (they don't really keep you in for observation in Greece!) I went to sleep then and woke up at about 4pm the next afternoon. I got up and after about 10 minutes. The sequence of events (eyes blinking, face hardening, tingling of limbs convulsions) started again. So we went back to the hospital. The neurologist put me on an IV again and sent me to see the psychologist. They spoke to me and said that it looked and spoke to me about my state of mind. I answered all their questions and they said that I didn't seem to be suffering any signs of stress or depression. They said these may be isolated incidents and not to worry too much and gave me Zanex to take (0.5mg half a tablet twice a day). This fit lasted for about 2 hours

For the next two days nothing happened and so I guessed everything was ok. Then when i was at work on the tuesday one happened again. This one lasted for about an hour Same routine. Went to hospital spoke to a psychiatrist, and she said that the attacks seemed to be quite inexplicable. So was sent home again.

The next day I had been booked in to have an eeg. Before I went to the hospital another fit started again in the same pattern. This lasted about an hour and a half. The eeg seemed to show nothing abnormal.

I then saw a neurologist who said I was having panic attacks. This has left me confused. It has been accepted by all the psychiatrists that I am not suffering form stress and or depression. There have been no behavioural changes in me over the last few weeks or months. None of the sitauations I have been in have been stressful, or prior to something that would be stressful.

I have since done research on the internet, and what has happened to me does not fit with any definition of panic attacks.

I have been completly calm, coherent, and with it during all attacks.
The longest attack went on for 3 and a half to hours and the shortest 1 hour. This is way longer than panic attacks are supposed to last, and they do not generally peak after 10 minutes which seems to be another symptom of panic attacks. The convulsions are also fairly consistent; they don't seem to slow down and restart.

So I am confused, how this can be a panic attack. I don't really have any other explanations but I wondered if anyone here has any ideas whether my diagnosis is correct of whether it could be anything else. The only thing I can think of is something to do with my nervous system. I am a very tactile person. I love hugging people and putting my arms around people etc. But if someone touches my thigh for example by leg rises like it has had a shock. This really annoys me, because I am happy for people to touch me, but I don't see why my thigh has this reaction (even it is my boyfriend, or my mother or someone close to me that touches me). Could this in anyway affect anything.

Sorry for the length of this message, but I wanted to give as many details as possible to see if someone can help.

Any replies, would be really, really gratefully received,

Thanks,

David