Hi there. Im new here to NeuroTalk. I actually found this thread from a google alert I set up for PNES. First I want to say to the person below you who wrote "PNE Syndrome". The "S" stands for seizures. A good thing to look up also is Pseudoseizures. But to be politically they have changed it to PNES, because the word Pseudo gives the impression that they aren't real seizures. They are real seizures, they just arent EPILEPTIC seizures.

My seizures have never been classified as a panic attack. When I seize, I go into a full blown seizure. If it were a epileptic seizure, they call it Tonic Clonic seizures, which in Epileptic talk means Grand Mal. From what people have told me, my seizures start out with me just stiffening up and collapsing, then I start to shake severly. The only differents, THEY say, is that my life isnt threatened DIRECTLY by the seizures. Apparently with PNE seizures, you mind takes over when you body is going to far. It wont let you hold your breath till you pass out or stop breathing all together, or like me, I bite my tongue on the side quite a bit, but because its psychogenic, your mind takes over and wont let you inhale blood into your lungs. I've inhaled blood once, but they said as soon as i did, my body tried to expel it by coughing. Apparently I left quite a mess for the cleaning ladies this time to clean up when i was in the hospital.

My seizures looked so much like epileptic seizures, that I had about 7 or 8 EEG's to prove it wasnt. The last one was when they finally caught me in an active seizure, and yes, stress, pain, all the regular things showed up on the EEG, but no epileptic activity.

I think the shortest seizure I've had was about 5 minutes, and got up after it was over. My longest however was as long at 6 hours, in and out of several seizures over those hours, and then, as you say, I am either so tired I dont even know whats going on and they can barely wake me, or I have a long period of confusion. Sometimes the seizures are so bad, that i'm out of comission for a day and need indosin (indocin?) for a few days afterwards, because of the muscle strain that I go through when i have the seizures. It don't know what you're daughter's seizures are like, but it does sound like she has Conversion Disorder of some kind. My diagnosis is Conversion disorder, Sub of Somatoform Disorder & Sub of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Tonic/Clonic Psyogenic Non Epileptic Seizures and Absent Seizures. I also have other psychiatric disorders and have spent some time in hospital on a mental health ward (which isnt as bad as they make it out to be on tv).

For this, I am on a very structured sort of therapy called DBT (dialectical behavior therapy). Look it up, there's lots on it. At all about learning how to cope with the memories or thoughts, BEFORE they happen. I've been given 3 list of techniques (long list) I can use to distract myself when these memories or thoughs are creepin up on you, but the first part of the therapy is learning to reconize those times, and thats really the hardest part. I rarely reconize when I thinking bad thoughts or when bad memories are flooding my brain. You should really ask about DBT.

Good luck with your daughter. By the way, i'm almost 32. My seizures started when i was 30. There is so much synisisim and so little understanding about it all, that no one is really learning about it. Half dont believe that the subconscious mind can make the body do physical things like PNES. There's lots of ignorance when it come to this stuff. The best thing to do is to do research on your own. I've shown doctors and nurses things thay didnt know about it, the first being that its no longer called peudoseizures.

Anyways, i'll shutup. I'm going on too much!

Angela