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

was it a brain CT scan that they did? It sounds brain related to me - but I'm not an expert at all...
I hope more here will have ideas for you soon.

wow, that's all a bit worrying.

You sound like such a fun person, David.

I would gather that they know from the tests that you weren't having a stroke.

Yes?

Although you sound happy and believe you aren't under stress, it could be stress. Stress is so weird. I'm a lot like you, fun, not gay, but always having a pretty positive attitude.

Yet in the end stress took a huge bite out of my health... and I inherited a tendency toward low B12 from my mother who had pernicious anemia.

If your mother had depression that could be because of low B12. Depression is often a result of low B12.

Take a look at the list of symptoms for low B12, and if any of them fit, get a 5mg Methylcobalamin lozenge and begin taking them. (dissolving them under your tongue)

Smoking does use up B12.

If your problems are from low B12, then you should feel results in a few days...

(((((((((David)))))))))
.

Hey, David.

This neuro sounds like an idiot. I suggest you get another opinion, because as one who's always had epilepsy, this sounds like a seizure to me.

Consider, too, trying to stop smoking. Some studies have shown that nicotine can aggravate seizures by lowering the threshold, allowing for greater susceptibility. Your lungs will feel better, too!


Good luck!

LIZARD

Thank you all so much for replying to my messages I really appreciate it. Since posting my message yesterday I have had another couple of brief 'episodes'. Both times it starts with my eyes fluttering and then an arm starting to twitch and my face contorting a little. Again I have no sense of fear or anxiety. I view them with mild amusement really. If I am with someone, as I was last night, I just try to carry on talking and laugh and joke. And if I am on my own, I just watch TV or lie down till it passes.

I guess the feeling that I have right now is not worry, anger or fear. I just feel determined to find out what is going on. I don't mind if the reason behind the fits is psychological or physical, I just want to know what it is that is going on, so that I can work on dealing with it effectively.

Lizard - I think you're right about my neuro, I am trying to get other opinions. And smoking I will definately try and stop (can't promise I won't have the occasional one here or there though!)

Consider This - Your message was really kind. Anemia is not something that runs in my family, and although I don't want to go into detail about my mums depression, the reasons behind it, were a whole series of absolutely terrible things that happened in her life. I looked up about B12 and many of the symptoms that a deficiency can cause I have. However, the only problem is that looking at the products that contain B12 I would definately meet my daily allowance. For example I drink quite a lot of milk (seriously, if they served it in bars I would drink it!), but I will see about getting some of the lozenges.

jo55 - Yes it was a brain CT scan that they did, and it didn't show anything. I am having an MRI scan next week, so maybe that will show something, but the doctors don't think it will because the tests haven't shown anything so far.

Again thanks for your replies guys, and if anyone else has any ideas please let me know,

David

I've had panic disorder, and what you are describing is not panic attacks. For one thing, the symptoms do not start on one side. Plus you did not mention pouring with sweat which would indicate your adreneline system going into overdrive... the "fight or flight" primal reaction that happens during a panic attack.

Neurologists tend to dismiss a diagnosis they cannot explain. They use psychosomatic illness as a blanket diagnosis. It's much easier for a neurologist to say you must be crazy, rather then them saying, I do not know what the cause is. I speak from experience. My dad is a Neurologist. Trust me on this one.

A) If you are not creating this and
B) They cannot find a cause then
C) There is something they are missing and you need a more skilled neurologist.

Go to the U.S. set an appointment with a good neuro research hospital.

1)Mayo Clinic-Rochester Minnesota
2) Johns Hopkins, Baltimore Mass.
3) New York Pres. Hosp.-of Columbia and Cornell
4) Cleveland Clinic-Cleveland, Ohio.

David-
I am actually thrilled that there is someone else out there that is experiencing what I am going thru.
I have been dealing with this for 12 years.
Stress I will say can bring it out, but even in my happiest of happy times..I am at a complete loss...because to be honest..it really doesn't make a difference.
My head convulses...that is the term i use..or ticks constantly at times..and totally uncontrollable as you know. It also starts to get annoying and slightly painful. My head always "flips" to the left...my right side is the most afflicted but left side does it to.
I have had multiple eegs..emgs..mri's, cat scans..have seen multiple neurologist and m.d.s along with psycholgoists.
I know a panic/Anxiety attack because I have had those and they do not mimic what I go thru.
I also experience wierd feeling on the left side of my face like it is drouping..but to see it is not.
I have been on Neurontin for years...it helps midly..but at this point I will take midly. (it is an medicine used to treat seizures).
Three weeks ago.. I underwent minor surgery...and ended up having a major attack....It was a full blown full bodied attack..) the Doctors refused to treat me for over a half hour because they felt it was just a "panic attack". Which I wasn't panicking. Though this was NOT the first time this has happened.
After my friend came back she started yelling at the doctors and finally gave me a medication to stop the seizures and within Ten minutes I was literally FINE!!!! Back to "normal".
I go thru times..where there seems like there is no end to the "ticks and convulsions"...I loose my ability to form words properly..and my hand function also suffers. I also experience major pain in my appendages..which they said was a whole different problema and diagnoised it as a "fibromyalgia". Well, we all know our bodies and I will tell you they are completly corolated. And the symptoms all come together.
It is like having "something without a name".

It really does affect our lives.
My appendages such as hands..and feet feel weak and tired...and loss of strength..it is a wierd feeling.

I have yet to find anyone who is willing to find what is going on and let me tell you ...I have seen the best of the best. I am at a loss.
I am hoping that someone anywhere gives me a clue as to what is going on.

I keep searching for an answer and hope in time I find one..as I hope you do to!!
I am in the US....and Really have no hope in the medical field. but as the last neurologist told me..they call it practicing medicine for a reason, because we are all practicing and learning.

You know your body better than anyone...keep searching for an answer and hopes that we can share what we learn together!!!