I don't know if anyone here has a similar experience as mine, but I've taken several different medications (all for the brain) over the past four or five years and it seems like one of them may have caused the seizure condition I'm now in. But I don't know if that's actually the case, if it's only me being paranoid. :/
I have no family history of seizures that I know of. And the seizures I have now are triggered by high stress, low blood sugar, AND flashing lights. Does epilepsy generally have so many triggers?
Luckily, I've never had a grand mal seizure. I have partial seizures where the left side of face or body will go numb, I smell phantom smells, and I get a lingering headache afterwards. The phantom smells started throughout 2010 or possibly earlier. They got noticeably worse in early 2011, and that's when the numbness really started, and I was diagnosed with the seizures and started on Topamax in June. But what's significant of the timing is I had stopped taking all other medicines around February of 2011. So after I get all these wacky drugs out of my system, then the seizures suddenly start?
I can't remember exactly when I started taking what (the Topamax did a real number on my long term memory...) or everything I took. But I was misdiagnosed at first. I had severe anxiety. It was caused by ADD (which I didn't know at the time) and I wasn't depressed, but my doctor was prescribing me antidepressants to deal with it and my body obviously didn't react well to them. I tried Lexapro first, and it completely jacked up my dreams. I didn't know what was real and what was a dream, and to this day, my dreams still aren't the same. I can't remember the second thing I tried, but I also tried the generic form of Prozac and that was a disaster. It ended up giving me impulsive suicidal thoughts (which were definitely scary, and again, I still wasn't even depressed). I changed doctors and was finally diagnosed with ADD. I can't remember the first medicine she had me try, but then she switched me to the generic form of Adderall and I was on that for well over a year (because something
finally seemed to be going right). But then I switched to the brand name of Adderall around October of 2010 because the generic suddenly stopped working for me like it should, and I got fed up and dropped it entirely in February. So, I mean, I've put my poor brain through a lot. But after explaining all this, is it possible one of those meds (or even a combination of them) could have caused me to start having the partial seizures?
Also, I don't know if it matters, but I haven't drank caffeine in going on two years, I can count the number of alcoholic drinks I've had in my life, and I've never smoked or anything. I haven't done anything all that hazardous to myself... except for what was prescribed by doctors.
Thanks in advance!
