From the guy who brought you "OH NO!" hermit crab thread...

Okay, so I'm going to try to tell this in the order it happened (not in the order I heard it) with as much detail (gory or not) as I can. I might not have all the details right, but it shouldn't matter. It all leads up to one question, really. But isn't sharing one's experiences what Off Topic threads are about?

Okay, so last night I was hanging out with my friends (names'll be changed if I use 'em); two of them are roommates, Matt and John. Both were fine when we hung out and they went back to their dorm rooms, slept, etc. when all the sudden Matt wakes up from a nightmare screaming and by the time John wakes up for it and looks over at him Matt's having a seizure and is biting on his tongue. So the seizure lasts 3 minutes and he's begining to choke on his blood when he's taken away. John of course goes to the hospital with him and they stabilize Matt and obviously Matt's at home for the weekend and won't be coming back until after he's seen a neurologist. No one knows wherethe seizure came from.

The only seizures I know about are ones that come from epileptic attacks. My dad's mentioned some possibilities of where seizures can come from but I'd rather hear from other persons about the situation. In short, I'd just like some insight into this? I mean, he's nearly 21, has never had a seizure before, and the only health problem I know he has is one involving his thyroid gland, which has never inhibited him before.

Maybe he was scared into the seizure? Seizures can result from shock can't they? Could have been something in his nightmare sent him into shock (explains the screaming) and then into seizure.

Just a non-phd-guess.

When I was in my early 20's, I had an unexplained seizure. I was on a work break, having a Coke and a candy bar, and the next thing I know, I am laying on the floor, coming too, with about six people looking down at me. They told me I had a short seizure.

I went to the doctor and got a bunch of tests run and they found nothing that would explain it. It has never happened again. It appears to just have been a fluke. Weird stuff.

More than likely, it is a fluke kind of occurrence like Loki mentioned.

I'm sure the doctors have asked all the pertinent questions, but I'll go ahead with a couple. . .

Was he overly fatigued/stressed as of late? Any major life changes (good or bad)? Any changes in diet? Is he on any kind of medications? Specifically I would ask if he were on the now all too common anti-depressent/stop smoking medication Wellbutrin? This medication, which generally is steadily increased until effects are noticed, is a big culprit for causing seizures.

Does he remember anything of the incident? Of the nightmare. The nightmare makes me doubly suspicious of Wellbutrin as it also has the tendency to cause what are commonly referred to as Night Terrors. Most dreams won't produce sustained screaming, but Night Terrors definitely will.

Anyway, it probably is nothing to worry about, probably just a fluke. The time to be more worried would be if it happens again.

Here's hoping he feels better

Unfortunately, I found out at dinner that a few hours ago he had another seizure. He's scared to go to sleep now (for obvious reasons). I'm not sure if he was awake or asleep when the second one hit.

They gave him a catscan and have determined it is not a brain tumor, though. That's good news.


Last night when we were all hanging out we got into talks about John Titor (some people know about him, the supposed time traveller who speaks of a crapload of awful things happening to the USA in the near future) and me and one other person had only heard about it and so we were pretty much taking on the narrative of the discussion. Matt was like, "Whatever, don't believe it," this and that, maybe a little too profusely, and so some friends believe that his nightmare must've had something to do with the whole John Titor discussion. "So you're telling me you think I scared Matt into having seizures?!" yeah that was me. But anyway, he can't remember his nightmare (nor much about the whole incident) but John said he was screaming at the top of his lungs "Stop following me." So... it was a pretty intense nightmare to say the least.

It doesn't explain what happened this afternoon, though. Sort of shakes up the "this equals that" approach to finding out where his seizure(s) came from.

Thanks for the replies.

Sleep frights... obviously, there's a proper medical term for it that only those studying sleep disorders would remember...

One of my best friends has had similar for many years, though it apparently never ended up as life-threatening as that sounds :/

We're both into 20s now but known each other since kids... myself and several others found out at a school outing one weekend when he woke the whole building up with a horrible, blood curdling scream at about 4am, followed by some shouting about a figure with a knife by the bed, followed by eventual awareness and an explanation that this had happened at home a few times before.

It was one of the scariest things even *I*'d experienced, so can't even begin to imagine how it felt for him... not to mention the additional feeling of humiliation.

Apparently still happens, or so he said about a year ago. Must be a real bad thing to have

Very nasty stuff.

Although I don't know about the siezures... Del, a "man with a knife at your bed" is usually associated with sleep paralysis, where often you lay paralyzed in your bed, eyes open, then see in your "dream" a frightening and threatening presence who often commits aweful acts to you (which you can feel in your dream) until you wake up. Strange but true.

It's possible that this is what happened to Matt, Dae, but it's unlikely.

As a side note, I've been reading this John Titor stuff, and, well, it's pretty freaking scary. I actually believe it, it seems quite possible. Anyone want to comment?

(Sorry for off-topic, feel free to start a new topic about John Titor )

Heh, we won't get into the John Titor thing. Not until next year when his stuff will have/will not have come true.

Update: the rumor is he hasn't had the catscan (sp?) yet. And his father has said that he's going for numerous types of testings right now (MRI, etc)... and that the chances right now are that it's epilepsy or a brain tumor. Whew.

(Really, though, start a new thread on John Titor just 'cause I spent a few weeks bugging out about that so now that I'm over it I don't wanna read it with the "my friend has seizures" thread, hehe)

The sleep paralysis is associated with hypno or hypogognic hallucinations depending on whether you have them when waking up or falling asleep.

I've heard that wheat intolerance can also cause seizures.

Any number of medical conditions can cause seizures. The three most common are epilepsy, brain tumors, and extremely high fevers, but there are dozens if not hundreds of other causes.

In addition to the other input that people have offered in this thread, I also wanted to share what happened with my "dad".

His family had a history of epilepsy. However my "dad" had never had an signs of it his whole life. Then one night when him and my mother were in bed, his arm around her shoulders and neck, he had a seziure and almost choked my mother to death. It was to be his first of many (almost daily) seizures. He was roughly 25 or 26 years old. And it just turned out that he had always had epilepsy, it just never flared (for lack of a better word) until that time.

So it seems that it is a disease that can be carried, but not actually have symptoms. Which means it is possible that your friend could have had it all along and is just now showing the signs.

Of course it could be some of the other things that have already been suggested in this thread. I just wanted to share my input. And I will hope good things for your friend!

o.0

LOL.. Long story Darwin. If you are ever truely interested, grab a cup of coffee and I'd be happy to chat.

*grabs cup of coffee*
PM me!

Drugs that affect the brain can cause seizures too, both legal and illegal, whether they are used properly or not.

Great point Dev! And with so many legal drugs out there that we still don't have years of study on, there is no telling what is and is not causing us harm. I'm still caught up in the debate over the MMR possibly being a cause of Autism in some children (my child is autistic and so Autism is now an issue I'm getting to learn more and more about).

And Darwin, I'll PM you after I'm home in a bit and settled AND have my own pot of coffee handy. hehe

Okay, so, a conclusion to this mess:

He came back, left again for more testing, came back again, and just recently found out that his brain waves are messed up. He doesn't have epilepsy or a brain tumor luckily, but the doctor has described him as having a "predisposition to seizures;" in short, until his brain waves fix themselves (if they ever do,) he will be prone to seizures, case closed. Unfortunately, next semester he was supposed to go to Japan for pregrad research, which they say he can't do now. And he has to take medication every day, so he can't drink--which he's upset about, because he's Irish and will be turning 21 in a few months. But at least it wasn't something worse, right? Well, that's that!

Ah, glad to hear it came to a somewhat better conclusion that it could have been.

Not drinking sucks, but atleast hes not dieing. I can't drink either because of health reasons, I still have fun, but then again I'm not irish, hehe. Now you'll always have a designated driver.

Messed up brain waves? Damn cell phones!