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Niamh
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07 Mar 2011, 7:25 pm

I'm a bit worried about an experience at choir rehearsal earlier tonight... it was coming to the last ten mins before break and I suddenly found it immensely difficult to concentrate. I found my head pulling downwards and I felt like I was going to collapse. Weirdly, I was able to fight and prevent myself from collapsing and was able to force my head upright and drag myself through the last few mins... My thinking was suddenly in slow motion. I struggled to get my body to do what I wanted it to. Break time came and I forced myself out of the chair and began to walk. I had vertigo and couldn't walk without wobbling, and i felt my head still pulling, and i was only able to shuffle because it felt like muscles from my head down the front and down the back of my body were tightening up. I was unable to perceive how close objects were and so i bumped into everything. I was shaking but not weak or dizzy. I was also twitching a little bit. It lasted for about half an hour and then faded away over another half an hour...

I'm a bit freaked out, any ideas? I did recently have a meltdown and didn't get proper chance to fully recover before going back into the big bad world again, if that's of significance...



patiz
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07 Mar 2011, 7:48 pm

You just painted the perfect picture of an anxiety attack! see your doctor, these attacks can be very frightening, but your doctor can prescribe good meds to cope with them. I have had them and they are bad big style,often after a meltdown. I hope this helps you :)



Verdandi
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07 Mar 2011, 7:52 pm

I agree with Patiz. I've had panic attacks very much like that one. I experienced every detail you describe.



Niamh
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07 Mar 2011, 7:53 pm

But there was no anxiety at all, and I've had severe panic attacks before, not nice... Not the remotest bit of anxiety or dizziness or hyperventilating this time. And I never felt such a strong downward pull with my head before... The shaking wasn't nervous shaking, it was just shaking that I couldn't control. I couldn't feel it either, I only noticed because I took out my phone to text my boyfriend. And no excess sweating at all...



Verdandi
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07 Mar 2011, 8:02 pm

Oh, hmm.

Did you eat anything that day?

Whatever it was, even if it turns out it was an anxiety attack, probably worth seeing your doctor about.



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07 Mar 2011, 9:51 pm

It doesn't sound like an anxiety attack to me. The head pulling down...I get that. I also get this stiffness in my body and it cracks when I eventually get to move it. Were you twitching before? The difficulty moving you described could be Todd's paralysis which happens after a seizure. The time it lasted says it may have been a seizure too. The worst kind of seizures last a few seconds to a few minutes. Others can last up to half an hour. You also experience short term memory loss from what happened before the seizure. But that be from recurring seizures.

It could also be hypoglycemia if you hadn't eaten in a few hours. I get that too.

If it was a seizure it was just on one area of the brain. It's hard to know which area. Did you experience any auditory disturbances? Visual disturbances happen with most kinds.
Just keep an eye on it, eat well and the next time it happens try to remember if what led to it led up to the last one.

What triggers my seizures are stress, stimulant usage, sugar consumption, light sensitivity and sometimes sensory overload. The type of environment you were in would probably make me a bit twitchy or get that stiff feeling in my head. But my type of seizures are myoclonic and temporal lobe. They involve jerking movements, strange emotions and visual/auditory hallucinations. It started as twitching and speech loss and I thought it was a shutdown but they kept happening and I started getting symptoms that I would never get with a shutdown such as tingling and eye pain.

If it keeps happening you should ask your doctor to refer you to a neurologist. It will be hard to find any seizure activity on an EEG for this type of seizure though.

People will try to tell you you can't have a seizure if you're still conscious but that's just a stereotype. Clonic Tonic seizures are not the only kind of seizures.


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Niamh
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08 Mar 2011, 6:31 am

Thanks for responses guys... I slept really well last night after all that, even a bit more than usual, but I'm tired today as if I didn't sleep enough... can't focus on anything, really clumsy, fumbling more than ever, bit twitchy and quivery, and some sort of weird feeling that I can't even describe, like an emotion I've discovered for the first time... guess I should rest and see what happens and go to doc if there's no improvement?



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08 Mar 2011, 7:47 am

Niamh wrote:
Thanks for responses guys... I slept really well last night after all that, even a bit more than usual, but I'm tired today as if I didn't sleep enough... can't focus on anything, really clumsy, fumbling more than ever, bit twitchy and quivery, and some sort of weird feeling that I can't even describe, like an emotion I've discovered for the first time... guess I should rest and see what happens and go to doc if there's no improvement?


I would say see the doctor NOW! I don't think anxiety attacks last that long. Seizures don't either. I was originally thinking a stroke but, as I read farther, I thought MAYBE a seizure, or even a migraine. Some migraines don't even have pain. Now, a MIGRAIN COULE last days.

But you should see a doctor, maybe they will have other ideas.



Niamh
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08 Mar 2011, 9:18 am

Ok all the weird feelings have persisted so far today, so I have a doctor appointment later on. They're getting milder now, hoping she doesn't dismiss it all as imaginary or something, but she hasn't done that so far with other stuff so fingers crossed...

This is how it's been so far today

tired
difficulty talking
can’t concentrate, fumbling, vertigo
bad visual perception, ringing in ears
occasional twitches and shaking
head pulling down to the side or forwards
tightening all over front and back of body, also in throat and tongue
switching between heavy-headed feeling and light-headed feeling, also slight aching
strange sensation from stomach up to head, like a rising feeling
feels like time is moving extremely slowly

Last night was like all that but more severe, minus the aches... Think I'll write this all down and take it with me, will be hard to remember everything in the appointment!

@pensieve Ya I get occasional twitching and usually shaking when I have meltdowns, and there was one time when one of my legs kept twitching for about 10 mins and I couldn't stop it. I can't remember which one though. And before that, there was a day when I got a strong tingling sensation down the entire right-hand side of my body and had a bit of trouble moving my arm and leg, but that faded away after a couple of hours. I went to the doctor that time and they sent me home saying there was nothing wrong, that I was probably stressed or something.



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08 Mar 2011, 10:15 am

Your Blood Pressure could also have dropped-making you extremely dizzy and faint. If it was a seizure, it would have been either a simple partial, or a complex partial seizure. But that wouldn't be my first guess as to what you experienced. --Unless you have a seizure disorder.


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08 Mar 2011, 12:37 pm

Except for the sudden onset, it sounds a lot like I felt when I was taken to the hospital (about 40h) after a bee sting attack a couple years ago...



Niamh
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08 Mar 2011, 1:08 pm

OK back from doctor now, she said it's vertigo and I got some medication, seems to be working a bit. although Still feel very very tired. I don't have an inner ear infection so I'm wondering if it's neurological, but I guess the meds will tell!



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08 Mar 2011, 3:52 pm

Niamh wrote:
OK back from doctor now, she said it's vertigo and I got some medication, seems to be working a bit. although Still feel very very tired. I don't have an inner ear infection so I'm wondering if it's neurological, but I guess the meds will tell!


Vertigo? Vertigo leaves you tired and twitchy? Hmmm...


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Lene
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08 Mar 2011, 5:00 pm

Did you feel the room spinning around you? If not, it's less likely to be vertigo.

Did anyone else see you during the episodes? What did they describe you doing?

What medications are you on at the moment?

Do you have any underlying health problems?

Also, how were you in general throughout the day? Did you skip meals or not get much sleep the night before?

How did you feel when you recovered? How quickly did you recover?

Has this ever happened before?

Pensieve's right, you probably should get referred to see someone especially if this happens again. It really doesn't sounds like vertigo.



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08 Mar 2011, 5:06 pm

You can claim that there is "no anxiety," yet when you have the most anxiety is when you're sort of temporarily "immune" to feeling the symptoms of anxiety.



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08 Mar 2011, 5:33 pm

You should definitely see a doctor. It could be a seizure, or a stroke, or a lot of really serious things.


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