Autism/AS *caused by* epilepsy?

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The sole thing that has always opposed my self-diagnosis of an ASD is the fact that my parents - particularly my mother, who spent the most time with me - insist that below the age of five or so, I generally behaved perfectly normally. I was a shy child, and there was some liking for repetition and a difficulty for a while in learning a few things such as telling the time, but, on the whole, they do not recall any behavior that struck them as being particularly out of the ordinary or suggested there could be anything seriously wrong. I seemed contented, smiled a lot as a baby, and took a lot of interest in everything around me - in fact, I was difficult to get to sleep, and it seemed to be not because I was distressed, but because my mind was so interested and active, and I didn't want to waste my time sleeping.

I have heard from people who say that they did not begin to present until this age, but it seems unbelievable to me that the condition could have been present from birth and gone completely unnoticed for several years.
Problems certainly did begin later, though, and have only become worse the older I've got.

I've been aware for some time that epilepsy is often co-morbid with autism and Asperger's, but I was not aware until I read it recently that in a percentage of people diagnosed with an ASD, symptoms mainly appeared after the onset of epileptic seizures, as if the abnormal activity of the seizures caused them to regress from a more neurotypical state. Since somewhere between the ages of five and ten, I've had what I suspect are simple partial seizures: no convulsing or loss of consciousness, but a change in perception, numbness or pins and needles in my extremities, and familar surroundings suddenly seeming unfamiliar. This will typically last around ten seconds before the world 'snaps back' into place and everything looks normal again. During a period when I was on medication for depression, these episodes became also considerably stronger and more frequent, which, as some AD drugs can worsen epilepsy, gives more weight to them being this.

It seems very curious to me that the onset of more serious problems coincided with the onset of these seizures, if seizures they are.

Is it possible that what I have is almost an 'artificial' autism; that initially very mild symptoms were highly aggravated by seizures, and the longer the seizures have continued, the more damage has been done?

How could seizures Cause Autism? I really don't see the link.

It has been known for some children to not show signs of autism until aged 5 or older.
I think the seizures were because of autism/AS.

I had 'blanking out' spells as a child, and as an adult I suffer from classical migraines with an aura that manifests somewhat like the 'seizures' you described. With me, it starts with a weird sense of tummy discomfort earlier in the day, and the actual aura comes on as visual disturbance - flashing lights, missing fragments, tunnel vision, pins and needles in one hand and one side of my face, inability to speak coherently, extreme light sensitivity, confusion. My 'aura' is always followed by a horrible headache over one eye that lasts around 6 hours. However, some people have the aura without the headache. Interestingly enough, migraines have been linked to epilepsy, and both respond in many cases to the same medication.

I have always been autistic, but not in such a big matter that my parents really thought it was something seriously wrong with me. I have also had a few epileptic seizures, but did not experience them until just before 5 - 6 years ago. And I can not say that my AS behavior has changed after them.

I do not believe that epilepsy is a cause to autism. It _might_ in some severe cases, if the brain does not get enough oxygen or a hit to the head if a person falls over during a seizure, that could affect the brains ability in certain ways, like reduce the sense of smell, sight, hearing OR even your emotional "pluggs" in the brain. This can in many ways change a persons behavior, and maybe specially kids. They get sensitive to loud noises, emotionally inactive etc. that can mislead medical persons and parents to believe that the seizure made the kid autistic.

From what you describe- you *were* presenting at a young age. They just thought that your behaviours were "normal". The reason why you describe more problems occuring after age 5 is because that's when you were enrolled in school. Social environments with peers always tend to bring out the "worst" in AS children.

This might be more what I was really trying to say, I think. That seizures could cause what might be described as a 'fake autism': the person is not born with the brain wiring that makes them genuinely autistic (or their symptoms, at least, are so mild as to be virtually unnoticeable) but seizures produce behavior and sensitivities that mimic autism/AS and could be (mis)diagnosed as being such.

Landau-Kleffner is an epileptic disorder which causes a loss of ability to understand and use spoken language, so that a kid might appear autistic.

I did attend nursery/playschool before that age, though, and apparently enjoyed it - to the degree that my mother could actually punish me for bad behavior by threatening to stop me going! It would seem to suggest that I wasn't too troubled by being around the other children, although because I can't remember myself, it's impossible to say exactly what it was that I liked so much - it may have been because there were particular toys or activities there that I liked, more than that I liked playing with others.

I will also acknowledge what I've said in other threads: that I believe that children with mild AS may encounter less social problems when very young because the interaction between all children is very direct and uncomplicated at that age. Young children say what they think; if they want to communicate information, they do it directly; if they want to express happiness, unhappiness or anger, they show it clearly. Likewise, adults will make far more exceptions for a small child and be prepared to explain things to them that they would expect an older person to 'just know'. Certainly the older I got and the more I was expected to grasp subtleties, the more difficult interaction became.

No pain or visual disturbances with these, only what I can best describe as a disturbance of perception. In one form, it's as if a gauze has suddenly been laid over the world, and it looks the same, yet different; I've been on my way to places I've visited a hundred times before, had one of these episodes, and, for the duration of it, not known where I am or how to get to my destination. The other form is even more difficult to describe, and I can only call it a hallucination, but in my mind's eye rather than my actual field of vision. The feeling is suddenly that there's an indefinable object that is both very large and very small at the same time, pressed right up against my nose. The feeling is extremely claustrophic, and accompanied by the physical numbness and a slight nausea. Neither have ever progressed to a migraine or a full-blown seizure noticeable to observers, just stopped as abruptly as they started and left me apparently none the worse for wear.

Last edited by Hovis on 17 Dec 2008, 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Can you 'sit through' this? It lasts a while but has some relevance to the topic discussed. I suppose it would be interesting as to whether seizures are a cause or part of the effects of an asd (concerning the central nervous system).

I used to have absense seizures.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D3D6MPoJlBE

I don't think they cause autism.

What I think is probably the case is:

The child has the pre-existing genetics for autism.

These genetic traits make him vulnerable to seizures.

When he has the seizures, he gets either brain damage or has so many that it's harder for him to learn and adds to his stress load.

The seizures make it way harder to cope, make it harder to think--so much so that the autism goes from barely there to obvious. (This happens to otherwise NT children with epilepsy. They tend to regress--act younger--and lose skills, which is why it's so important to treat epilepsy.)

This is exactly what happened to Evan McCarthy--who started "recovering" once his seizures were under control.

I'm not really versed in epilepsy but I think my non-ASD sister may have it. She is right now going through tests. Her seizures are unlike my catatonic states so... I don't know.

I have never had any signs of epilepsy. Epilepsy doesn't run in my family.

I started showing signs long before I turned 5 years old. I didn't learn to speak until I was 3 1/2 (And oddly enough, my first word was "apostrophe.")

If Epilepsy was a part of causing Autism Spectrum Disorders, then there would be no way there could be so many Aspie/Autie gamers. Video games have been known to cause Photosensitive Epileptic Seizures in sensitive people, to a point where they legally have to put a warning and a list of signs to look out for that might signal someone is having one, with every video game sold.

That's only one kind of epilepsy; there are many, many kinds of seizures besides that. I agree more with Callista, but yeah I have epilepsy and I'm not photosensitive (though I do have a sensory sensitivity to strobe lights and such that was initially mistaken for it).