New here, does anyone pass out/seizure from ptsd?

[faith]

Hi, I am new and just wondering if anyone else experiences passing out or has seizures from ptsd? Mine started in early teens as a dejavu type experience that left me feeling upset and drained. I didnt remember my childhood abuse until a few years ago. Since remembering everything I now have full blown  seizures, passing out, uncontious on the floor and have even gotten hurt pretty badly a few times. I now dont drive, work or see anyone but my husband and kids. I get pretty depressed and very lonely but do not trust myself to get out alone. I dont know anyone where I live. Can anyone relate?

[Three Roses]

Hello and welcome to you, faith! Personally I don't seize or lose consciousness but I have read here on the forum that some do. That must be terrifying!

I look forward to hearing more from you, thanks for joining!

[faith]

Thank you, Three roses. I am hoping some that may experience this can give me some help managing this. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere and yes can be very scary. Last time I ended up in the Er with a broken nose, whiplash and a cut on the forehead. Have seriously thought about wearing some kind of helmet or protective gear. Im scared I will seriously hurt myself or even die from it if it doesnt get better. Have done the week long tests in the hospital, never find anything. Always "normal". So discouraged :-(

[Kizzie]

Hi Faith     I just watched a show on Animal Planet about therapy animals and one of the people they interviewed was a young woman who had been assaulted and developed non-epileptic seizures (caused by stress).  They're called Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures or Non Epileptic Attack Disorder (PNES/NEAD). There's some additional info here - http://www.outofthestorm.website/cptsd-glossary/ (scroll down to the "P" section)

Anyway, she couldn't go anywhere or do anything without a family member with her.  She ended up getting a therapy dog and the dog could warn her about 30 minutes before she had a seizure so she could take medication and sit or lay down.  She now trains dogs in Winnipeg Canada I think it was.  I'm sure there are training centres for these dogs all over so it may be something to look into. 

[faith]

Thank you so much! I will look further into PNES. I am a proud mommy of two beautiful dogs. They are a great comfort to me and one will be very clingy before I have a seizure. If I pay attention to her I can sometimes tell when its coming. I have been thinking of volunteering with animals in some way. I feel much more comfortable with animals than with most people. Thank you again for the info! It helps to understand. I know I have to really manage stress and keep it to a bare minimum which is not always easy to do.

[Kizzie]

That's so interesting that your one dog gets clingy. My dog was the same way when I had cancer.  Before I was diagnosed he got quite clingy and stayed that way until I was done with surgery and chemo, then he was back to his old self.  Dogs are awesome 

It may be that if your dog is sensing your seizures already, it wouldn't take much to have him/her certified as a service dog, and then you would be allowed to take him/her with you most places.       Worth thinking about maybe.

[faith]

Yes Kizzie, animals are so amazing! I love my dogs so much. They are my best friends. I am with by them all the time, I don't leave the house much but when I do, I get separation anxiety lol! They are a great comfort to me. I will check into training as well. Thank you.

[Kizzie]

Good luck! 

[puppies4thesad]

I was diagnosed as suffering from dissociative attacks 5 years ago but at the time they did not mention it having its roots in cptsd. I think its another form of dissociation in that ur brain feels intense threat (either on a concious or unconsious level) and like a rabbit freezing up in a foxes mouth you check out of the situation. It may be a way of reducing conscious suffering in a situation where your brain cant see a way out or a way of playing dead ( ie if the percieved threat is not stimulated into action by seeing movement or response then it will move on). Check out neurosymptoms.org which is a site put together by Jon Stone who diagnosed me.

[faith]

Wow, thank you puppies4thesad! I will check that out! I think that pretty much sums it up! I kind of feel like that's what is happening. It's like I just "check out". It really is terrifying to me. It seems to happen most when I've been stressed or sometimes triggered by something. Thanks again!

[Rainagain]

Faith
I have posted elsewhere that I experience lost time episodes where I am in a different state of consciousness, I come back with no memory of the episode.
I'm going to have tests to see if there is a physical problem in the brain but I think it is trauma related.
Yesterday my psych explained that trauma is so powerful that some people have become blind due to trauma with no physical cause.
He also asked if I collapse or my muscles go weak or paralysed, I don't do that but it sounds like he was thinking about symptoms like yours so it must be a known thing that can happen.

This sort of thing is rooted in trauma just like cptsd but isn't part of cptsd, its another issue running alongside.

I think I read somewhere that 80% of people with cptsd have other conditions comorbidly with their cptsd.

[Blueberry]

I know this is a very old thread but I read it first because of seeing the question. So I thought to myself: Oh yes! But not me, no, when I was inpatient there were a number of trauma patients who either passed out and ended up on the floor or turned to stone more or less and had to be coaxed into moving again, but obviously not by mere words. I was present during one of these episodes and idk how exactly the T knew when to suggest that the patient move her left foot 1cm higher so that it was a moment when the patient could begin to move again, but the T did know. Experience and a bit of luck maybe, combined with the vibes the T sends out and the safe space she created. Something like that. For me it was really good to see how seriously the issue was taken.

He also asked if I collapse or my muscles go weak or paralysed, I don't do that but it sounds like he was thinking about symptoms like yours so it must be a known thing that can happen.

Reading this now brings :lightbulb: in my head. Because sometimes when I'm walking I just kind of collapse. When it's happening I have an image of my legs concertina-ing sideways beneath me and that's the image I also have rn writing about it. So my legs concertina and I land on the ground, often quite lightly - I don't tend to really  hurt myself but I often can't get up immediately afterwards either. Particularly my legs (rather than my arms for instance) simply don't obey me. It's usually a matter of minutes, it's never been hours or anything. Now I remember when I was 13-14 in a period where things were not quite so bad at home I experienced strange dizziness where everything would go grey or black and I'd find myself on all fours or in a heap shaking on the ground. It tended to happen in the garden. "Oh, just some dizzy spell" my mother opined.

This is all interesting to me today due to progress I've been making regarding my problem feet, lots of realisations made today. It feels like a really big thing. There are so many, um, trauma problems connected to my feet. It feels like the first time that I'm finally realising that, yes, my feet problems developed mostly through emotional trauma including callous indifference to me and my pain. It's also a problem that has followed me most of my life, starting from 8-10 yo. Like cptsd, whose symptoms really got going when I was about 7yo. I've written a fair amount about my feet the past few days on Mbr Journals but wanted to add a bit where everybody can read about it in case of interesting correlations for others.

My inpatient trauma T mentioned that your foot suddenly giving way when you walk can be caused by dissociation, I remember that now. But since the state of my legs and feet improved with physio while I was inpatient I figured that my foot problems were all down to weak muscles, bad shoes (nearly all shoes are bad for me in some way or other, even those that are mostly good and specially for people with problem feet) and my general neglect of my feet plus being physically inactive especially in EF weeks. In other words as FOO would say "it's all your own fault". Today I say "No"   to that, which is big progress.

A little later after re-reading own post: Now I remember that I could often tell somehow or other that I was about to hit the ground i.e. I had some brief forewarning and could either grab something if I was inside like a wall or countertop and hang on till the moments passed or in the garden I could start lowering myself towards the ground before losing control so I was falling less far. Once I even had such a 'moment'  when I was working as an au pair and I was carrying a 4 yo piggyback. I managed to hold back long enough to get this little girl to slide safely onto the kitchen floor and then I had my shaking spell on the floor. She didn't notice anything, she just thought I was playing. I've never noticed a trigger though, not back in those years nor more recently when my legs merely collapse w/o everything going black. That doesn't mean there aren't triggers, just that I'm not aware of them, yet.

[Blueberry]

This is all interesting to me today due to progress I've been making regarding my problem feet, lots of realisations made today. It feels like a really big thing. There are so many, um, trauma problems connected to my feet. It feels like the first time that I'm finally realising that, yes, my feet problems developed mostly through emotional trauma including callous indifference to me and my pain. It's also a problem that has followed me most of my life, starting from 8-10 yo. Like cptsd, whose symptoms really got going when I was about 7yo. ...

My inpatient trauma T mentioned that your foot suddenly giving way when you walk can be caused by dissociation, I remember that now. But since the state of my legs and feet improved with physio while I was inpatient I figured that my foot problems were all down to weak muscles, bad shoes (nearly all shoes are bad for me in some way or other, even those that are mostly good and specially for people with problem feet) and my general neglect of my feet plus being physically inactive especially in EF weeks. In other words as FOO would say "it's all your own fault". Today I say "No"   to that, which is big progress.

It's interesting for me to re-read this today because when my singing instructor asked me about my lower back and foot pain that is constantly recurring, I explained about general physical weakness, neglected torso muscles, not quite ideal shoes (I can't at present find any better than I have due to foot problems, tho these present shoes are better than many). I had totally forgotten as usual that there is this conversion disorder. It seems constantly forgetting may be part of the trauma?? I mean, I seem to lose my knowledge of it and any realisations I've made unless I re-read them here and manage to keep them in mind for a hour or two but then they're gone again. I particularly notice because of repeating what I've basically always heard in FOO (weak, do too little exercise, own fault   )  w/o them knowing if that's even true. Even though this time I'm NOT lambasting myself, which is real progress (!), it's still taking on FOO's assumptions and in a way, FOO's bad opinion of me.