Cant stop worrying about brain tumor and seizure!!!!Help!

[jesshoo37660]

I have been dizzy for 10 days straight now and feel like I am about to have a seizure!!  I have been having panic atacks now b/c of this!

I had an EEG 5 months ago, so surely it would have detected a seiizure problem of brain tumor right????  My vision is jerky and I cant see straight!  I'm about to go out of my mind! It feels like I am having BRAIN ZAPS it's driving me buts!  could this be a seizure issue or a brain tumor????

[piedpauper]

Brain zaps are on the list of anxiety symptoms. I have the feeling of a tight band around my head, as though my head is about to explode. Also, a horrible fuzzy feeling. Sugar causes a lot of this.

[sixpack]

Jess

You don't feel like you are 'about' to have a seizure for days.  If you are going to have a seizure, you can't stop one from happening.  Some people do experience an aura before a seizure.  My eldest has seizures and, occasionally, she will behave in such a way that tells me that she senses she will have a seizure.  However that sensation occurs moments before a seizure occurs not days or hours.

the other things you are experiencing I have as well.  ESPECIALLY the eye jerking stuff.   

[SkittishSari]

I really feel for you right now because I've been there. All I can say is, like sixpack said, people who have seizures don't "feel" like they'll have one for days. I've worked with kids with seizure disorders and they just come on. I know the feeling you are talking about and I think a lot of us here have had it. This too shall pass, try to remember that. It really is anxiety-related and not anything more.

[olethros]

I know the feeling of being "about to have a seizure."  I even listed it as a symptom to my doctor (it actually made him grin because of how absurd it was!)  There have been times when I was just so sure it was going to happen though.  But it never has.  As others have said, most people don't feel like they're about to have a seizure.  And even if they do, it comes on very soon thereafter.  So if you have a feeling, and nothing happens, that's a good indication that nothing is going to happen.  But especially if you've seen the doc and he's not worried, why be worried yourself?  

Try to think of this way - compare the number of people who get a brain tumor each year of ANY kind (including kinds that have spread from other cancers) to the population.  What's the likelihood of a person getting one?  Very very small (like, less than .001%).  Okay, but now let's throw in all the factors that one has to consider, like having seen a doctor who is not concerned, having only vague symptoms - nothing catastrophic, etc.  Once you add in all of those factors, that small percentage will have gone down that much further.  It gets to a point where worrying about it is just ridiculous.  

When you get these feelings, just try to calm down and remember the power of anxiety.  I know it's hard, because the feelings we all get are so very real.  And our minds immediately jump to the worst conclusions about the smallest of things.  I don't know how long you've dealt with this now, but for me I've been facing anxiety issues for a year.  The first symptom I ever had, I suddenly felt like I was going to pass out.  Like, I really just had the surge come along and it felt exactly like that's what would happen.  Since then I've had a host of symptoms.  That "about to pass out" feeling, brain zaps, feeling like I was going to have a seizure, feel like parts of my body were just off or something, depersonalization/derealization, feel like i can't breathe/might stop breathing, moodiness, typos, etc.  And for a long time I worried a lot about brain tumors.  And honestly sometimes I still do, but I have to realize that after a year of this, where I have good periods and bad periods (bad periods often occurring during times of great stress), it's not likely to be a tumor.  Tumors just get worse - they don't fluctuate like that without treatment.  So when you get these feelings, try to take a few good breaths, let yourself relax and calm down, and know that in the process of doing so, you're offering pretty good evidence to yourself that you are dealing with anxiety.  :)

[olethros]

I should add, btw, that I've been dealing with many of these issues myself lately.  Very sleepless nights, sometimes feeling like I'm just about to lose it, and those seizure feelings, about to pass out feelings, etc.  But I've also been under a lot of stress lately.  Right now there's a good chance my family could be moving to Japan - been doing some interviews, and really for the last 3-4 months have been thinking about where our future lies. 

Actually I can almost trace where my symptoms come from.  During the holidays I was trying out for a new job (didn't get it) but during that time I suddenly started having heightened symptoms.  A few weeks after the holidays ended, things got better and I was able to calm down, particularly after I went to the doc and finally talked to him openly about my concern of having a tumor.  That visit helped out a lot.  Still had stuff sometimes, but nothing major and could mostly deal with it.  But then this Japan issue came up, and since then all of a sudden my symptoms have increased greatly.  Coincidence? I doubt it! So sometimes seeing where those triggers lie can at least help you know that it's anxiety and not something serious.  Btw, I don't take medication for my anxiety, although the doc has offered it to me and I have certainly considered it from time to time.  And if this Japan things goes through, I just might to help me get through the process of moving and such.  But anyway, point being - identifying those triggers might help you find some peace with the real problem of anxiety.

[Slangevar]

It's so interesting - an adult friend of mine just admitted she has seizures. Like everyone said, she has no idea one is about to come on until it's happening. Then she feels a strange sense of deja vu; then the "aura" and then a rising sensation. And then she blacks out and wakes up feeling like she's run a marathon. The rest of the time, she feels normal - no brain zaps, dizziness or anything.

She gets grand mal seizures... she said people who get peti mal (sp) seizures can just feel the deja vu, but no zaps.

Not at all like you're describing!

[jesshoo37660]

To skittishsara:

Ive been taking my meds like I should.  I wish it was that.  I've never heard of having brain zaps unless I wasn't doing something correct with my meds.... it's very disturbing.
Sometimes my neck will jerk slightly when I am feeling it...weird huh??

[SkittishSari]

Ok- I had these last night after an exhausting day of entertaining lots of family and a very long night the night before (two kids- one teething and one with croup). I was feeling super anxious from being so tired but it was a reminder of what it feels like. I don't get this so often now but I did  A LOT when I was anxious a few years ago, when I thought I had a neurological condition. I was absolutely sure I had MS or ALS. I had this, plus dizziness, plus weird eye things- I felt like my eyes were shaking and that when I moved them I had this strange brief feeling of dizziness or electrical current going through my head, and then I twitched all.the.time., all over the place. I could lay in bed and my muscles would be twitching all over my body, nonstop. I was absolutely sure something was very wrong. It was really scary and really awful, but it was all anxiety based. I think my body was just in super duper overdrive, and I am fairly certain that is what is happen to you as well.

Are you on an SSRI? Do you think it's still working? I only ask because I've just switched and it's really starting to help. I know that meds aren't for everyone, but they do work well for me. I have very little quality of life without them, even when doing everything else right.