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Seizures, Anxiety Attacks and ADHD

NOTICE: The following posts are taken from the Christian Special Needs parenting List. The names, e-mail addresses and locations of all parties involved have been removed to protect their privacy. The posts have been used with permission, but are copyrighted by Christian Kind.

Yesterday, I received a call that my 10 year old - adhd - adopted - son had an anxiety attack, or possibly a seizure of some sort (have little knowledge of seizures) apparently how ever he explained how he was feeling to the school nurse (knows him well) and his 4Th grade teacher, made the nurse question if it could be a seizure. He has had some anxiety type episodes in the past (not frequent). This is heavy on my heart, where do I go with this, Therapist, pediatrician, Mayo Clinic?

I am laying this in the Lords hands, praying he blesses me with his plan, and embraces my son on the journey.

I would say the best place to start would be your pediatrician. They can refer you on to where you should go. My nine year old son has had seizures since he was 3 days old. You have to put all your trust that your son is resting in Gods hand and that he is in control. We will be praying for you.

Sometimes we get to the point when we just don't have the answer. We don't know what to do. I am praying for God to give you wisdom and show you the next thing to do as you trust in Him. He is faithful and you are not alone. For a long time I have been praying for God to give me "The Answer" to what is going on with our daughter but I don't have it. I can tell you that God has been faithful to show me step by step what I need to do. God loves your son even more than you do and He will help you! May God give you wisdom and peace as you trust Him and clear direction.

Romans 15;13

May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I'm too familiar with this situation as my son took his first seizure when he was 10. There are many kinds of seizures. He was in grade 4 when he started to take Concerta. During March break is when he had a seizure.

We immediately took him to see his Dr. and referred him to a Neurologist at the _____ hospital, _____ to see if he had any activity in his brain related to seizures. He has Epilepsy (gran mal) but meds are controlling the seizures. He has only had 5 and he is almost 15 now. Still on his concerta meds and is doing remarkably well in school, an honor student. As far as anxiety goes my son does have generalized anxiety issues. So I might add that you could go see your family doctor and he/she will direct you to a specialist. The brain is a complicated tool! My prayers to you and your family.

I too have a son with seizures. I'm finding this thread interesting because my first question when I get to Heaven is "What caused the seizures, and were my son's seizures a trigger to cause ADHD behavior, the other way around, or were the two unrelated?" While on earth, I'm letting the questions drive me crazy! We believe that the seizure disorder - epilepsy - is somehow related to his behavior problems (ADHD, ODD, BiPolar - he's been diagnosed with all at some point).

Our son's epilepsy was diagnosed at age 4 - he's now 11 - and we've been through the entire gamut of emotions, treatments, medications, and therapies. At best I consider it 'managed' on really, really good days. On marginal days, I feel defeated. The Adderall has helped considerably but the Depakote (prescribed both as anti-convlusant and mood stabilizer) is ineffective as of about 8 wks ago. We started with pediatrician, then pediatric neurologist, then psychologists, and psychiatrists. No one has really made the overall picture pieces fit together.

Until I'm in Heaven I may never know for sure, but I suspect his immunizations may have triggered his (partial complex, formerly called 'petit mal', type). His are cyclical, they flare up about 6-8 times a year, and the greatly affect his entire disposition. Interestingly, while he's cycling in seizure mode (they occur about every 20 minutes for about a week), he is in his most compliant and agreeable behavior mode. I call it the calm before the storm. When the storm comes back, we have everything from defiance, aggression, impulsivity, provocation, depression (suicidal), hyperfocus, badgering, and so on. Unfortunately this is most of our time with him.

I don't have a lot of advice or help except to say that in my prayer time when I'm frustrated beyond despair, I feel the Lord has told me in my heart, I died on the cross for him too. Bring his sufferings to me. I have 4 other children and what weighs most heavily on me is how his behavior affects the whole family. I prayed for humility and patience, and both have been delivered by the truckload with my son!

Stop praying for humility and patience. Just ask God to help you. Its a reason he allows us to go through things. With my daughter who has been diagnosed with Adhd and other things, I have not called it. I have always said "They say", I know what the realities are, but I will not speak a condition on to her. When we pray we must give it to God and leave it there. Easier said than done. God can handle it, we cant! Another thing, when I stop worrying or focusing on the problem, the problem lifted. My daughter is doing awesome. Praise the Lord!!! When things get out of hand, stop and let it Go! Start praising God in the midst of the trouble. Sing praise on to him. I speak from experience. Still going through and knowing that God will and is with me always. My daughter at 3 had a seizure. She has allergies, you name it. But when I look at my situation, God shows me it could be alot worse. My child could have cancer and dying. But she is healthy and brillant, the way God wants her to be.

I just prayed for you!! From this point all will be well with you. Let it all Go. The moms are the temperature in the house. Give it to the one that can handle it!

My daughter had a seizure 5 years ago (she was five). We thought there would be no more but last Tuesday she had one that lasted 15 minutes and she was incoherent for about 4 hours. It really scared us since it had been 5 years before the last one (which had been the only one). We went to ER just to make sure it was nothing else. We have an EEG tomorrow at 1pm so will be up at 2am....I'm sure you've been through that :).

I can't imagine seizures every 20 minutes. He must be exhausted. My prayers are with you.

Interesting about seizures and ADHD. There are so many people that treat us like it is a behavior problem rather than a physical one. And so life goes on :). At least we know it isn't just bad parenting skills.

This thread came at a good time for me. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

I can so feel your frustration but do not give up hope. The two, epilepsy and ADHD, are not related nor does one cause the other. I am 43 years old and I have both. I had ADHD when it did not have a fancy name and they did not even think that girls had it! I got epilepsy after the birth of my son in 1987. Niether is the end of the world. I think of all the chronic illnesses to have they are the most easiest to deal with. My 14 year old son Sean has both and it has been frustrating trying to find the right medicine for the epilepsy but thanks to my upbeat manner of dealing with both he thinks nothing of having both. My mother always told me that ADHD was a blessing in disguise. Think about it in today's society we are the worlds best multi-taskers. We have endless energy and can work circles around our family and friends who are not lucky enough to have it. I know this is not what you expected but look at your son's boundless energy and help him channel it. Help him see that used correctly he can do things that some only dream of. And as for the epilepsy it too can be controled. I am a correctional officer in a maximum securtity prison pluss I deal with muliple firearms so there are only limitations that can be overcome.