Smoking marijuana and seizure like symptoms...

I think..You have to think of it this way. The symptoms you described are what anyone smoking too much pot might experience, and most of those people do not have epilepsy. If you have any tendency to epilepsy because of your sister, it would take so much to bring it on heavy dose of pot that it would probably not be clinically significant. On the other hand, you should not be afraid to find out if you have any unusual sensitivity to epilepsy. Why don;t you get an EEG, and if there is any signs, it will forewarn about excessive behavior, and may prevent what you really don't want to happen.

hey ridethevibe,

i know what your talking about. i have experienced seizure like episodes from smoking weed too. Recently I was in amsterdam and i smoked a bit of hash and then walked to the tram station with some friends - so it didn't happen immediately after smoking the hash. So I was standing at the tram station with friends and i started to feel really overwhelmed. It was like my head was expanding. I began to feel increasingly disoriented and I remember thinking 'shit, i need to sit down'. Heart palpatations. I looked at the bench in the tram stop which was only a couple of metres away and i knew i wasn't going to make it. I had lost touch wih reality. Then, everything slowed, went dark and I became unconscious. When I 'came to', my friend Julian was shaking me and in a panic asking me if i was ok and looking for a response. It was that moment, with the eye contact from julian and the reality of his concern, that I came back to planet earth. I was suddenly in the moment again, instead of inside my own mind. When I asked them what had happened they said that I had just dropped and my eyes had gone really wide and then when they went to grab me I started convulsing and laughing. Fucking strange. I was naturally, pretty embarrassed. Anyway so there are all these people at the tram stop trying to help out and get me sugar and water and stuff like that. As soon as I relaxed, I really began to enjoy my high. Instead of feeling afraid of people I felt incredibly calm and unified with everyone around me. I was riding the vibe.

This is not the only time I have experienced something like this from smoking weed. In fact, I used to smoke weed quite a bit when I was at school, as a way of chilling with my buddies and for a couple of years I never once had a bad high. But soon after I left school and began to feel less certain of myself and my purpose, (a bit of an identity crisis heheh) my weed smoking experiences changed dramatically. Symptoms included severe paranoia, psychosis, cotton mouth (ew), convulsions, blackouts, panic attacks etc. I was no longer comfortable and content with the moment. I think at this point I was feeling very depressed in my life and extremely anxious in social situations. So much so that I couldn't speak to people - and often, even when i wanted to speak i had problems making my voice audible. I stopped smoking weed for ages and began drinking heavily. I soon became dependant upon alcohol in any social situation. My heavy drinking then lead to a period of promiscuity and a couple of destructive romantic relationships, not to mention thousands of dollars in car repairs...and the guilt that comes with that kind of irresponsible and dangerous behaviour.

So, going back to the question of WHY? I think its about remaining calm and ignoring the voices of your ego, forgetting about analysis and fear and worry and just trying to enjoy yourself. Because when you're high on weed and your mind is going at an alarming rate you experience a kind of overload - and yeah it probably is too much electrical activity in the brain but its totally something you can control. -I've trained myself to do it now and i've rediscovered the joys of smoking weed. So RELAX. Alert but not alarmed. calm...happy...at peace.

If you want to get that mellow high back, I would definitely recommend quieting your mind as often as you can when you don't smoke. It really does make you a more 'together' person.

These days, I'm back to being myself - free of judgement and labels. I care about others and their feelings but I honestly don't care what they think about me anymore. I don't mean to sound preachy or pretentiously 'new-age' but take my advice and strip away the bullshit in your life. focus on positivity. you'll be happier for it. and yes, i think you can help yourself if you try.

LOVE

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dthizz

experience 1: occured ~10 minutes post-smoking
In a loud crowded resturant that was really humid. it was hard to breathe and i started getting dizzy and lightheaded, seeing stars. passed out and i guess i had a seizure where i was on the ground and was staring straight up at my friend i was with. im not sure if i was twitching or not. I was unbelievable high. Highest i'd been up to that ppoint, obviously.

experience 2: occured ~20 minutes post smoking
I was smoking in a hottub and was in it for a good 40 minutes. Stood up really fast and it was really cold. Headrush, passed out on the tile. Same symptoms.

..i hope :)

---

Hey I just wanted to give my 2 cents here. when I read the above symptoms it sounds EXACTLY like what I went through for years! It actually has nothing to do with Marijuana. Now, Marijuana may be responsible for what triggers your body's response though.

When I was 19, I smoked pot with some friends, and went to the airport to pick up a friend. your scenario number 1 is exactly what happened to me. About 20 minutes after smoking, I felt sweaty, weak, cold, clammy, and really dizzy. I sat down because I recognized that I was about to pass out. I woke up underneath of the table dripping wet. As I climbed out from under the table, my friends were staring at me in disbelief. Here, I had a full blown seizure in the middle of an airport restaurant. I was choking, my whole body went stiff as a board, and then I went limp and sunk under the table. My pants were wet because I lost control of my bladder.

After that I was so convinced that Marijuana did this that I stopped smoking for years. I didn't go to a doctor because I was high, and didn't want to tell anyone that part of the story.

Fast forward to when I was 25, I went to a spa in Arizona. I was in a hot tub, and started to feel very dizzy. When I got out of the tub, I passed out and couldn't stand up straight. Everything went white.

Also around this time I was doing kickboxing, and would work out really vigorously, and end up passing out when I worked out too hard.

Because of the working out, and passing out, it was becoming annoying, so I went to a doctor and was given this whole barrage of tests:

1. EKG
2. Heart Holter
3. Sleep Study
4. MRI
5. And finally... a Tilt table test.

It was the tilt table test that did it. I was strapped to a table, they stood it up slowly, and I stood there for 14 seconds and passed out.

I was diagnosed with Vasovagal Syncope. There is a vagal nerve that runs from your head down your body. My nerve is really hyper sensitive. Smoking pot can trigger my body's response on this nerve, and the body will shut down. Working out too hard, getting overheated, smoking pot and getting too high... etc... can do this to you.

I registered on this board just to share my experiences, I hope someone else learned something today and will go to their doctor. Marijuana does not cause the seizure, it's an underlying pre existing problem. Go to a doctor and learn about it, and you'll learn how to detect the warning signs and stop yourself from hitting the floor! Be safe!:)

first off, let me thank you all for posting your thoughts on this subject and May God Bless You All.

What brings me to this forum today, is just leaving the doctors office for a 'follow up' because I'm trying to be cleared to get back to work after experiencing seizures after being laid off last January('09).

Basically, I'm pissed because the doctors I visit don't seem interested in what I have to tell them about my experience with seizures (both petit & grand mal) and when I ask for a recommendation to visit a Medicinal dispensary, they treat me like some tweaker just looking for an excuse to go get high.

My doctor isn't willing to clear to get back to construction type work for fear of me having a seizure (which I can understand) although I have expressed numerous times, that my seizures have only occurred during the night and morning hours while in bed. She also said it isn't couth of me to be limiting my prescribed medication (topamax) because it alters my sleeping patterns. She said, because of this, the state of California could take away my drivers license.

She asked if I would be willing to take a sleep aid, so to take the full prescribed dose of topamax, and I asked to have the Medicinal recommendation. She said she would have to 'sit on it' before approving that, but then later in the visit, she brings in another doctor who claims that Cannabis 'makes my brain function at a lower level and become more twitchy'

WTF kind of explanation is that? I've been toking for close to 15 years now, and just last year did the seizures start occurring. The main reason I want a recommendation is to treat the pain in my neck / back after having a seizure, and 2, the medication they have me on, to 'control' the seizures f*cks with my appetite, so I enjoy the munchies Cannabis tends to bring after a nice smoke.

Can anyone recommend a doc I can visit here in Ventura that would be willing to hear my story without assuming I just want to 'get high legally'?

Thanks in advance & God Bless Us All,

--aaron

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ages0ne

first off, let me thank you all for posting your thoughts on this subject and May God Bless You All.

What brings me to this forum today, is just leaving the doctors office for a 'follow up' because I'm trying to be cleared to get back to work after experiencing seizures after being laid off last January('09).

Basically, I'm pissed because the doctors I visit don't seem interested in what I have to tell them about my experience with seizures (both petit & grand mal) and when I ask for a recommendation to visit a Medicinal dispensary, they treat me like some tweaker just looking for an excuse to go get high.

My doctor isn't willing to clear to get back to construction type work for fear of me having a seizure (which I can understand) although I have expressed numerous times, that my seizures have only occurred during the night and morning hours while in bed. She also said it isn't couth of me to be limiting my prescribed medication (topamax) because it alters my sleeping patterns. She said, because of this, the state of California could take away my drivers license.

She asked if I would be willing to take a sleep aid, so to take the full prescribed dose of topamax, and I asked to have the Medicinal recommendation. She said she would have to 'sit on it' before approving that, but then later in the visit, she brings in another doctor who claims that Cannabis 'makes my brain function at a lower level and become more twitchy'

WTF kind of explanation is that? I've been toking for close to 15 years now, and just last year did the seizures start occurring. The main reason I want a recommendation is to treat the pain in my neck / back after having a seizure, and 2, the medication they have me on, to 'control' the seizures f*cks with my appetite, so I enjoy the munchies Cannabis tends to bring after a nice smoke.

Can anyone recommend a doc I can visit here in Ventura that would be willing to hear my story without assuming I just want to 'get high legally'?

Thanks in advance & God Bless Us All,

--aaron

---

Look here: http://www.lanorml.org/lanorml_clinics_mds.html

I have complex seizures from food, not epilepsy...weirdest damn thing...soy drops me like a fly that just got swatted out the air...splat.:wtf:

Dairy, just wrecks my equal Librium and vision then I get the tremors.:wtf:

Beef does the same as soy,yet, it also swells up my airways..then I tremor. :wtf:

Eggs make me hurl, then tremor.:wtf:

Now, noise really gets the tremors going hard...so does sativa strains...indica seems to halt the seizures in their tracks...

Neurologist wrote script saying to me cannabis can get his license yanked...yet, has anti-inflammatory effects on seizures.

My allergy dr. wrote me the recommended document(s) since it was immune issuses.

I've experienced those "seizures." They happen immediately after the rush of a big hit. They're kind of fun but not really. You can fall, if you're standing up, and your limbs twitch uncontrollably though your mind is clear. I think it's lack of oxygen to the brain.

Happened to my brother once.. I always wondered and now I feel better :thumbsup:
:joint1:
We were smokin a blunt, and about half way, I happened to look over (You know, checkin the status on the sweet) and he had a blank stare..

At the same time, he started falling forward. I grabbed him under his arms and he was just dead weight, completely out on his feet. Would have done a headbutt with the brick wall.

Walked him upright for two-3 steps and he just started talking mid sentence. Mind must of rebooted and he started sayin he's ok. Needless to say, we found the sweet and put it in the air :thumbsup:

He is a very occasional smoker and I happened to twist a tree branch that night:greenthumb:. Im thinkin it was a lack of oxygen + it was very cold outside.

you guys ever try quiting smoking ,drinking and do a full detox for awhile it may help somtimes your body gets filled up with shit and needs a break.

This happened to me last night, so my friends looked it up and found this thread.

I used to smoke but now I do very rarely. Last night we were standing in the kitchen and it was some really good smoke. I don't like smoking around other people normally, but I felt pretty comfortable (it was just my boyfriend, his brother, and myself). I took maybe 6 hits, then I stopped. We were standing and they were talking and I kept feeling slightly off-kilter, like I couldn't stand up without possibly falling. I would try to inconspicuously brace myself in my stance, but at times would feel like I was already falling over. It's hard to explain that part.

I was thinking about a million things at once, and it felt like my whole body was tingly, head to toe. I wanted to go lay down but I knew I wouldn't be able to make it one step by myself, so I leaned back against the counter for support.

I started to feel like holding myself up was a bad idea, so I leaned back onto my boyfriend's shoulder. My vision was blurry and colourful and my body was still tingly. It felt like I was in outerspace, like my body was feeling all sorts of waves and like I was just floating or something.

I vaguely remember him asking me if I was cold, and I shook my head no, and that was it. I drifted into dreams where I saw crazy things. Like someone else mentioned before, it was like seeing one quick snapshot and feeling a lot of emotion with it. Only it was a lot of snapshots, designs, lights, all really fast, and I felt emotion with all of them.

When I came to, my boyfriend was above me, and his brother right past him (but I was scared because at first I couldn't tell who his brother was). My boyfriend was trying to talk to me and I was still half in dreamland, but I didn't want to leave and go back to the real world. I was so happy in that state on the kitchen floor. I saw things that connected to my past, my future, everything. I could only describe some of what I saw, but it was beautiful. I was a little worried, because it almost felt like I was going into the light for a moment, but it felt ok.

I asked them what happened (feeling pretty embarrassed that I just passed out) and they said that right after I said that I wasn't cold, I had this shocked look on my face and I just went down. My boyfriend tried to grab me but I was falling behind him, and when his brother grabbed my other arm I slipped a little and bumped my head on the floor. I'm not sure how long it went on for.

My boyfriend walked me back to our bedroom and I was shaky and needed water but was having a hard time drinking it. I was getting cramps and decided to try to lay down.

Normally I am very weird about being high around other people. I feel uncomfortable and I'm quiet and awkward. But after this, I was very content. I was high as a kite but I felt ok. Still kindof shaky and scared about what happened, but I put on a movie to take my mind off of it, and I just ate a lot of snacks.

During my black-out and afterward I saw some crazy crazy shit. I didn't know how to describe some of what I saw, but it was intense. A scary thing to have happen, but the things I saw and felt when I was seizing (if that's indeed what happened) were intense. Kindof wish I could have harnessed that a little longer.

Anyway, sorry for the giant post. But that's what happened to me last night. The same thing happened to my step sister a couple of months ago, so I told her to check out this page.