People looking like ants? Huh?

[lovelyboy]

I was watching a film with my 8 yr old who has AS.....during the film one of the scenes showed the guy looking at the croud around him....becoming further and further from him...blurring...making sounds without him hearing (you know like they show when some one is going to faint)...he said that he often feels like that.

He tried to explain it by saying if sometimes he looks at people they become smaller and smaller, even the kids on the playground becomes smaller and he looks like a giant....he says they become as small as ants! I was so surprised! I asked him if this doesn't make him scared, he says no because he is use to it...was like this since he was born?He went on telling me that when this happens, it's very difficult to look at people and that they then sometimes waves their hand infront of his face and say he must 'snap out of it'!Or call him to get his attention again....He says that when he shakes his head or blink a few times...they grow into the normal shape again.

But if it was like this since he was born, how does he know this is not like it's suppose to be? He says he doesn't think the problem is in his eyes, but in the way his brain interperate it....remarcable!

This makes me sad to think that we might be knowing so little of how our kids see and experience the world around them and then we still get upset if they struggle to cope!!!!

I don't know what he is trying to explain to me? Could this be anxiety causing this?

 

[keista]

Have you had him checked for seizures? Sounds like that's what he's describing.

 

[lovelyboy]

You know what...I thought he had seizures when he was toddler...did an EEG...all normal. I mentioned it again with the psychiatrist a few months ago, but she didn't really reacted to it.....

 

[TerryJ2]

Lovelyboy, that's a great description. I'd keep asking the docs until you find one who can tie it into something.
The only time I've ever felt like that is when I have the flu. I can't imagine living like that!

 

[buddy]

He tried to explain it by saying if sometimes he looks at people they become smaller and smaller, even the kids on the playground becomes smaller and he looks like a giant....he says they become as small as ants! I was so surprised! I asked him if this doesn't make him scared, he says no because he is use to it...was like this since he was born?He went on telling me that when this happens, it's very difficult to look at people and that they then sometimes waves their hand infront of his face and say he must 'snap out of it'!Or call him to get his attention again....He says that when he shakes his head or blink a few times...they grow into the normal shape again.

I will share our journey and if it helps....????

my difficult child started saying in the car one day, Mom, things look fake. He was in third grade. I tried to ask what that meant and he said things just change and dont look real. (turns out even adults can't really explain this, I have a neighbor who says it is like being in a movie). After a while of it continuing I took him to our doctor. He said it is probably depersonalization and derealization. He was treated with Prozac but never got better. I suspected seizures (he has a brain injury and had lots of seizures in the past but the generalized and partial complex seizures had stopped) So, our neuro was on a break (caring for her difficult child) and our pediatrician put him in a nationally known seizure assessment program We stayed for three days and they found nothing. so more anxiety work and prozac continued. I googled to see if our doctor had started practicing again. SHE DID! We went to her new office (which is part of a Children's Specialty Center and hospital--by they way they do evaluations including neuropsychs, help with housing during it , my mom used to coordinate that so if anyone is interested feel free to pm me and I will give the specifics).

She remembered my son (it had been three years) and by this time he said, what do I have to do ...DIE to get rid of this? She said that it was not an option for him to suffer with this and she really thought he was having seizures. She got her epilepsy specialist friend (head of dept) to admit him and another study was done. His injury is on the rt (but it was large so had overall impact) so they said those kinds of symptoms are usually associated with left sided seizures. They put the leads on and for one day, nothing The next day she said they were adding temporal lobe leads. She said they stopped doing those extra ones like 15 years ago because they never showed anything. But it was too suspicious. Within a half hour our room started filling up. People in and out. This kid was having seizures on and off all day and all night. They start on the right and go to the left temporal lobes only. It was not anxiety.

He had also suffered terrible fatigue at times and awful headaches. Since starting Lyrica, these symtoms are rare.

They are diagnosis as simple seizures because he does not lose consciousness, he knows it is NOT really happening, just looks "fake". For some people a similar thing can happen as an aura, which often leads to another kind of seizure like partial complex or generalized. Simple seizures are similar but diagnostically different.

Ok, that's our story and we're sticking to it! A normal eeg means nothing. They have to catch it for the first thing, and they have to have the right leads on. Almost every site for seizures you see they will say they had tons of normal eegs and were misdiagnosed for years. eegs are hit and miss. One option is to do a home eeg where they wear the leads for several days and when events happen you push a little button and document time and day in a journal. similar to inpatient tests but allows them to go about life and any environmental triggers will be the same.

so simple answer is, there are legitimate causes for this whether due to anxiety or other mental health issue as well as a seizure possibility. It does not mean he is losing touch with reality because he can clearly tell you things look different from how they really are.

My best to you...I will be happy to share specific info thru pm if you are interested.

 

[lovelyboy]

Thanx all....Buddy this makes sence!
My son had said in the past that sometimes things look strange...like he is watching a movie! He says it's not anxiety....most propably because he isn't anxious when it happens?
We are seing the psychiatrist on Monday again....I'm going to push a bit harder.....I often thought he had temperal lobe epilepcy.
He does get epigastric auras and terrible headaches...will sometimes get a meltdown , terrible crying and then sleepy...But didn't have this sinse they doubled his antidepressants...Just the weird ant thing!

 

[TerryJ2]

Good info, Buddy. So sorry you had to go through that but so glad you pursued it. You GO, Warrior Mom!

Lovelyboy, that's interesting that he gets auras and headaches. Could be migraine or could be seizures. Leave no stone unturned.

 

[BusynMember]

So now that he is treated for seizures does he still feel like everything is like in a dream or unreal?

Because I had derealization and depersonaliztion too and it had nothing to do with seizures. They are disorders of their own and quite scary, I might add. Until recently, they had no idea how to treat it. Now they use dialectal behavioral therapy. Although I don't have it anymore, I think DBT would be GREAT for depersonalization.

If your son feels like things aren't real at times, it could be seizures. If it is ALL THE TIME, then it is likely derealizatioin/depersonalization and he would need extra treatment. I used to think that killing myself was the only way out of it...so it can be quite serious. Certain medications can help. I only felt this way when EXTREMELY depressed. I was told it often goes with depression. But it's even worse than depression.

 

[ready2run]

i sometimes feel like everything is fake too, like the world seems 2 dimensional to me and i'm not really a part of it. my doctor said that is because i get 'silent' migrains, so i get the other symptoms other than the pain most of the time and then after a day or two if it doesn't go away then the pain starts.

 

[buddy]

Thanx all....Buddy this makes sence!
My son had said in the past that sometimes things look strange...like he is watching a movie! He says it's not anxiety....most propably because he isn't anxious when it happens?
We are seing the psychiatrist on Monday again....I'm going to push a bit harder.....I often thought he had temperal lobe epilepcy.
He does get epigastric auras and terrible headaches...will sometimes get a meltdown , terrible crying and then sleepy...But didn't have this sinse they doubled his antidepressants...Just the weird ant thing!

do you have to go thru the psychiatrist? Does your insurance allow you to go to a neurologist--specifically an epileptologist. Can your pediatrician refer you if the psychiatrist wont? We use a team approach...a pediatrician, a neurologist and a psychiatrist.

 

[buddy]

So now that he is treated for seizures does he still feel like everything is like in a dream or unreal?

Very rarely and he usually has behavior issues that day then yawns and then gets a headache. There was a horrible time with the pharmacy/insurance one time and we only got part of the doses and so he had less of a dose for half of a day. He went right back to feeling fake and could not do anything but be crabby in school and uncooperative. Once it was back up he did ok with that again. He did have it every day and for much of the day. But that went along with what they saw on the eeg since they said he was having the seizures all day and night. They said it was weird that he actually woke up after the ones at night then went right back to sleep. Yeah I can understand thinking you want to die because he felt that way. It really had increased and he was very upset.

 

[HaoZi]

Oh dang it... his symptoms sound so familiar, but I can't recall where I read something about that.