Modern medicine is failing me (e/n)

[ArthurWilborn]

Ever since I was a child, I've experience what I call "missing time events". People and objects will suddenly rearrange themselves in my perception. For example, while riding an elevator I would witness the door close without having seen it open, or while traveling someplace I would suddenly realize I was in a place well away from the route I had intended to take without perceiving the travel along the intervening distance. These events happened frequently in my child, and recently have been happening frequently again. I had an EEG when I was 6 and another this year to check for seizures; both were negative.

My doctor told me that since I had experienced such events over such a long time I shouldn't worry about them, even though I feel I have a legitimate concern. From here, I can certainly understand what alternative medicine advocates feel; I have no idea how to proceed.If I weren't a skeptic I could probably chug some herbs and get a placebo effect.

 

[Prolescum]

You have my sympathies, Arthur.

 

[Case]

The answer is pretty simple. I experience the same thing (and probably everyone else, too, but they don't notice) when I am absorbed in thought - or 100% focused on something. I will not notice anything that takes place during that period, but if I have walked a distance, I am usually short of breath afterwards and I have an elevated pulse, indicating that my body moved while I was 'absent-minded'.

Now if you don't want that to happen again, you should train your perception. If you train yourself to feel every step you make, every breath you take, every single day,... this phenomenon will go away. My mother suggested I take up meditation when I told her about this curious experience for the first time. I think it's pretty funny, so I don't care that I occasionally miss out on 2 minutes of nothing special. If it's bothering you,... try to 'think on your feet' instead of 'in your head'. Good luck.

 

[kenandkids]

I can certainly relate... but then again I'm a person that can taste the concept of space and see colours in math equations. It is frustrating when doctors seem to quit, and I certainly hope that you find a cause or a behaviour that you can use to minimise the effect. I pretty much just accept when these things happen and people close to me know to fill me in on current situations when I get that confused "where am I" look.

At least the doctor didn't tell you to "come back when you've figured out what's wrong." I was having periods of pronounced light-headedness/fainting and a doctor literally told me that... I naturally began to describe just how stupid he was to waste so much money on a supposed education if he just intended to have his patients do all of the work and diagnosing...

 

[Case]

Oh and I don't know what the 'EEG at age 6' is supposed to mean, because as far as I know, there is no diagnostic application of EEG (except, maybe, to take a closer look at sleep disorders).

 

[ArthurWilborn]

Oh and I don't know what the 'EEG at age 6' is supposed to mean, because as far as I know, there is no diagnostic application of EEG (except, maybe, to take a closer look at sleep disorders).

First link on google for eeg diagnose seizures:

"Apart from the patient history and the neurological exam, the EEG (electroencephalograph) is the most influential tool in the diagnosis of seizures"
http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/about/diagnosis/eeg.cfm

 

[Case]

No, I mean serious diagnostic assessment.

Yes, you would be able to see a shitload of action going on if you're recording someone's EEG while they are having a seizure, but it is pretty useless as a diagnostic tool due to several issues related to what one might call inherent flaws of the recording method. I won't go into the gory detailsl of why what's described on the site is a methodological nightmare (not to say bs); suffice it to say that the *best* you could do, under ideal recording circumstances (e.g. no 24hr recording and certainly not at home) is see the correlates of an epileptic seizure appear, maybe a few minutes before the shit hits the fan. That's not what a diagnostic tool is.

 

[Welshidiot]

@ Case

People with some types of epilepsy have unusual electrical activity in their brain all the time, even when they're not having a seizure. When they have an EEG test, the results can show certain brainwave patterns that doctors recognise. This information is very helpful for doctors when they are making a diagnosis. An example of this is children who have typical absence seizures.

Source: http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/diagnosis/eeg-electroencephalogram

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

It does happen sometimes to me after being focused on something to all of sudenth finding myself someplace else that I intended to be but I couldn't recall the process of getting there (it also happens to other tasks). I have a good autopilot and I am sure I was safe, it just so happens that I didn't registered the process consciously. Not sure if it is anything similar in your case, blackouts are normal sometimes, but if they occurto often and is preventing you from taking a normal life then you should go see your doctor.