Hi all,

New to this board and need help. My 11 year old son has ADHD and is
taking Strattera and Concerta. He has big mood swings, mostly anger,
and he spaces out sometimes and comes back with a jolt. So the
psychiatrist sent him to get an EEG. He's never had a full-blown
seizure before.

He was okay, kind of fidgety (normal) until the strobes came on. He
doesn't remember anything past the really slow ones. As they got
faster, it got worse. I couldn't see his face - the EEG monitor was
blocking it. He got really anxious, started moving his hands around
and his feet jerked. I stood up to look at him.

When the strobe got really fast, he knew it was coming and screamed
over and over for them to turn the lights off. They turned the strobe
off, but he seized for almost five minutes, all limbs, eyes open,
stopped breathing once, clawed at his face. It was awful. How do
parents live through this?

He slept for about a half hour before I could wake him up and he was
halfway normal, though exhaused. I loaded him up in the car and took
him home. He's still asleep.

I spoke to the neurologist who is supposed to read the EEG. She
reassured me that although she's never personally seen it,
strobe-induced seizures happen all the time.

My son complains about a street lined with tall eucalyptus trees that
his bus goes down to get to school. He has to cover his eyes when it's
sunny because the flickering lights give him a headache.

Somebody please reassure me. Make me feel better. I keep seeing him
screaming and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Thanks,

Amy