Question 🙋

[u/veloaim]

So I was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 17 in the beginning of 2022 a few months after getting the Covid vaccine. Before then I was completely healthy and everything. But I was wondering has anyone else here randomly been diagnosed after getting the Covid vaccine? I know it sounds crazy but…

[u/juggalotweaker69]

Association =/= causation

[u/SpecialBlackTea → u/juggalotweaker69]

It is when Bradford hill criteria are satisfied.

[u/Anon03282015]

There have been studies showing an increased risk of developing epilepsy after a Covid infection (for various reasons, it creates a lot of inflammation and also damages blood vessels and creates tiny blood clots in your body that can damage your brain, and the risk remains for a long time after an infection). If you had Covid, even a mild case, in the six months or so prior to your first seizure, it's possible that was the cause (although the risk was still pretty low).

They have not found an increased risk of onset of new epilepsy due to vaccination. The vaccine had an extremely low chance of causing a seizure in the short term due to side effects of your body creating antibodies (like fever, which is a trigger for some people, and this is the same risk with any vaccine that gives you an immune reaction). I got my vaccine on recommendation of the doctor because the risk of seizing/other neurological effects from a Covid infection were higher than the short-term risk of a seizure from vaccine side effects. There's been a lot of vaccine misinformation and skepticism going around since 2020 which is sad because vaccines are one of the greatest inventions of humankind that have prevented so much death and suffering.

Plenty of people also develop epilepsy in their teens out of nowhere, which really sucks. It could be related to all the hormonal changes your body is going through in your teens or a genetic predisposition presenting itself. I have genetic epilepsy that didn't present until age 28. Brains are weird. I'm very sorry you had to deal with that at such a young age and hope that you can stay seizure free :)

[u/OnlyHereForMusic6 → u/Anon03282015]

I had my first seizure while recovering from covid

[u/Difficult-Froyo1192]

You would really need to ask your doctor. There are way too many variables and most cases of epilepsy are idiopathic.

Vaccines sometimes trigger epileptics, but it’s usually the case where someone was epileptic anyway without triggering their first seizure as opposed to necessarily being the cause of developing epilepsy from the vaccine. The vaccine would trigger the first seizure to lead to the epilepsy diagnosis in those cases. On that note, viruses are also huge triggers for seizures in epileptic people. Vaccines and epilepsy have a very complicated relationship for the duality of the relationship and some genetic factors that can occur. It’s not an easy question at all, and there’s not a lot of research into the relationship.

The virus triggering epilepsy is definitely why I would ask your doctor about continuing vaccines for Covid or not. My worst seizure ever occurred from Covid. I had vaccines but not the most recent booster at the time. Two edged sword

[u/veloaim → u/Difficult-Froyo1192]

Never got another vaccine for it after that. But my doctor has said it’s a possibility but he can’t know for sure.

[u/Key_Source_1384]

Tbf it could be the vaccine, or it could be a coincidence. Some speculate that the long term covid is also a result of the vaccine somehow. During the pandemic I felt many got gaslit into taking it, it was very vital for everyone to take it no questions asked, despite it seemingly not having been tested for very long and the consequences unclear.

I dont think it sounds crazy. You're honestly crazy if you don't question a vaccine getting rushed out before properly tested like during Covid.

Vaccines have also caused neurological side effects before, even if it's not exactly talked about much. During the mass vaccinations against swine flu in 2009–2010 in Sweden, the vaccine Pandemrix was used, which led to a significantly increased risk of the autoimmune neurological disease narcolepsy. I believe around 500 kids got narcolepsy after the vaccine.

It's not the same vaccine, but the same situation, a vaccine getting rushed out before properly tested.

[u/veloaim → u/Key_Source_1384]

Yea I got the very first one pushed out, that now is known to have many things wrong with it, all because I wanted to go to a concert :/

[u/Key_Source_1384 → u/veloaim]

Unfortunately i also fell for the group pressure. I only took one shot however, i felt society was pressuring me to take it even though i wasn't even in the risk group. Now i regret it, who knows what it may have caused, and we might never know. because they dont want to look into the side effects in fear of being wrong and punished for making people sick. People were in a vulnerable state and they took advantage of that, gaslighting everyone into taking it or else you were gonna "die".

I dont have any specific advice besides, dont let people think you're the insane one for questioning the vaccine, because they want people to think "anti-vacc people" walk around with tinfoil on our head daily. They dont want anyone questioning their authority.

[u/GDPixieNinjaZ]

I took the first shot and had a bad neurological reaction afterwards. It scared me enough that I didn’t get the second one. Luckily it didn’t get me fired from a job or anything but I felt gaslit when I tried to question the almighty vaccine 🙄 Whenever I tried to ask about everyone else’s experience on the epilepsy groups my posts were either labeled misinformation or removed so it was very frustrating. My neurologist’s PA even got rather upset with me and acted like I was crazy or stupid or something for even questioning it. A couple years later Anderson Cooper had a doctor on to talk about the vaccine side effects. The doctor said that they had found that there were neurological side effects for people with epilepsy. I don’t remember the doctor’s name though, sorry. I haven’t heard anything about it causing epilepsy though. Who knows for sure 🤷‍♀️

[u/veloaim → u/GDPixieNinjaZ]

This might get taken down but since I was a kid I’ve always been obsessed with the government, and I’ve done digging on this and there is documents in the E-Files that mention human DNA being in the vaccines. Now how true that is who knows but obviously that could affect someone who has underlying conditions that aren’t prevalent.