Trying to wrap my head around it (pun intended)

Question

Hey gang, I finally got diagnosed, I've always been a bit of a late bloomer, so I'm not that surprised it took until I was 30, but I do still have a bunch of questions.

First the back story – I'm trying to keep it short though:

It started with weird giggling episodes back in August, babbling something completely out of context and not remembering what I tried to say. I just thought that I was in too much stress so my brain misfired, I was at the beginning of my bachelor thesis, so that made sense. Had a few of those episodes per week, but didn't give it much thought. I was just wired, so no big deal, right? Until Nov. 17th, I handed in the written part of my thesis, went to the bus stop, sat down and half my body was suddenly ice cold and I blacked out. Turns out I tipped over and had my first TC/Grand Mal. I came to when I was already in the ambulance, had a few abrasions in the face and a minor laceration from tipping over, bit my tongue, nothing drastic. Got shipped to the hospital, got an EEG, CT and MRI. Found no tumors, HHs or lesions, found nothing. There have been a few days between the seizure and the scans, might've been the issue. The neurologist said it was very likely to be stress induced and sent me home. The weeks after that the giggling episodes increased until I had almost daily episodes, sometimes twice per day, needless to say that my mental state absolutely tanked. Started panicking, went to my GP and she took one look at my records and me and told me to get to a neurology practice ASAP. Took longer than it needed, but I finally got an appointment. I told the neuro EVERYTHING, even that I'm diagnosed with ADHD, she hooked me up to another EEG and found nothing, again. Kinda frustrating, but, you know, when two different doctors tell you you're supposedly fine, you really hope it's true. Had to deal with the giggling fits on my own, my partner was worrying with me, at least. Until 3 weeks ago. Had another TC/Grand Mal at dinner. My partner had to put me on the ground through my tonic phase, called an ambulance and I was shipped to a different hospital. Apparently I talked to the paramedics in my second language, but overall, my post-ictal was even longer and deeply set than the last time. Told the neuro at the hospital EVERYTHING again, fearing that nothing would come from it again, but he didn't even stutter when he said that I'm defo an epileptic. Now I'm on 1-0-1 1000mg Levetiracetam and haven't had a TC/Grand Mal since, but still get those giggling fits now and again.

My question: Would it be wrong to think that the giggles are some variation of gelastic seizures? I don't have an official diagnosis on that part of the whole ordeal, but that seems to be the term that fits the best. I'm just really stumped, because I can't find that much info on GS in adults that don't involve some kind of brain injury, tumor or cyst. Should I dive deeper, or should I trust that getting my Doc to up my dose might nip the giggles in the bud?

Tl;dr: Newly diagnosed epileptic with the giggles in his 30s, no brain injuries, what should I do?

Posted Mar 10, 2026, 11:20 AM UTC

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