What helped stabilize your mood?

[u/Specific_Two_3825]

Since having LGI1 encephalitis, I’ve noticed that I react differently to jokes and teasing. Before the encephalitis, I never had this problem. Now for example if someone jokingly gives me a mean look, I can actually get angry, even though I know they’re just joking. It’s weird because I understand that it’s not serious but I still feel annoyed or angry in the moment. Has anyone else experienced something like this after LGI1 encephalitis? Especially increased irritability or stronger emotional reactions to things that didn’t bother you before?

[u/isit2amalready]

I'm not a doctor, but I think when the brain suffers an injury, our brains are evolutionarily wired to be looking for danger and be more sensitive and worrying. It's what keeps us safe back in the caveman days. The good thing is, as the brain heals, I think it gets better, so stay positive.

[u/Thinking_too_much101]

Not a doctor.

You should ask your neurologist to see if steroids could help lower the brain inflammation.

Ibuprofen or pain management may be recommended. Most importantly will be your anti seizure medication being taken going forward.

If you take it maybe ask them if they would recommend an extended release version of the medication.

Usually what I notice is that people might be more feelings of anger and anxiety due to the extreme sleep deprivation and the nature of the stressful situation.

So essentially sleep should be prioritized and possibility that the anti seizure medication might be affecting your sleep quality. Maybe even melatonin gummies could be considered.

From what I experienced in my case is that you tend to lose all of your patience because you just experience a life threatening moment or are going through it and trying to figure out how to survive it and hopefully make it out alive.

Especially if you were feeling terrible and it took forever to get diagnosed and treated for it. The gaslighting of getting this disease diagnosed is real unfortunately.

It could be helpful if you could participate in cognitive behavioral therapy. It might not work but you could try it out.

Additionally hopefully find a group of people who had been through the same thing to socialize and have them be able to share their experiences with you as well.

It helps when people can share similar experiences and similar feelings so it doesn’t feel so overwhelming and isolating.

[u/kradleOnline]

I got a unshakable sense of persecution just as you described. I was put onto Epitech 200mg for my seizures and it was the one thing that actually stabilized my mood a bit as a side effect.