Thanks Kat, AJane & Sarah,
I have a tendency to laugh at bad news like when my grandfather passed away. It was awkward because we were sat in the waiting room and had said our goodbyes but waiting for the doc to come and tell us he had passed so when the doc told us I started laughing. My parents went mad at me but the doc said to not tell me off because I was having a hysterical reaction. So this would continue to happen a lot in my life but it was different to what I'm experiencing now because now the laughing comes out of nowhere if you know what I mean.
I think I'm toughening up a bit as my mum has frontotemperal dementia and she can do some pretty strange things which has made me realise that you just cannot control everything in life. I haven't had a problem for a couple of days now and it seemed to be when I was sleep deprived so I'm hoping it's not going to be a common occurrence. I see my Neuro in a few weeks so I will discuss this with him.
Thanks everyone for all of your input and helpful information. I will be doing some research now and will look at the link AuntJane1735.
Take care,
Karry.
I don't have that problem, but your neuro can help you with it! My problem is I can't hush, I turn into "chatty cathy" at a moments notice!! Guess I should ask him about it. I stopped in a new cross stitch store a week ago and half an hour later, I was still CC and she looked like she really wanted me to leave!
Everyone else here has done good job filling you in on this really embarrassing and too often socially unacceptable symptom, karryon55, so I won't go on about that. Now the question becomes what to do about it. Here's my take on things:
There are two courses of action you really must take, and do so immediately, only because PBA has the potential to be emotionally painful, even devastating.
The first one is to EDUCATE!
Search every authoritative reference you can find for pseudobulbar affect (PBA) or emotional incontinence. Here's one, from the National MS Society: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Symptoms-Diagnosis/MS-Symptoms/Emotional-Changes
You are the first person who needs education. You must know, for absolute sure, that you are no more responsible for this symptom of MS than you are for your tingling toes or the way your hand shakes. You need to know that this is not your fault. We say that about bladder incontinence, and bowel incontinence, including passing gas. It can take time before you get over embarrassment that it, whatever it is, happened again. I realized long ago that I was still apologizing for doing things which are simply not under my control. When you can easily accept that it happened again and go on with what you and the others were doing, you educate, both by word and example each time, assuring others that it was unrelated to the circumstances.
I cannot be sure, of course, but it seems that once I took things in stride, they may have decreased in intensity and frequency. When everyone with me does that, or helps cover for me in more broad, open social settings, I think there maybe just less stress and pressure on my brain to react to whatever just happened.
The second thing to do is MEDICATE.
There are several which really can help; even better, some do double duty, helping with other symptoms, too. There's a good description in the link above.
Experience this several times and its totally uncontrollable and sometimes not appropriate. I laughed at a funeral one time for like 20min had to go outside in my car and try ro regain composure. And it could be the stupidist things that set it off and can last for a hr or so tears, spitting out a drink etc been there done that.
my neuro said its pba and there is treatment but hasn't been very affective.
Kat
Thanks everyone that really helps to hear that I'm not on my own.
Corrie, It's interesting that you felt it was when you were overtired or in a relapse because this all started when I missed several nights sleep. I have had tears running down my face as well and it's just not like I come with an off switch. I have been pretty embarrassed about the uncontrollable laughing fits but I feel reassured it will taper off and settle down again in time.
It's one of those bazaar symptoms I guess.
Karry.
Hi there! This has happened to me before. A couple of minor instances from being overtired mainly except the one that stands out in my mind.
In hindsight, it was post/during a flare (I was not diagnosed at the time). I remember just having a general conversation on my lunch hour with a couple of colleagues when what seemed to me to be completeley out of left field, I started laughing and could not stop no matter how hard I tried.
I am pretty sure the episode lasted approximately 10 minutes. It would seem to slow down and I tried some deep breathing and focusing on a normal (read: not funny) conversation and every word out of my mouth made the laughing start all over again.
I physically left my office and sat in my car by myself where it continued for another 10 minutes and then I just had the occasional giggle for another 10-15 minutes. Like JJ, I had tears streaming down my face like I had heard the world's funniest joke.
It actually scared the crap out of me and is something I dread experiencing again. I made a point of mentioning it at my neuropsych eval and they mentioned the pseudobulbar effect.
Definitely MS related and looking back it was during a period of very high stress and definitely at the tail end of my second relapse if not just shortly after it finished.
It's awful to experience and I only had it that bad once about 2 years ago. I feel for you and hope that it doesn't affect you too much.
Hugs,
Corrie
Hey babe,
Um did you know that it's an MS thing, neurological caused euphoria or laughing is basically the same as non emotive crying, and it has a few different names ie, pseudobulbar effect, emotional incontinence, laughing weeping syndrome, Involuntary Emotional Expression Disorder....
It can be a tricky to tell the difference with the more typical emotional or depressive mental health signs but the major difference is that this is not connected to emotion. You can be uncontrollable laughing or crying and all the normal emotions associated with these expressions are missing. So you might start crying but your really feeling normal and content or you will be laughing out of the blue and without something triggering the emotion of amusement and funny.
hmmmmmm i joke and laugh easily already, but there has been more than one relapse where i was uncontrollably laughing and snorting my head off over nothing and when it happen's which isn't often, it stands out as rather strange even for me. Only once years and years ago, that i experienced tears uncontrollably running down my face and i felt totally normal, i didn't have a clue what was going on, lol i was in a meeting at the time and i blamed it on my contact lenses which btw i've never owned lol i kept talking like i didn't have tears and make up running down my face doh!
Welcome to the world of weird babe :D
cheers.......JJ
I have no experience with this, I'm glad to say, but it definitely can be caused by MS. Look up emotional lability and pseudobulbar effect. There's lots in past posts here, and I'm sure Google will give some relevant info.
Sending hugs,
ess