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I’m dubious about the diagnosis. If sustained overthinking could regularly cause seizures, I think it’d be ubiquitous in competitive chess players.

Based on the authors description it sounds much more due to lack of sleep and stress.



I also believe it was a multitude of factors. Creative thinking being a catalyst just doesn’t add up. I can’t speak for the physiology of others so it may very well just be that for him, but it’s be nice to get more details on what the doctors diagnosed.


I agree it's probably not creative thinking, but I also kind of doubt the doctors identified specific triggers unless he did an extended in-patient monitoring stay. One of my friends, who in daily life on meds would have 1 or 2 major seizures a month, stayed in an epilepsy unit for 6 weeks with not even a focal seizure detected. He had had epileptic seizures detected in the past but was undergoing monitoring to evaluate for other treatment options/possible surgery. They took him off of meds obviously, and as the stay extended they started sleep depriving him, giving him caffeine, giving him booze, etc. Trying to identify what might actually trigger them. They now think it was mainly work stress, since he was on medical leave from work during the stay.




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