Doctors dismissed mum's panic attacks before life-changing diagnosis

Image: Madeleine Dippnall/SWNS)

A young mum whose panic attacks were dismissed by doctors as a mental illness later discovered she was actually suffering from epilepsy.

Madeleine Dippnall, 29, was told by doctors her panic attacks were caused by depression and PTSD which she put down to the end of a traumatic relationship. However after suffering a seizure out of the blue, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. Since being diagnosed, she's been taking lamotrigine, a medicine to help with her condition and said her depression has "literally washed away".

Madeleine was first diagnosed aged 22 with a variety of mental health problems including anorexia - during which her weight plunged less than six stone. She first started suffering panic attacks involving "hysterical crying" after leaving a troubled relationship and moving in with her parents in Cornwall.

Doctors diagnosed her with depression, anxiety, PTSD and anorexia, but she said the medication she was given only helped with a fraction of the issues she was facing. But six years later after waking up on the bathroom floor following a seizure in her sleep, her GP diagnosed her with epilepsy.

The graphic designer said: "I felt relief that I wasn't crazy. Now I know what's going on." She said she's "feeling good" after taking medication and building a graphic design business. Madeleine, then living in an affluent part of North West London, was in a "traumatic" relationship in her 20s.

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Aged 22, she went to visit her parents for a weekend to catch some respite. She became aware that the relationship wasn't healthy and she moved with her parents to Cornwall. "I needed to be by the sea," she said. "We had to get away. It was horrible".

But despite leaving the relationship, Madeleine suffered from constant panic attacks - especially when she was around a group of people. She said: "You have the adrenaline equivalent to being on a roller-coaster. Everything sweats. I'd have to go to the toilet to be sick.

"I'd be hysterically crying. You have this fear of God in you that something awful is going to happen. My mum used to put my head under a cold water sink. Sometimes I'd get catatonic. I couldn't move. I'd go within myself. But if you were looking at me you wouldn't really know what was going on."

She went to a psychiatrist who diagnosed her with PTSD, anxiety, depression and anorexia when she was 22. But the anorexia specialist she went to see separately told her she didn't have an eating disorder. She was given anti-sickness medication, sleeping pills and appetite-inducing medication, but this only helped with "20%" of the issues that were going on.

"It was a bit frustrating", she said. Madeleine was on the medication for about three years but seeing few signs of improvement. One night in April 2023, she woke up with the insides of her mouth bleeding. She had had a seizure.

Madeleine said: "My body was cramping all over. I had bitten the insides of my mouth. I had a nocturnal seizure, a tonic clonic [where the muscles twitch and start jerking]. The next night I woke up on the bathroom floor. I said to Chris, my husband, oh my God I think I've had a seizure.

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"I went to the GP and he put through an urgent referral. I was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. I felt relieved that I wasn't crazy. I was angry at all these authoritative people who told me I had mental health problems. If this went untreated I could have really had issues.

"My dad had an instinct all along. He said, 'those are not normal panic attacks that you're having'. I had a seizure when I was about 19 but it wasn't investigated properly because of the way I reacted to the tests. I felt like something was going on and there was something wrong with me. I felt like no one was listening to me."

Since her diagnosis, she's been able to enjoy her life again with her step-children, two-year-old son, Bo, and Chris, 35, who works as a carpenter. She's currently not allowed to drive because of the diagnosis, which is inconvenient for Madeleine because driving is such a "big thing around here".

Madeleine said she's building up a new graphic design business from her off-grid cabin where she lives. She said: "I've made something positive out of this and the business which is doing really well. Since being on the epilepsy medication I haven't had a single episode and my depression has literally washed away. My husband says the difference is like night and day."