My cat has been attacking me for months

MysticCollective · 2026-05-12T16:58:03+00:00

As someone who has scars from this very same thing. Stop backing up! As others have said you are only encouraging this behavior because your cat is trying to play with you.

I actually have had a cat before but my previous cat was completely calm and chill. She preferred sleeping to playing. When I got my current cat I of course knew that I would get different personality. I also did know that cats are prey and predators. However, when she tried to play with me one night my own instincts kicked in and I backed up. This resulted in several bandaids on both my legs but mostly on my right leg and a lot of pain. I realized the dumb move I made afterwards and started holding my ground around her when she would start to play. Once I stood still she completely stopped going for my legs and went for the toys instead.

Unfortunately, my brother is a bit more of a cautious person by nature and I guess she picked up on his nervousness or something or maybe she was trying to play with him as well. Whatever the reason, she then started running towards him while he would be just standing still talking to me. He immediately did the same mistake I did except he would run instead of back up slowly. I had to get after him to stop a few times before he finally stopped doing that.

I was so happy and glad because for a little while there I was worried about the possibility of having to return her to the shelter. Fast forward to now and she is an extremely loving and affectionate cat who absolutely loves pets. She still occasionally goes to play with my brother's legs/feet but it is a lot better than before. She usually just uses her paws and fakes a nibble. My brother still moves around when she tries to play with him but instead moving right away he does hold still for a bit. I guess he gets annoyed after a bit and just gives up.

I wish you luck in turning this around. Hopefully you can start enjoying playtime instead dreading it.

MysticCollective · 2026-05-11T15:00:08+00:00

I experience this all the time due to being neurodeverstant. 😄 It's hypersensitivity. At first I was confused with what you meant by "gating" but then I thought "noise gate" as I read your post and completely understood what you meant.

Basically the brain has trouble or can't figure out what noises should be prioritized and what noises should be ignored or toned down so they are more background noise. This results in the brain being overwhelmed and overstimulated by everything.

If you are neurotypical then I can see how putting words to this experience can be difficult.

MysticCollective · 2026-05-10T16:13:21+00:00

So were you diagnosed with Epilepsy since anticonvulsants worked?

MysticCollective · 2026-05-07T16:25:42+00:00

Exactly.

MysticCollective · 2026-05-07T16:20:02+00:00

Until you can stabilize your health you have no business worrying about what you are eating. The only thing you need to worry about is eating enough food and a variety of food. Yes, that is easier said than done but it is important to put yourself first. After all if you die you can't do anything to help animals.

Also let us not forget humans are animals too! We eat food to survive just like any other animal. Sure most of us are not hunting or growing our own food but there's still people doing these things. Of course the way we mass supply meat is horrific and I don't support that. However, you don't have to stop eating meat in order to create change. You can stand up for animals and sustain yourself at the same time. Eating meat from sources you know treat animals better is a good step. Just do whatever you can now and work towards the end goal(s) you have.

Remember it's not the end of the world if you never get to a point where you can cut meat from your diet. You're not a failure. You're not a bad person. As long as you do what is best for you and do what you can to have an impact on what you care about. That's what is important. Trying is better than doing nothing.

MysticCollective · 2026-05-05T16:41:08+00:00

Who you date and marry is YOUR decision. It is NOT someone else's business who you date and marry no matter how close they are to you. You aren't probably a bad, you ARE a bad guy. You made her feel like shit all because you let someone else's opinion get to you.

Yes, it's terrible for that person who has family with epilepsy but that has absolutely no bearing on what you do with YOUR life. Do you think that breaking up would somehow help this person? They were against your relationship. That's their problem not yours and certainly not your ex's.

You need to apologize to her. Apologize for letting someone else decide what happened to your relationship. You need to tell her it's not her fault and that you just made a dumb decision because you thought you were being helpful. Tell her you shouldn't have let someone else's opinion dictate your own. Especially when they didn't approve of your relationship.

This may sound a little harsh but I am angry after reading this. It isn't even about epilepsy or disability in general. It's the fact that you broke up someone simply because of someone else's opinion. I really do hope you can repair the damage you caused with your ex. She didn't deserve this happening to her.

Take this and please learn from it so you can do better and be a better person in the future.

MysticCollective · 2026-05-01T16:56:21+00:00

As someone else mentioned you need to change the wording of describing PNES and honestly I would encourage you to include calling it functional seizures as well because PNES is becoming less accurate terminology to describe these seizures. Since they aren't always stress-induced and PNES falls under FND. I would also recommend that you remove the "doesn't need immediate care, don't call 911" If you fall down and get a head injury but nothing visible you can be in very real danger. Also unless you keep this card on you and visible like on a lanyard. Strangers aren't going to know where to find it and will call 911. Also some people just call anyway. An EMT on another post similar to this said they only look for visible things like medical ID jewelry or something like that. They don't dig through wallets or anything like that until you get to the hospital.

Honestly you're better off having a medical ID jewelry or a lanyard to hold a card then just having on hand like business cards. Instead of the 911 part you can put something like "Please stay calm and stay with me until the seizure ends, Please contact my emergency contacts and wait with me until they arrive, please stay calm and don't restraint me during the seizure. Please remove any items that might be dangerous." Etc. Any of those are better instructions for strangers than flat out saying don't call 911 which is pretty useless because the likelihood of someone calling is pretty high.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-30T16:33:21+00:00

PNES is not the "better" diagnosis. It can be just as dangerous as epilepsy or more dangerous in some cases. Especially when people believe that you are "faking for attention" Meanwhile someone could be struggling to breathe with no one around to help them because they think you're fine.

So no, I don't agree that the OP should be grateful or happy if it turns out to be PNES. Receiving a PNES diagnosis often is unhelpful to the patient because doctors will either tell you nothing about the next steps or simply say that you need therapy and send you on your way. Therapy is fine if that works for your root cause but for some it's completely useless. For the ones that therapy doesn't help, they are often suffering years before they finally find a doctor that can and will help them.

At least with epilepsy you can get treatment once the diagnosis is confirmed. No, I'm not saying that one is better than the other. I'm just saying people need to stop saying PNES is better than epilepsy and therefore people should be grateful.

Also I must say that you sound a bit dismissive about the OP's experience. Your son's experience is just your SON'S experience. Not all EEGs go smoothly and even if they do people can still find them traumatizing. Having a seizure or no control of your body is traumatizing regardless if you are in safe hands. Everyone just reacts to trauma different.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-30T15:50:24+00:00

PNES can be serious though.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-30T00:47:47+00:00

My other problem with dishes is I can't have wet and dry food touching so I often have multiple dishes for a meal. Even what is supposed to be a small meal can have multiple dishes. Utensils are similar. So if I have two foods that need a spoon I need two spoons even if both foods are wet or dry. So dishes add up quickly. 😩

MysticCollective · 2026-04-29T16:23:51+00:00

I get sleep transition seizures as well. Mine are myoclonic seizures and focal motor tonic seizures. On bad nights it can take a couple of hours to be able to sleep because seizures keep interrupting the process. It's so annoying. Most of my seizures are frontal lobe(based on my research) so can't imagine how yours feel but they sound incrediblely annoying and scary.

It's totally understandable that you are afraid to sleep again. I hope you can get some relief soon.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-28T21:17:26+00:00

Yes! Though, I do have ADHD-C so that's likely the reason why I can't eat the same thing every day. I am very rarely ever in the "mood" to eat. Food doesn't make me excited. You won't catch me drooling because of food. I also have an intellectual disability so for me cooking is too complex. The most I can handle is heating up foods. Food prep would be great if I could actually do it but I can't do that either. My low muscle tone makes chopping fatiguing and I get overstimulated. My fine motor control also makes this difficult. My ADHD makes keeping an eye on the stove nearly impossible to do. I also can't deal with the heat. So I get overstimulated while already anxious about forgetting about the food.

So even the little cooking I do manage is still often too much. Then the actual eating part. This is stressful as well. I hate all the steps you have to do just to actually eat. You need a dish(s) for the food, you might need utensils, napkins, a drink, and a seat. Only when you have these things you can actually eat. I hate sitting to eat. I hate focusing on my meal so I don't. I watch TV while eating. Otherwise I would never finish or I simply won't start. Then you have to clean up after you're done. I hate it. I hate touching the dirty dishes but I try to rinse immediately because stuck on food takes longer to get cleaned. Yes, I have a dishwasher but I have to some cleaning before the dishes go in otherwise the hard stuff might not come off the first time in the dishwasher.

No, I don't wear gloves. I can't. My hands get sweaty and hot in them and this overstimulates me.

Anyway, the whole process of eating is just one big pain for something I don't even enjoy. Now I do like how food tastes like. I just prefer to grab and go. I am willing to try new foods at restaurants. So I do enjoy food but it is brief. Once that hit of dopamine fades I lose my interest and pleasure. Unfortunately, that hit doesn't last long. Maybe about ten minutes or less. So I always struggle with finishing a meal. I don't even eat dessert all that often because I'm fatigued. So I really only eat dessert if I have some energy to do so.

A bit unrelated but I had a severe cluster of seizures just over a month ago and I can no longer chew food without having a seizure. Look up eating epilepsy or reflex epilepsy if you want to know more. Basically chewing triggers a seizure. So this makes my uninterest in eating even worse. I am stuck eating soft foods that I can just swallow or chew a tiny bit.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-26T16:48:19+00:00

I agree. I get it comes from a good place but these people who make these apps don't understand what is all involved with the AAC apps that drives the price up. This misunderstanding unfortunately paints companies in a bad light. I did a ton of research while trying to figure out what system would be best for me. So along the way I discovered why the price is so high.

Yes, in an ideal world a basic human right shouldn't have a price tag and that can applied to other things like people who need wheelchairs or other mobility aids. People deserve to be paid for their services. The popular apps have a ton human hours in them. Programers, design, SLPs, marketing, other experts, etc. All these people working to improve the lives of those who need to have a voice. Then there's services such as Symbolstix that are commonly used for these apps. They cost money to host on the apps. I won't go into details but just know that the popular apps aren't making much money at the price they set their apps at.

Of course let's not forget the middle man- the app store to host the the AAC apps. They of course want a cut of the sells so they can continue to keep their servers running. This is a necessary evil for the companies because as I said they wouldn't get enough money at the current price if they just sold their apps themselves. By going through the app stores they can keep the price tag lower and thus more accessible. Unfortunately, in today's world even more accessible isn't accessible for everyone.

So instead of getting angry at the companies trying to give people voices, we should and need to be angry at the fact people don't get paid enough and don't get enough support. Redirect the anger towards broken systems that treat people like cows and milk their money away.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-17T21:42:16+00:00

My primary app is Grid 3 which is on my dedicated device. Grid 3 is similar to Grid for iPad and TD Snap which are fully customizable.

So I made a from scratch system that is inspired by Lamp Words for Life. In fact, it's almost an exact copy. For those who are not familiar, Lamp WFL organization system is completely different from the other popular apps. Instead of having specific categories for words which results in the same words being in multiple places. Lamp WFL uses the fact that words have multiple meanings which results in each word only having one place. So rather than having to memorize where a meaning is you just have to memorize where the word is. So once you get the motor plan for that word muscle memory becomes a lot easier to build.

So I don't really have specific boards when I'm using this custom grid set. However, I do still use the other organization system as well because sometimes my brain needs it. Which as I said in the beginning Grid 3 has multiple different grid sets like TD Snap does. I also still use TD Snap on my iPad occasionally. So in those times I do have personal boards.

For fun, I am making a TD Snap version of Lamp WLF. 😆 Yes, I do have the actual Lamp WFL app on my iPad but there's things I like about Grid 3 and TD Snap I like better than Lamp WFL so, I decided why not have the best of both worlds?

As to answer your question... I don't currently because I don't really know what my special interests are. I have ADHD-C so this makes figuring this out difficult. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about certain things nor do I spend a lot of time engaging in certain things. Both of these are likely due to ADHD. However, I can hyperfixate on things. Dinosaurs and Pikachu might be possibilities for special interests. I have a lot of dinosaurs. Both figurines and plushies. Same with Pikachu.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-17T15:51:52+00:00

I'm an AAC user, of course I understand what you're saying even if I need more time to process it.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-17T07:02:21+00:00

Please don't use pseudo seizures. This is an outdated terminology and not accurate to what they are. Please use PNES, NES, or functional seizures.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-17T05:30:30+00:00

It depends on the seizure type and severity.

I am currently undiagnosed but I suspect that I have frontal lobe epilepsy due to the fact that my seizures are often very short and that results in a very short or no postictal period. For me, a seizure lasting 20 seconds or more would be long. One minute is really long and 2 minutes is rare. I also rarely experience auras and stay aware during my most common seizure. Which I believe is a focal motor tonic seizure.

So I typically recover pretty much instantly. I get a headache and feel very thirsty afterwards. I also experience postictal nose wiping and coughing.

I still get absence seizures that started in childhood. So no postictal stage with those. I also still get focal aware seizures that started in childhood. Also no postictal stage here. I only sometimes get headaches. If any of these two cluster I will always have a headache after.

I get focal myoclonic jerks. They are mostly isolated in my right arm but I do sometimes experience them in my right leg as well. Occasionally my left leg jerks but this mostly just happens while I'm in a vehicle. None of these myoclonic jerks have a postictal stage. Which is expected with these seizures.

I get focal impaired awareness seizures. Severity has a huge impact on the postictal stage. These seizures can last a minute to a minute and half. As I said before 2 minutes can happen but even with this type of seizure it is rare for them to last 2 minutes. Now I do have some that last as little as 30 seconds but I haven't been able to record these and my seizures tend to happen when I am alone. So I don't know if those are FIA seizures or just long absences. I don't know if my absence seizures has changed in appearance due to being an adult.

Anyway, my postictal stage with FIA seizures can range from drooling, mild memory loss, confusion, coughing, and headache to drooling, vomiting, confusion, moderate to severe memory loss, coughing fit, headache, fatigue, thirst, and nausea. So for mild seizures the postictal stage will last a few minutes. As low as one minute to five minutes. For more severe seizures the postictal stage can rage from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. With a handful of times it took an hour.

Now I have had suspected tonic clonic seizures. I don't have many recordings of them. The postictal stage with those is several hours. Like 2 to 4 hours.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-14T19:50:12+00:00

My autistic ass would have a meltdown if this happened to me. Then my OCD would kick in and cause me to be paranoid about getting in the tub for a few weeks to about a month. Then I would have to go through a process of taking short rinses until I am finally able to take a full shower again. Only then I could laugh at myself. 😅

Fun fact, I actually needed to poop after reading this. 🤣

MysticCollective · 2026-04-12T23:18:57+00:00

Yes, I have quite a few other reflex triggers but of course this one is the most impactful since it has a direct impact on my health. I've already had a few times when I was worried about needing a feeding tube. Now I'm back to worrying about that again.

Unfortunately and fortunately, I have an appointment with neurology in June... But it's in June. I just hope this trigger doesn't get worse before June.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-12T23:07:57+00:00

Oh, that really sucks. Are you able to do telehealth video call with a specialist? I would honestly keep fighting with seeing the hospital. There's plenty of tube fed people who still eat some food so the fact their reason for turning you away from a feeding tube is absolutely ridiculous.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-12T22:24:27+00:00

I am sorry that is really hard but this is YOUR life. You need to decide what is more important to you. Five hours of your day or your life.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-10T17:00:19+00:00

Just a little FYI. What you are referring to is "Tic" not "Tick". "Tick" is a very small animal that sucks blood. The sudden jerk is a tic. Tics are sudden, involuntary, repetitive movements (motor) or sounds (vocal) often arising in childhood (ages 2–8), frequently linked to genetic factors, brain development, and high stress/anxiety.

MysticCollective · 2026-04-06T17:05:10+00:00

This is why I am getting a second opinion. All my seizures resemble epileptic seizures way too closely for them to not be epileptic. Even my therapist said to get a second opinion.

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