Can any long term side-affects appear after suffering from viral encephalitis?

I'm approaching 51 and had encephalitis when I was six years old. I was paralysed from the waist down for two weeks and in a coma for one week. This was preceded by measles and pneumonia. I seemed to fully recover at the time, but have suffered many of the conditions mentioned in your blogs - depression, ADD, forgetfulness, and inability to focus. I take 80mg of prozac and 20mg of dexamphetamines just to get through each day. I have children, a grandchild, run a successful small business, and function quite well with the help of all these drugs.
I sleep well, but have terrible difficulty waking up in the mornings.
I'm active, play sport and luckily, my balance is ok.
I feel as though something is missing which stops me achieving more.
I still suffer from Herpes regularly.

I would love to know if there is any hope for improvement, or will I be reliant on a pharmacy for my quality of life for ever?

All I can say is Wow this is fascinating to read all of your stories and how similair they are. I've always felt so out of place because I knew noone else that ever had this disease, or the problems that you experience when you get it,. I would just like to know if anyone else actually died once or twice (like I did) during your ordeal. Please don't think i'm crazy but i did flatline twice and swear I had a Heavenly experience. I have had all and I do mean all of the symptoms mentioned above and think it is awesome to have a place to share with others who have been through this. I also went into seizures when I was 3 and lasped into a coma for 2 weeks. When I woke I couldn't , do anything either, I was completely blind and couln't even sit up by myself. After a year or so I got most of my motor skills and some vision in my left eye back. I am still legally blind but can see well enough to do most everything exept drive a car. anyway i'm getting carried away but I want to say a thank you to all of you who took the time to write about your experience i know i needed to hear it :-D

:) wow lets beging by telling you are not alone i suffered encephalitis when i got yhr chicken pox as a adult i was put in a medical indused coma and was in the hospital for twenty one days i am now deaf in my left ear suffer from fibermyalgia and depression have muscle spasms and drop things all the time i had a thirty percent chance of living when i was so sick but i made it. you are not alone although a was over my illness for years now these things are now making so much more sense i have the worsed sense of direction anyone who knows me jokes and tells me never give anyone directions i get lost all the time had back surgery mi8graines and to the person who falls i fall all the time check your ankles i think thats why i fall i live with alot of pain but there is light i have grandchildren who help me stay happy if you think possative it helps it really does so stay possitive and know you are not crazy when you forget things it happens to people all the time you are special you survived a disease that is so uncomman there really is not that much info to all of you stay happy it ishard somtimrs i know but you are not crazy nor are you alone Code:

Hi I am 53 now and suffered with Encephalitis when I was 5. My belief now, and also with the help of all these posts, that my life now, is a result of that disease. I was in a coma, as misdiagnosed, and had to learn to walk and talk again.

I have had mood swings all my life, have been overly sensitive to negative comments, have left friends in my wake, if I felt slighted by them in any way. I have always been sent to psychologists when I am in the eye of the deepest depression, and can't get out of bed.

I can't tell you how lonely I have been whether married or not, and 2 divorces and relationships ending. My career changes every two years and I start courses and usually don't complete them. I have never completed one and have started at least half a dozen.

The depressions are through the floor, and at time I have wanted to end it, and have told people that I am going to, with my mother, saying "oh you have said these things before....."

This site has been enormous for me and is more common than what we think so, just hang in there folks, as you are not alone.

A friend rang me today, to let me know that she had met a new person over the weekend, that said she had Encephalitis as a child and has been hospitalized for 3 weeks over depression, just recently. She is 27, she is not looking after her children, her husband is wanting to leave her, and she knows that this is the cause, and has had it recognized by a doctor.

It is real folks. Because of my previous behavior, my son has not spoken to me for a year, and has said on a few occasions, "I just want my nice mum back, not the person you are now, and you need help"

It's a journey.

Hi, My name is Frank and I'm 59 yrs old.  I'm a special needs teacher and have practiced this profession for 28 years.   I was diagnosed with viral encephalitis at age 5.  I was very ill with the mumps.  My temperature was high throughout a week and I slept on the couch where my mom kept vigilance. The episode seemed surreal.  I remember returning to kindergarten as a very different person with a new surpressed personality. But I didn't know why or what to do about it.   I isolated, struggled with learning and had difficulty adapting to my surroundings.  These were new and unusual experiences that I wasn't comfortable with.  I remember feeling very confused and disoriented.  These traits have followed me through life.  I've learned to cope and manage these short comings.  I suffer from depression and anxiety.  Learning and retaining information continues to be a challenge as does being in new settings.  I push myself to socialize and have adapted well.  I am assisted with prescription medications for depression and anxiety.  Also, bi-monthly individual therapy has been beneficial.  I think the outcome of early viral encephalitis has potential to produce residual outcomes throughout an individuals life time.   

Hi there 

Hi,

im 21 now and i had post viral encephalitis when i was young i think i was 5. its very hard to get any information because my mom passed away when i was 14 and at that age i didnthave the knowledge to investigate what really happend. all i can remember are what everyone else says blurps' .even though i was so young i can still remember things i have a great photographic memory"sometimes" but its usually in blurps lol. when it happened i was at my grandmas house and got up off the floor to walk over to the pink lazy boy in the living room and then i fell down. My sister said the ambulance came and i went to the jamica bay hospital in queens because it was closest. i dont remember any of that. next thing i remember is being in my dads car laying back inthe seat and driving under the train over pass with those big pillars. then next thing i remember was having my blood taken  and they strapped one of those wooden boards to my left arm and that the hospital didnt have cocoa puffs for breakfast and that i had to be fed and taken to the bathroom. I also remember going in for the mri and laying in that machine then walking over to my mom who was waiting outside..  another thing i remember of when i was sick was going home and my sister had to go in the garage and get a stroller for me it was brown with white spots. the very last thing i recall is being in my bedroom and saying "look im standing" as i held onto my dresser and yelled to my mom. and thats it. i always thought i was sick for a few days until i asked my older sister recently and she said it was for months and that the hospital thought i'd never walk again and that they took video of me when i was there because back then it was so uncommon. I also got a spinal tap and my mom was so upset that they did it to me. And she kept saying how sad it was to see me like that.

Growing up i used to be in speech classes because i had a lisp and used to stutter then as i got older i was put in "resource room"  which was just an extra class to help me catch up give me individual attention in all subjects. i also used to have 'extended time' which used to embarrass the hell outta me because i felt i didnt need it. Then in high school i was given a test and they said that i was 95% more intelligent than most classmates i just had a different way of learning things.

i also have a horrible memory i dont remember what i did yesterday but in a few days i could tell you when it 'comes back'. or when i see things i correlate them with other things and memories then get off track.

I also have add and some days the medication works and sometimes it doesn't.

aside from the memory loss on a daily basis i also always have back pain. my fiance sometimes wonders if im ignoring him on purpose but sometimes i seriously cant get myself to concentrate. i mean i hear him but im thinking of something else and cant snap my self out of it.

Doctors need to consider these as possible side effects its not just a coincidence.

My husband is 35 and had viral ecephalitis when he was about 10 I think. He was in a coma for a week. He doesn't remember a lot of his life before the coma. He has issues with memory now (we'll have a conversation and ten min later I mention something from it and he has no clue what I'm talking about). This is the major reason I have been searching information about this disease. It was interesting reading everyone's comments because I know that dislexia runs in his family but possibly he could have issues with it from this illness as a child? I have wondered if he might be ADD but I see that many people who have suffered from encephalitis have these same issues. He served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman for 11 years and always scored the highest in PT tests. He still plays semi pro football, so he obviously doesn't have the mobility issues that some have commented on but he tried to go back to school recently and did not do so well in his classes (concentration and orginization I think were his biggest downfalls). But our biggest issues seem to be his memory problems, they are very un-nerving to me at times like he doesn't care. I'm glad to se that some have had success in memory techniques. He also suffers from not being able to get his thoughts into words and will sometimes stutter or stumble on his words, usually when he's frustrated. It was informative to see that many of these issues he has could all be linked to this one problem. It would be nice to get feedback from some of you who have posted but if not, I hope this helps the next person to see they are not alone :)

Oh my goodness, my husband had encephalitis as a child and he too reacts overly to any negative comment. If you just say something constructively he gets majorly defensive like you're saying he's terrible..no trying to get him to try to fix anything he does wrong. Thank you for that insite, maybe it's a side effect? I thought it was just personality.

I am 28 and have 2 children, when I was 6 my family tells me that I was living with my Aunt and her 2 boys that both had Chicken pox. The reason I was living with my Aunt is because my mother was living with a man that beat me so bad that I was black n blue all over, but thank the lord I dont remember that part, but I do remember bits and peices of that time of living with him and my mom. My Aunt tells me that I got really sick with high fever pretty much like the flu.She also said that I had seizure when I was sick were I would have one about every hour. She tells me that one night she was making dinner and asked me if I wanted a sandwich also and I said yes. She say that after I took 1 bite of the sandwich I asked to use the restroom. She told me that about 15 min after going in she came in to check on me and said that I was passed out on the floor. I pretty much went into a comma then. My other Aunt that sat by my bed side the whole time I was in the hospital told me that the doctors could not figure out what was wrong with me and that I flat lined at least 2 time. She told me that I was in a comma for atleast 3week fully out! I remember having a dint in my bottom, my family says it was from all the shot the hospital gave me when I was in there. I DO NOT remember anything from my child hood other than how people put it on here blurps. before I got sick I went to Disney world twice with my dad, and when my kids ask me about it, I change the subject cause I dont remember any of it. The earliest memory I have from my past is when I was 7 years oldand started first grade agian. I have major depression, Anxiety, tremor, balance problem, and focusing problems. I am alway tired or how my ex husband put it Lazy! I have been starting to have some major migraines and muscle problems. I am on an ADD med and an anxiety/depression med to help me get threw the days. I have a problem meeting new people and keeping friends because I also have Major mood swings. I feel distint from people and always feel like the black sheep of the family. I have noticed in the past year I been having a problem with being able to fully think of the word I am trying to say. My mind will start running all these words together and I get to the point where I get so frustrated with it that I try to limit my talking to people. The thing I am trying to figure out is did I have Encephalitis? and if I did why dont I have seizures like my mom does?  My mom when she was a kid  got bit by something and got Virual encephalitis. My thing is I have 2 little girls and I am wondering if my girls can get this from me? I like how every one talks about having to relearn to walk and everything, my family doesnt like talking to me about it so I dont now if I had that problem or not. Does everyone that got this illness have seizures still to this day, because I dont have seizures. My most problem that I have today that I am having problems copping with is " All the bits and peices of my past that I remember are they my memories or are they images stuck n my head from what my family has told me. If anyone can help me with this I would very much appreciate it alot. Thank you

I hope this post is still alive. I am 50 now, age 4 or 5 had encephalits. I remember living in a nightmare for 3 weeks in the hospital isolation ward, hallucinations, and numerous spinal taps. Only saw my parents every few days dressed in surgical garb and they couldn't touch me. The only thing i can remember that took the auditory and visual hallucinations away was a cold wet washcloth on my face. The only thing that I could ever connect my memory's to is the Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb". Starting abusing drugs at age 12 and never felt that I "belonged". A conselor suggested that I suffer from PTSD from it. Hard for me to trust and to have long term freindships, prone to angry outbursts. Have also had dics replacement in the neck and back surgery. Memory ok. Anyone out there that can relate?

I hope this post is still alive. I am 50 now, age 4 or 5 had encephalits. I remember living in a nightmare for 3 weeks in the hospital isolation ward, hallucinations, and numerous spinal taps. Only saw my parents every few days dressed in surgical garb and they couldn't touch me. The only that took the auditory and visual hallucinations away was a cold wet washcloth on my face.The most accurate represantantion of how it felt is the Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb". At age 6 was my first psycicall altercation was with a freind who didnt want to play with me and I hit her. Starting abusing drugs at age 12 and never felt that I "belonged". A conselor recently suggested that I suffer from PTSD . Hard for me to trust and to have long term freindships, prone to angry outbursts, depression, abandonment issues, isolationist but must have dog, slightly paranoid (always assume people dont like me, but dont think they are after me) depression is getting worse with age and just relizing that the past really affected me. Have also had dics replacement in the neck, back surgery, and 3 knee surgerys. Brain function is ok, high IQ and artist. Anyone out there that can relate or am i just crazy and looking for an excuse?

Thats really good you recovered. My sister could not. She has lost her walking and talking abilities. She has memory issues. Her muscles do not coordinate. She has lost control over her body. I still wish that she gets well someday. I just pray for. We are from India. We dont have much medical advancement particularly for this disease.We have tried many options. She has undergone a major surgery in her left hip but that did not help. I wish she could walk some day.

I contracted encephalitis on my 37th birthday last summer after falling I'll with Menengitis. I had really bad photophobia for six months and my remaining short term memory is poor as is my ability to plan, I used to be a junior chess champion and would find amusement by playing on line and rarely loosing, unfortunately I don't play anymore as I get beaten by novices everytime. I have mood swings and feel tearful although I don't cry and as many I have poor motor co-ordination of my legs and often trip and sometimes fall. I have days were I feel really unwell and tired for no reason a sort of tired out although I haven't done anything. I also find it difficult to read certain text and suffer with dysphasia especially when tires, which my young children find amusing when I ask them to get the milk out of the washing machine! Like many I haven't been given any information and my GP just informs me it should get slowly better and that I'm lucky to have survived. When I drive I have strange urges to make funny beeping and other child like noises.