Epilepsy

• Focal onset aware seizure means you’re awake and aware during the seizure. Healthcare providers once called this a simple partial seizure. Symptoms may include:
  • Changes in your senses — how things taste, smell or sound.
  • Changes in your emotions.
  • Uncontrolled muscle jerking, usually in arms or legs.
  • Seeing flashing lights, feeling dizzy, having a tingling sensation.
• Focal onset impaired awareness seizure means you’re confused or have lost awareness or consciousness during the seizure. This seizure type used to be called complex partial seizure. Symptoms may include:
  • Blank stare or a “staring into space.”
  • Repetitive movements like eye blinking, lip-smacking or chewing motion, hand rubbing or finger motions.

Generalized onset seizures

General onset seizures affect a widespread network of cells on both sides of your brain at the same time. There are six types of generalized seizures.

• Absence seizures: This seizure type causes a blank stare or “staring into space” (a brief loss of awareness). There may be minor muscle movements, including eye blinking, lip-smacking or chewing motions, hand motions or rubbing fingers. Absence seizures are more common in children, last for only seconds (usually less than 10 seconds) and are commonly mistaken for daydreaming. This seizure type used to be called petit mal seizures.
• Atonic seizures: Atonic means “without tone.” An atonic seizure means you’ve lost muscle control or your muscles are weak during your seizure. Parts of your body may droop or drop such as your eyelids or head, or you may fall to the ground during this short seizure (usually less than 15 seconds). This seizure type is sometimes called “drop seizure” or “drop attack.”
• Tonic seizures: Tonic means “with tone.” A tonic seizure means your muscle tone has greatly increased. Your arms, legs, back or whole body may be tense or stiff, causing you to fall. You may be aware or have a small change in awareness during this short seizure (usually less than 20 seconds).
• Clonic seizures: “Clonus” means fast, repeating stiffening and relaxing of a muscle (“jerking”). A clonic seizure happens when muscles continuously jerk for seconds to a minute or muscles stiffen followed by jerking for seconds up to two minutes.
• Tonic-clonic seizures: This seizure type is a combination of muscle stiffness (tonic) and repeated, rhythmic muscle jerking (clonic). Healthcare providers may call this seizure a convulsion, and once called it a grand mal seizure. Tonic-clonic seizures are what most people think of when they hear the word “seizure.” You lose consciousness, fall to the ground, your muscles stiffen and jerk for one to five minutes. You may bite your tongue, drool and lose muscle control of bowels or bladder, making you poop or pee.
• Myoclonic seizures: This seizure type causes brief, shock-like muscle jerks or twitches (“myo” means muscle, “clonus” means muscle jerking). Myoclonic seizures usually last only a couple of seconds.

As your healthcare provider learns more, your seizure type may change to focal or generalized onset seizure.

What are seizure triggers?

Seizure triggers are events or something that happens before the start of your seizure.

Commonly reported seizure triggers include:

• Stress.
• Sleep issues such as not sleeping well, not getting enough sleep, being overtired, disrupted sleep and sleep disorders like sleep apnea.
• Alcohol use, alcohol withdrawal, recreational drug use.
• Hormonal changes or menstrual hormonal changes.
• Illness, fever.
• Flashing lights or patterns.
• Not eating healthy, balanced meals or drinking enough fluids; vitamin and mineral deficiencies, skipping meals.
• Physical overexertion.
• Specific foods (caffeine is a common trigger).
• Dehydration.
• Certain times of the day or night.
• Use of certain medications. Diphenhydramine, an ingredient in cold, allergy and sleep over-the-counter products, is a reported trigger.
• Missed anti-seizure medication doses.

How can I figure out my seizure triggers?

Some people discover that their seizures occur consistently during certain times of the day or around certain events or other factors. You may want to track your seizures — and the events around your seizures — to see if there’s a pattern.

In your seizure diary, note the time of day each seizure happened, the events or special circumstances happening around the time of the seizure and how you felt. If you suspect you’ve identified a trigger, track that trigger to find out if it’s really a trigger. For example, if you think caffeine is a seizure trigger, do you have a seizure after consuming every caffeinated food or beverage, after “x” number of caffeinated foods/beverages or at certain times of day after consuming caffeine? Caffeine may or may not be the trigger when thoroughly reviewed.