seizures, what are they like?

Post Reply New Topic

I am most interested in learning what it's like to have a petite map seizure. And is it common to have them for just a few years and out grow them?
I have been wondering for a while because I read somewhere that visual hallucinations are common during seizures and I use to have these strange spells as a kid.
When I was about 9 I started seeing golden sparkles floating around me, like some one threw a handful of glitter in the air. It didn't bother me then because I thought it was angels.
A couple years later it got worse, I would notice it mostly when walking in the hall at school then I would get a bit dizzy, sometimes I'd have to lean against the wall a bit and my vision would go dim to dark for a split second, I would feel a bit funny for a while afterwards. It scared me then but I never told anyone about it.
I also thought it might have been a circulation thing because it seemed to happen when I stood up or if I stretched to far back then sat up suddenly, but not always. I also have a few periods of missing time. I don't remember graduating. I remember sitting down in the auditorium and walking out but nothing in between, not even going on stage. But I must have because no one noticed anything strange.
I haven't had a spell in years, no sparkles or missing time so I out grew whatever it was.

i call that the "rainbow static". it usually happens when you get up too fast from sitting for a while.

Sparkles and dimming vision sounds like something that could well have been blood pressure related, or nutritional. I think, though, at a similar age I remember first starting to have little periods where something neurological was visible - more like light pulses following a grid pattern, which can last a few minutes and tends to correspond to certain lighting conditions. I assume this is something to do with attention and a process in my retinas. Glittering also sounds like a way to describe 'scintillating scotomata' of aura Migraine.
It doesn't sound an awful lot like 'absences' to me, but I don't have direct experience. You'd need an EEG to establish whether there was 'epileptiform' activity left over. I do have grand mal seizures, and there's really no way to know how much of 'normal,' day-to-day neurology and psychology is related to the underlying processes behind the epilepsy - I mean, whether 'funny' moments, distortion, dissociation and so on are related or totally unrelated to it.
Interesting!

Oh yes, if it's strong enough I usually feel very euphoric with that, for a little while. I enjoy it.

I have only had one happen once but for me I was like my hands started to feel really tired then it went up my arms then it was like someone turned off the lights then the next thing I know im on the floor surrounded by people telling me not to get up

I think the 'sparkles' phenomena is caused by brain oxygen deprivation, often due to sudden drops in blood pressure. I still get them if I squat to look at a book on a low shelf and then stand up too fast.

The first time I noticed it I was curled up in a chair doing nothing, but I use to have a strange breathing pattern as a child, even now sometimes I will 'skip' breathes or take a long pause if I am concentrating on something.

Really? I've read that some people can experience euphoric seizures. I never have, but I've read that Dosteovsky did. Mine are the opposite. I suddenly feel like very scared.

I have absence seizures (petit mal). They last for a couple minutes. During that time, I sort of freeze...if I'm talking, I stop, if I'm writing, I stop, if I'm (insert anything here), I stop. I can't respond to anything, and I'm limp. I can, however, hear what is going on around me. I hear people talking to me, but I can't really understand it, and I can't respond to it. I usually close my eyes, so I can't see, but I do sense light. If my eyes didn't close, I just see whatever is in front of me (but I don't really comprehend it). No sparks or anything pretty. Then after a while I sort of come back groggily. I know what has happened, but I still feel confused, because I basically just lost two minutes of life. I also feel tired and hungover and out of it, and my speech is slightly mushy. In fact, I feel like that for a couple days. They are certainly not accompanied by euphoria.

My seizures are triggered by lights flashing at a certain frequency range. Strobe lights are the devil.






Edited to add: Yes, I've been to the neurologist for all their annoying tests. It's official.

I'm not sure if I've ever had seizures. I remember when playing Mario Kart 64 on Rainbow Road, I would always start to feel really really tired and spaced out and I think I would have a weird feeling in my stomach. I've always wondered if that reaction wasn't a seizure of some sort. I guess talking to a doctor would help.

On occasion I would get what I think are migraines with only aura (no headaches), where I would have these lights in front of my eyes, stationary relative to my field of vision, I would have a kind of weird feeling in my stomach, my head would feel fuzzy, and I would have some trouble understanding what was in front of me.

Maybe I should get myself checked out.

Oh no, sorry. That was a reference to postural hypotension from standing up. No, I couldn't claim to enjoy epilepsy! I do have a euphoric post-seizure stage, though. Though that's after complete terror, like you mention. I don't have any immediately pre-seizure memories - memory formation doesn't seem to be compatible with mine. I'm very fond of way Dostoevsky refers to epilepsy, and a lot of mental states.

I can remember Rainbow Road from mario kart. Thinking back of it, it must have been bad news for loads of people with photosensitive epilepsy!

beneficii, is this familiar?

It makes me want to puke just looking at it. Oliver Sacks wrote quite a lengthy book on migraine, and the breadth of variation in it as a kind of syndrome, and migraine certainly doesn't necessarily mean pain.

Voynich,

Thanks. It does not look familiar, but that strange shape on the left side does produce a strange feeling in my stomach every time I look at it. What is that a sign of?

I guess for answers on migraines and feeling weird when I see certain things, I need to speak to my GP when I see her again early next year for my annual checkup. I should make sure to write that down.

EDIT: Now I know what you mean. The shape is kinda like the scintillating scotomas I get, but I didn't recognize them right away because my scotomas don't look so substantial and are flashing bright colors.

Last edited by beneficii on 15 Nov 2013, 5:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Also, regarding Rainbow Road, strangely, Rainbow Road in the SNES Super Mario Kart did not produce any effect in me. I noticed this when I watched a YouTube video of the N64 Rainbow Road and then switched over to the SNES Rainbow Road.

Here's what my auras look like; they tend to be accompanied by blurred vision, where I have to really focus to read things on the computer, etc.:

Those 'sparkles' are, in fact, what's collquially referred to as 'seeing stars'.
Like in a cartoon when someone gets knocked out, the stars circling above their heads are cartoon representations of the sparkles people sometimes see.

I've found that they're usually the result of a dip in blood pressure or oxygen deprivation to the brain.

Took me years to figure that one out.

Absence seizures just feel like you've forgotten something. You don't realise what you were doing. I've never had any type of aura before them.

My seizure hallucinations are often flashes of light and sometimes hearing sounds or strange smells. Then I start thinking I see things, like bugs, spiders, etc. Can have full hallucinations too. I get flashes of random images when I have a big seizure too.

Rainbow Road used to make me feel ill. Now it would make me feel dizzy and have a sped up feeling in the head. Kind of like when you're drunk and need to throw up, cept it's a faster feeling. Like if you just got off a really fast ride suddenly.

I've had euphoric symptoms before a seizure too. I've had euphoria from sensory overload. It's weird but it's a lot better than what usually happens.