Understanding Seizures

Seizures can be frightening and complex, but understanding their different types is a crucial step toward awareness, support, and effective management. Whether you’re someone living with epilepsy, a caregiver, or simply curious,this post  lets you know what sets them apart. I’ll break down the science in a clear way, to understand this neurological condition. BUT, Neurologists change the terminology SO frequently, so I am here to tell you all the terms, so you’ll be up to date, in case you’re ever caught off guard. Now let’s get in each other’s head, and talk about seizures, to empower ourselves with knowledge and learn about others’ challenges. Let’s start with what most people think of when they hear “seizure” or “epilepsy” , and that is the tonic clonic seizure, previously known as “grand mal”. The tonic clonic seizure is the one you see on television,being painfully misconstrued. The word tonic means body and muscles become tense, while clonic means jerking movement. Tonic clonic seizures can be scary, and as the caregiver, it is always important you know the proper steps for seizure care.The next type falls under an extremely broad category. The Focal onset seizure. This seizure type used to be called “partial aware”. A focal seizure is electrical activity from one part of the brain. (can be any lobe of your brain, but the temporal lobe is most common). There are different forms of focal seizures, such as focal aware,  (used to be called simple partial) during which ,the person is awake and aware. Another form of focal seizure, is the focal onset impaired awareness . (previously called Complex partial seizure)During this seizure, the person can be confused, their awareness is  affected , and they may not even remember having this seizure at all. Sometimes , a focal seizure can spread to both sides of the brain and turn into, as previously mentioned , tonic clonic, this is called focal bilateral. When seizure activity covers both sides of the brain, it results in tonic clonic, atonic, and absence seizures. During an atonic, the muscles go weak or limp, and during an absence seizure, you typically have staring spells ( known as Atypical absence) Absence seizures can have many other symptoms, such as: brief twitches known as myoclonus that result in the eyelids,mouth, and other small parts twitching.  The motor symptoms of a seizure are things like repeated movements such as lip smacking, chewing, and other automatisms. Non motor symptoms of a seizure, the person will stop, and not make movements. One seizure to watch out for if you are a parent, are febrile seizures. If a child three months, or five to six years old, gets a fever,  if the fever is bad enough, the child can begin having seizures.   Having knowledge of the different types of seizures can be a great step toward effective management , and support in the future. Source: Epilepsy Foundation.com