#absence seizures

[runby2]

i think a lot about how some people who haven't experienced disabilities like passing out / seizures may assume that anyone would help them immediately and like, the cruel "look at this person trying to get attention" is only a thing on the internet. but i need to share a story - like , looking back on it, it's funny to me. it sounds so fake an cartoonishly evil but im out of college now and have been for years so i don't mind sharing it now.

i was actively having an absence seizure, and i remember seeing and hearing myself kneel to the floor next to the door. i had left to go to the bathroom because i felt dizzy and off but i wasn't sure what it was because i wasn't seeing anyone medically for seizures yet.

the room is L shaped . i'm on the end of the L at the door. i'm making eye contact with one of my classmates - we've never spoken before. he sees me laying there and tries to get the professor's attention. she finally gets to asking what he's raising his hand abt and my classmate explains that i'm on the floor by the door. he was in shock i don't rlly blame him for not like, freaking out immediately id be pretty scared too if i saw someone just fall to their knees and lay down not blinking. and i shit you not our professor turned the corner to look at me, looked at her watch and said "can you get up. i need to finish this lesson." obviously i couldn't talk. so she says "get him a chair. we'll handle this after class."

like this was some villain level shit some people just do not care about ppl with disabilities that don't fit common knowledge. this isn't like a psa or anything i just need you all to know you gotta be there for people being ignored or made light of when we literally can't move/speak or pass out on you. not all seizures look like shivering or twitching.

[discord-emote-customs]

A identity soup emote (I'm mostly curious how you'd interpret that) or a seizure emote :0 (your stuff is so so cool congrats on 400 followers!!)

dont trust myself to draw a tonic seizure well so i drew an absence seizure , hope thats alright ^^" also made the identity soup just the colors i use for the emojis

[imagine-creative]

absence seizures come on fast and unexpectedly and cause a lasp of attention. Of few moments of time are lost. They are short, lasting only a few seconds, but in only a few seconds so many things can happen.

I myself do have absence seizures. It can be scary. If you have any questions I’ll be happy to answers :) just a little nugget of myself I gave to Lottie for some character and help me process my on going my health journey a little bit

[ribbitflings]

this is going to be the most specific thing, but anyone with migraines or epilepsy experience achromatopsia or monochromacy at any point during the events?

achromatopsia is a documented phenomenon with migraines, but i believe that only pertains to grey monochrome vision and not other monochrome colors

[mad-angel-menhera]

I'd love to try a shower chair but idfk how I'd hide it's acquisition from my family. Everyone knows I'm not disabled. Just constantly in too much pain to be able to do anything 🙃

Maybe if I talked about it my parents would help but they haven't been accommodating since my epilepsy went away. I miss getting seizures.

[ashtonisrottting]

to be an overworked student that works in a research lab and has epilepsy, so when the stress catches up on you absence seizures do too, and damn. my whole day feels like a patchwork

[lago-morpha]

does anyone have absence seizures I'm really suspecting that I have them atp and it would be helpful to talk to someone about it

ever since I was a kid (I used to think this was normal for a long time) I would regularly get my eyes stuck in one place and zone out while my muscles relax so I lean up against smth so I don't fall. I can't purposely think during these I just have background thoughts that are always present like music. hyperventilating is used to diagnose absence seizures and it triggers these weird eyes stuck no thinking episodes for me consistently. someone calling my name or talking to me usually gets me out of it but sometimes it takes a bit and people comment on how I'm just frozen there. like I'll be eating and I'll just pause with the utensil halfway between the food and my mouth and stare into the distance for half a minute

it doesn't impair me in everyday life it's just kind of. a weird thing that happens to me

[arc-angel-o]

I used to have absence epilepsy, like my whole life, until a few years ago when I was around 17 (I'm 19 now). Can I use the actually epileptic tag when posting about it?

When I was younger, I hated talking or even thinking about my epilepsy, but now I find myself wanted to finally incorporate it into my art that my younger self, and hopefully others who are in that boat now, can find cathartic.

[thefluoritefnd]

Feel like I'm gonna faint, but I don't feel safe doing so, so prolonging the inevitable. Is that even possible? I know the trigger was sudden and not as strong as usual.

-host

[runawaycarouselhorse]

My mind thinking of myself as an adult by age 12 still has me recall some things incorrectly. I thought I somehow had an absence seizure (a condition of childhood) once as an adult and I was actually just 14, huh… just because I had already gone through puberty.

[neurodivergentbraingoblins]

Currently getting a 24hr EEG done to look for signs of epilepsy. Cool things that have happened so far that I have no idea what they mean:

I have moments like look like absence seizures. Basically I go kinda limp and just stare off into the distance. Apparently when this happens, my friend said all the brain waves on the screen flat line. It really freaked him out the first time he saw it on the screen 😅 which honestly explains so much because when it happens it feels like all the brain goblins just decided to go on a break all at the same time so no one is running the factory.

The other thing that happens is when my brain gets really loud and chaotic. Like all the brain goblins decided to start screaming and fighting all at the same time. My head feels so full and loud in those moments. When it happened the brain waves on the screen started going absolutely wild. The screen was pure chaos and it felt like it really captured the spirit of the chaos in my head 🤣

I have no clue if either of these things indicate a larger issue or not. I just know it was really interesting to finally see a visual representation of my brain in those moments

[jinxedshapeshifter]

Honestly I’m quite happy TikTok exists.

I have epilepsy and a video of a girl experiencing absence seizures came across my for you page which then prompted me to look into absence seizures. I experience dissociative trances and it can be incredibly hard to tell the difference between absence seizures and dissociative trances, which prompted my neurologist to want to do further EEG testing. I’m now realizing that further EEG testing to identify if I’m experiencing dissociative trances or seizures is completely fucking unnecessary.

As I was looking through TikToks of absence seizures, I noticed one significant difference between my trances and absence seizures: absence seizures seem to cause a complete breakdown in controlling your body, whereas when I go into a trance, I’m pretty much just staring into the middle distance. I’m still aware of what’s going on; I could probably still be fine to drive when I’m in a trance state as long as I have someone with me, but the thing that defines trances for me is a fundamental disconnect between my mind and body. Generally this leads to the following:

While I am aware of what’s going on around me, I don’t remember well what happens during my dissociative trances.

I don’t necessarily struggle to communicate (at least, no more than I normally do), but I might come off as distant because mentally, I am distant because of the dissociation.

If I was having seizures, I wouldn’t be able to communicate. In fact, I had neurological testing done to make sure me shutting down wasn’t absence seizures. When I go into a dissociative trance, I can continue a conversation. I might come off as a little out of it and whoever I’m chatting with might have to repeat themself because of that disconnect between my mind and body, but I’m still able to communicate and have a conversation (at least, have a conversation just as well as when I’m not experiencing a dissociative trance).

There are certain things that are sort of weird and would indicate that I’m experiencing seizures, like what triggers my dissociative trances for example:

Exhaustion makes me more likely to go into frequent dissociative trances throughout the day

Flashing lights cause me to enter a dissociative state; for example, if I play Sonic CD for long enough, I start to dissociate.

I do think I know the reason for this though. I have trauma associated with flashing lights as well as my seizures in general, and my dissociative trances are, fundamentally and by their psychological definition, a trauma response. I wouldn’t be surprised if me entering a dissociative trance upon exposure to flashing lights is a trauma response, because I can very much communicate when I’m in a dissociative trance after exposure to flashing lights.

All of this is without mentioning that I had a 3 day inpatient EEG done when I was 13 (which is what I was referring to when I said I had neurological testing done to make sure me shutting down wasn’t absence seizures) which would’ve detected any absence seizures I would’ve had because I was also experiencing dissociative trances at that point in time (I don’t remember exactly how often, I think at least once a day?).

What I’m experiencing isn’t absence seizures and I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to actually realize that without TikTok’s help honestly. I am very much experiencing dissociative trances because while yes, outwardly it looks similar to absence seizures, I don’t go unresponsive. I can still hold a conversation while I’m in a dissociative trance. I can remember being in dissociative trances, just not what was going on (at least not very well). The DSM-5 specifies that dissociative trances are characterized by “an acute narrowing or complete loss of awareness of immediate surroundings that manifests as profound unresponsiveness or insensitivity to environmental stimuli” which is EXACTLY what I experience. I have an OSDD diagnosis and I’ve experienced dissociation on some level for as long as I can remember. Outside of trances, I’m also in a near constant state of feeling like I’m not in my own body (basically similar experience to depersonalization-derealization disorder, the symptoms for which are likely covered by my OSDD diagnosis since I also experience dissociative trances. Not sure exactly how that works though, I just know you can’t generally have an OSDD diagnosis at the same time as another dissociative disorder because that’s the point of the OSDD diagnosis lol).

The fact that a neurologist is trying to override what I know to be my psychological experiences caused by trauma is not great honestly. Having epilepsy and experiencing dissociative symptoms is not a fun experience when it comes to communicating those dissociative symptoms with a neurologist 🫠

[runawaycarouselhorse]

Most people recognize the jerking and convulsions of a tonic-clonic (formerly known as grand-mal) seizure, but most have no idea what absence (formerly known as petite-mal) seizures look like! They're very subtle. The child (it is a disorder of childhood—my last one was when I was around 14, after many years of no seizures... caused by the banned Powerpuff Girls Gnomey episode, the series' other shorter flashing effects never harmed me, but I appreciate streaming services warning about the effects, as they might cause seizures in other people) seems to space out, staring, and is often unresponsive. Teachers often are the first to notice it in class.

From my personal experience, I remember when I had them frequently as a child (in the "good" old days of CRT TVs and monitors, pre-Pokemon incident, when many cartoons had fast-rate flickering/strobe effects due to ignorance...), I would just be sitting, watching the screen, when suddenly, everything would become brighter and fuzzier. The screen would be too bright to see and human voices like my parents' become indistinct, like I'm hearing it underwater... I briefly forget everything and don't recognize anyone or anything. I often would get floppy and slump in my seat, but because I'm seat against the back of the chair, I think my parents generally did not notice... I sometimes stared at my hands. I wouldn't panic because I have this vague memory of these happening before, even if I forget everything else (it's funny, it's also like I only remembered these happening before when it happens again...), and then, I recover.

Maybe my parents did notice, since I stopped having them a lot while using the computer after a black, transparent piece of plastic was placed over the monitor to dim the brightness (in the older days when monitors didn't come with easy-access brightness options) to protect my eyes...

Have some infographics!

[embergalaxy]

I think I've been having seizures

[ribbitflings]

i wish there was a way to go back to all the doctors and residents that told me that im faking or its all psychogenic and in my head and tell them that they were utterly wrong and they were just too lazy to find the actual answer

[mad-angel-menhera]

Anyone have any ideas on how I fairy tale/fantasyify a (portable/)EEG machine? Or know anything that already has?

Specifically working in the world of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I might do this for my own characters in their own worlds, but i was thinking of giving Cimorene absence seizures.

I was thinking maybe the wires could be Mendanbar's magic, y'know with those invisible strings? I'm sure Telemain and Morwen could come up with something, but I'm kinda stumped.