How do I know if my brain is having a seizure?

What are the symptoms of a seizure?
  1. Staring.
  2. Jerking movements of the arms and legs.
  3. Stiffening of the body.
  4. Loss of consciousness.
  5. Breathing problems or stopping breathing.
  6. Loss of bowel or bladder control.
  7. Falling suddenly for no apparent reason, especially when associated with loss of consciousness.
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What does a brain seizure feel like?

Some seizures cause the body to jerk and shake (a "fit"), while others cause problems like loss of awareness or unusual sensations. They typically pass in a few seconds or minutes. Seizures can occur when you're awake or asleep. Sometimes they can be triggered by something, such as feeling very tired.
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What does your brain feel like before a seizure?

An aura or warning is the first symptom of a seizure and is considered part of the seizure. Often the aura is an indescribable feeling. Other times it's easy to recognize and may be a change in feeling, sensation, thought, or behavior that is similar each time a seizure occurs.
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What does a mini brain seizure feel like?

Absence (or petit mal) seizures: You seem disconnected from others around you and don't respond to them. You may stare blankly into space, and your eyes might roll back in your head. They usually last only a few seconds, and you may not remember having one.
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Can you feel a seizure coming on?

People with partial seizures may experience the following signs seconds or minutes before the actual seizure: Unusual smells, tastes, sounds, or sensations. Nausea. A Déjà vu feeling (you feel like you are experiencing something that has occurred before)
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What Happens in Your Brain During a Seizure | WebMD



How to avoid a seizure?

How to Prevent Seizures
  1. Take All Medication as Prescribed. Anti-epileptic medications can be very effective at helping some people reduce or even eliminate seizures. ...
  2. Sleep. ...
  3. Eat Regular Meals. ...
  4. Avoid Alcohol and Drugs. ...
  5. Exercise. ...
  6. Pay Attention to Fevers. ...
  7. Avoid Flashing Lights. ...
  8. Find a Good Neurologist.
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What triggers seizures?

Missed medication, lack of sleep, stress, alcohol, and menstruation are some of the most common triggers, but there are many more. Flashing lights can cause seizures in some people, but it's much less frequent than you might imagine.
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What can be mistaken for a seizure?

Movement disorders such as Tourette's syndrome or other uncontrolled tics are sometimes mistaken for partial seizures. People with Tourette's syndrome may grunt, clear their throats or even curse involuntarily.
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Can you have a brain seizure and not know it?

Some seizures cause obvious physical movements or loss of consciousness, but in other cases a seizure might not be visible to a bystander — not even a health professional. Some people with undiagnosed epilepsy may not even realize that the strange sensations or emotions they're experiencing are due to a seizure.
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What does a conscious seizure look like?

When people have focal aware seizures, they are fully awake, alert, and able to recall events during the seizure. Some are "frozen" during the seizure, so they may or may not be able to respond to others during the seizures. Overall, these seizures are brief, usually lasting less than 2 minutes.
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What are the 4 stages of a seizure?

The four phases of seizure are:
  • Prodromal.
  • Early ictal (the “aura”)
  • Ictal.
  • Postictal.
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Is a brain seizure serious?

Generally speaking, a generalized tonic-clonic seizure lasting 5 minutes or longer is a medical emergency. If seizures can't be stopped or repeated seizures occur one right after another, permanent injury or death can occur.
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How do you stop a brain seizure?

Treatments include:
  1. medicines called anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs)
  2. surgery to remove a small part of the brain that's causing the seizures.
  3. a procedure to put a small electrical device inside the body that can help control seizures.
  4. a special diet (ketogenic diet) that can help control seizures.
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Can you survive a brain seizure?

Seizures can be fatal, but dying from a seizure is uncommon . Epilepsy is a group of conditions in which people have seizures. However, a person without epilepsy can also have a seizure. Many seizure deaths come from external factors like drowning, falling, or choking that occur during a seizure.
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What does a mini seizure look like?

Absence seizures involve brief, sudden lapses of consciousness. They're more common in children than in adults. Someone having an absence seizure may look like he or she is staring blankly into space for a few seconds. Then, there is a quick return to a normal level of alertness.
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What does an anxiety seizure feel like?

These can include heart palpitations, sweating, trembling and shaking, headaches, dizziness, hot flashes and chills. They are accompanied with a feeling of intense fear. Many of these symptoms can appear similar to epileptic seizures.
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What is like a seizure but not a seizure?

PNES are attacks that may look like epileptic seizures but are not epileptic and instead are cause by psychological factors. Sometimes a specific traumatic event can be identified. PNES are sometimes referred to as psychogenic events, psychological events, or nonepileptic seizures (NES).
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Can anxiety cause seizure like symptoms?

Stress and anxiety can cause the physical symptoms of a seizure that are not caused by abnormal changes in the electrical activity of the brain. These seizures are known as Non-Epileptic Seizures (NES). Stress is also a trigger for people who have been diagnosed with epilepsy.
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Where do most seizures start?

The temporal lobes are the areas of the brain that most commonly give rise to seizures. The mesial portion (middle) of both temporal lobes is very important in epilepsy — it is frequently the source of seizures and can be prone to damage or scarring.
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What goes through your brain during a seizure?

A seizure is a medical condition where you have a temporary, unstoppable surge of electrical activity in your brain. When that happens, the affected brain cells uncontrollably fire signals to others around them. This kind of electrical activity overloads the affected areas of your brain.
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What are 5 things that can cause a seizure?

Causes of seizures can include:
  • Abnormal levels of sodium or glucose in the blood.
  • Brain infection, including meningitis and encephalitis.
  • Brain injury that occurs to the baby during labor or childbirth.
  • Brain problems that occur before birth (congenital brain defects)
  • Brain tumor (rare)
  • Drug abuse.
  • Electric shock.
  • Epilepsy.
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Can drinking water prevent seizures?

Drinking water in between alcoholic drinks can help reduce the chances of a hangover, but will not prevent seizures from occurring.
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What strange behavior happens before a seizure?

Some patients may have a feeling of having lived a certain experience in the past, known as “déjà vu.” Other warning signs preceding seizures include daydreaming, jerking movements of an arm, leg, or body, feeling fuzzy or confused, having periods of forgetfulness, feeling tingling or numbness in a part of the body, ...
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