What Are Seizures?

By amanda

Reviewed: Dr. Mera

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People with epilepsy or frequent seizures may be young, old, disabled, or otherwise healthy. Seizures can affect a wide variety of people, and while they bring to mind a person dropping and convulsing on the floor while an onlooker calls an ambulance, in reality, there are several different types of seizures and treatments for seizure disorders.

It’s possible to have one or several seizures and never suffer from them again, or it’s possible to develop a condition called epilepsy, in which a person is at high risk of multiple seizures. Read on to discover the most common types of seizures, their treatments, and what you can do to help yourself or someone you love who has a seizure disorder.

1. What Are the Symptoms of Seizures?

When someone has a seizure, certain neurons in the brain experience abnormal paroxysmal discharges in highly excitable regions of the brain’s outer layer (cortex). Symptoms depend on which part of the brain is affected and whether the seizure is determined to be “focal,” when only a specific region or hemisphere of the brain is affected, or “generalized,” when parts of both hemispheres are affected simultaneously.

Seizures can look like what you may see on TV, or they can be quite anticlimactic. Some patients have seizures in which they simply stare into the distance for a few seconds and then return to the conversation as if nothing happened.