There are many people having the tendency to suffer from frequent and recurrent seizures. This condition is known as epilepsy. Seizures can be of various types. However, those who suffer from epilepsy or have been diagnosed with this condition usually show only 1 kind of seizure whereas other people may experience two or three types of seizures. The other name for epilepsy can easily be seizure disorder. However you need not be afraid if someone you know and meet regularly suffers from epilepsy because the disease is not contagious.
Symptoms of epilepsy
There is a disturbance in the brain where the electrical activity takes place when an epileptic individual experiences seizures. The symptoms will vary depending on the location of the electrical disturbance in the brain. An epileptic individual suffering from grand mal or tonic clonic seizure will suffer from muscle jerks, rigidity of muscles, fall down on the ground, lose consciousness or cry out.
If it is a complex partial seizure, then the individual will look dazed or confused and if you ask him for directions or ask him questions, he won’t be able to respond for his mind and brain will be clouded. In some other people, the seizures are not that noticeable and other individuals surrounding that person will not notice when the seizures are coming on.
In case of a petit mal seizure or absence, the only sign or symptom that the individual will experience will be a few seconds of blankness or staring vacantly into space and blinking rapidly.
Simple partial seizures symptoms
Majority of the patients are characterized by stereotypical signs and symptoms. Some of the motor symptoms are arrest of vocalization and speech, asymmetrical posturing of limbs, turning of the head and movements of the eye to the same side, alternating relaxation and contraction of the groups of muscles.
The sensory symptoms are lightheadedness, dizziness, experiencing unpleasant tastes and odors, hearing of hissing or buzzing or humming sounds, experiencing hallucinations, illusions and seeing flashes of colors and lights. The autonomic symptoms and signs are rapid heart beat rate or tachycardia, sweating, papillary dilation, goose bumps or piloerection, vomiting, nausea, incontinence troubles, flushing and borborygmi.