What is having a seizure / fit like?

Do you just blackout, or are you aware of everything going on but are completely unable to control yourself, or what?

I suffer from Vasovegal Syncopy and have numerous times in the past fainted dead away.

Before I pass out I get a weird sensation (prodrome) so I know when it’s going to happen, which is nice, since it gives me time to get on the ground before I pass out.

Within a minute I will black out, for what I am told is 15-20 seconds, and twitch on the ground as if I am having a seizure, and during that I time I don’t hear or feel anything, then I begin to wake up, usually somewhat disoriented.

After about 5 minutes I am back on my feet and fully aware.

Fortunately this doesn’t happen very often…

I have a very brief period, I estimate a second perhaps, when I feel a nauseous then I am out for long enough that I usually wake up in the hospital. My tongue has been chewed up badly and my lower back is in considerable pain. I have difficulty doing anything, even going to the bathroom for a day or two.

Since 1983 I have been controlled by an old medication. It annoys the hell out of young neurologist that the new medications cause problems. The last new med they tried caused me to pull my hair out in the night.

My condition is called “idiopathic seizure disorder”.

I had a nervous breakdown culminating in a grand mal seizure, and leading up to the actual seizure, I couldn’t communicate very effectively. But everything I remember doing made sense at the time, such as practically slamming a Bible into my sister’s chest. I don’t remember throwing my cat halfway across the room (he forgave me), and I barely remember the police arriving and asking for me to sit down.

Then I actually had the seizure, and I have very intermittent memory of the following two or three days.

Certain parts of my body would shake uncontrollably (arm, foot, etc.), and I knew something was about to happen. Then I woke up on the way back from the MRI where they’d wheeled my entire hospital bed. My mother says I basically passed out (in a very dramatic fashion as she explains it) but I assume there was some seizing going on because they put me on anti-seizure meds right then. Luckily I was already in the hospital when all this happened. I don’t remember any of it.

I witnessed my BF having a seizure.

He had about 0.5 seconds to warn me, where he felt “dizzy.” By the time I looked up to see what he was warning me about, his face and body were already contorting and he was headed for a fall. He was already on the bed, so I didn’t have to rush to try to catch him; I just made sure he wasn’t going to hit his head on the bed frame or anything. After he said, “Hold on a second,” he remembers nothing else. The seizure lasted maybe a whole minute, during which he bit up his tongue pretty good, but didn’t lose bladder control or anything like that. He was completely unaware of anything – basically unconscious.

When he woke up, he was very disoriented, confused, and reported feeling scared. He knew me and was verbal right away, but very confused about what had been going in in the minutes right before the seizure. He had lost some of his words and it took a while (couple hours) to regroup and get all that back. Example: I mentioned feeling “awkward” and he asked me what awkward meant. I needed to unlock something and held up his key chain and asked him which key to use and he stared at them as if he’d never seen keys before (I figured it out). A few hours later, he was right as rain, although his memory of the hour before and after the seizure is very spotty, if he remembers much at all. He also has a lot of pain following a seizure from the muscles contracting so hard.

His seizure disorder was from a brain surgery he’d had. He hasn’t had a seizure in about a year, so we’re hoping he can taper down his anti-seizure meds soon.

So yeah, basically blacks out and is in no control of his body until he wakes up again. His motor skills, coordination, and balance were fine immediately after (although he said he felt dizzy, and yes, I got meds into him immediately and stayed with him all night to make sure he didn’t have another one).

Me too!

But for some reason, the last few times it happened to me (and it’s actually been several years, even though for most of my life it happened at least once a year or so) I had very vivid, almost hallucinatory dreamlike experiences as I was coming out of it. (Prior to that, it had simply been everything going black and then I woke up.) And on one occasion, I had a very strange experience coming out of it wherein I could see everything, but I literally could not understand anything I was seeing. I couldn’t even tell where objects began and ended. It was as though I was seeing patches of color with no meaningful connection between any of them. This just lasted for a few seconds.

And for some reason, the first thought that came to me was “So I guess I died and went to hell?” Which was weird because it wasn’t scary or anything. Just strange.

I have partial complex seizures of the left temporal lobe. For those of you not familiar with the vernacular: Complex: Affects higher cognitive functions, Partial: Involving only a portion of the brain. Most folks think of the Grand Mal seizure…which is, in French; Big Bad. These are Complex, Full seizures…you’re out.
I would have any of three symptoms: A feeling that I’m falling forward and a tingling on the tops of my arms. I would, apparently, “check out”, as my wife says for half a minute or so. Staring into nothingness. The two other symptoms get tot he left temporal lobe. On occasion I could not vocalize. I knew what I wanted to say, but could not get my mouth to form the words. Theother was auditory hallucinations. I would hear people saying things they were not saying. The episode that sent me to the doc was a sportscaster who went on and on about something not sports (after a few seconds, I no longer remember what I heard, but I do recall that it wasn’t right), I recall watching his lips moving to what I was hearing, but it wasn’t what he should be saying. He then went back to baseball. Odd, I thought, and I backed up the TiVo. Yep…baseball the whole time.
An MRI and a 72 hour EEG later and I’m on meds forever.
To the OP’s question… I think you’l find as many answers out there as there are people to write them. The brain is a funny, funny thing.

The blood has rushed out of your head down to your legs. Whenever you deprive your brain of blood strange things happen, like loss of consciousness, so hallucinations would not be unexpected. I haven’t had any yet.

Depends on the severity.

When I have an “aura” or “focal” seizure, which are minor, I can’t control them. Most of the time, you wouldn’t even be aware I’m having one, in fact. My mind basically starts spinning – it’s like someone put my thoughts into a blender. Nothing makes sense*. I KNOW it doesn’t make sense, but I still can’t stop it. I get pins and needles all over my body, there are weird smells, and then I start hyperventilating. It usually only lasts for a few seconds, but they’re scary as hell.
The big ones are almost always blackouts. I can’t really tell you exactly what happens, because I don’t remember, but all I know is that I do the bite my tongue, black out, thing. I’ll wake up, wander around for a bit, and then go lay down somewhere. I’m usually as confused as hell, I don’t know where I am, or remember things. (For example, my sister and I switched rooms a few years ago. After I’d have a seizure, I’d try and go lay down in her room, which was my old room.) Then the next time I wake up, I have no memory of what happened. I have an enormous headache, and my mouth is bitten all to hell.

I usually feel sort of “out of it” for a few days, you know? I call it a “seizure hangover”.

I think I’m just going to bookmark this post and link to it when people ask about what a seizure’s like.

*Anyone remember Homer’s “shoehorn butterhorse” thread? It’s almost exactly like that.

My mother has seizures, one just last week (she’s only had four in her life). It seems to be like a reset button. She goes down, blacking out essentially, is on the floor for a few minutes and then proceeds to come to. After she’s conscious she’s very out of it and confused for about ten minutes. Then for the next hour she’s herself but not as sharp (similar to if she was staying up way too late).

My dog has them occasionally. Obviously, she can’t tell me what she’s feeling, but she is consistently very agitated for a half-hour or so afterward, pacing around quickly and ignoring food (which she never does otherwise).

I’ve never had a seizure, but I can describe my father’s one and only (not one that killed him, but almost) seizure that I saw. It was 2003, we were at the funeral home (of all places) for visitation for my grandmother (his mother in law).

We took a break and went back to a family member’s house for dinner. On the way back to the funeral home, Dad was driving and we stopped along the way to help a couple with car trouble. Dad had a set of jumper cables. We hooked them up, and they went on their way.

We arrived at the funeral home, walked inside and at the door to the room where my grandmother was, we parted ways; my Dad went to the right, and I saw my wife (at the time) to the left sitting on a couch. No sooner had I sat down when my wife said, “There’s something wrong with your Dad!”

I looked up and he was walked back out the same door as we came in. The only way I can describe it is that he was mugging for a camera. A smile, a right arm in a wave, a stagger, rinse and repeat. It was a Charlie Chaplin moment almost.

I ran out the door and thought he was having an anxiety attack. My mother, an RN, said that he was seizing and said to put him on the floor. So I tackled him. :wink: She gave me a stern look, but I realized the seriousness of the event when his face turned white as the background of the SDMB.

Another RN in the visitation room came out; they did a brief assessment and agreed that he was in cardiac arrest. They did breaths and chest compressions for about 30 seconds while I’m screaming at the old man to wake up. They both told me to keep talking to him. (I don’t know if that helps or they were just keeping me occupied).

After that 30 seconds he was taking shallow breaths. My Mom stopped providing breaths because she said that he was going to vomit in his mouth. Well, I immediately pulled his head up and started pounding on his back telling him to throw up. Mom said to back off a little. :wink:

He was in a semi-sitting position when his eyes opened and color was coming back. I asked him if he knew where he was. He gave me a look as if to say, “You dumb motherfucker, of course I know where I am!” But he was way off for the location of his initial guess.

We saved him that night, but lost him 5 years later. I’ll never forget a seizure as long as I live…and it wasn’t me feeling it.

To answer the OP, Dad said he remembered walking through the door the first time and feeling that he couldn’t control his arm. The arm kept raising up. It embarrassed him, so he wanted to leave to see what was wrong and not have others see it. That was the last memory he had until I asked him where he was. He said he felt no pain or no other memories.

I just wanted to thank everyone who’s posted so far for one of the most interesting and enlightening threads on the SDMB ever. Thank you.

I forgot this; my dog has had them too. Once it was just his front left leg and it really freaked him out and he whined as though he were in pain. The second two times, he was fully aware but less scared each successive time, calm actually, and I just held him till it was over. He was shaking all over but relatively mobile. Once it happened while he was napping upstairs and he came down to us when it started. When they were over, he was completely normal again.

One time just before my daughter had one (a 2 years old), she grabbed onto the table and looked scared. Then she went down twitching.

That’s taking the old joke about dogs and their owners starting to look like each other to a whole new level! :wink:

(I don’t mean to make light of your experiences; it’s just fascinating how these things can happen sometimes).

Wow, I never knew I had so much company on this board.

I have had several different kinds of seizures over the years, and they seem similar to Guinastasia’s. I most frequently have simple partial seizures. Like some people described it’s sort of an aura feeling similar to déjà vu. I can’t exactly tell you how things feel different, they just do. Sometimes it lasts 30 seconds, sometimes it’s so brief (but still so strong) that it can cause me to jump.

When I was first diagnosed the simple partial seizures could lead to complex partial seizures. I would black out and do whatever it was I was in the middle of doing. Often the people around me wouldn’t even know (my wife and my mom got good at it though). I’ve been told I would flick my ear and make chewing movements. Once I had one during marching band right as we stepped onto the field. I started with everyone, stopped with everyone, turned with everyone and missed the correct spot by a half-dozen steps. Not bad for doing in subconsciously.

They could last around 1-5 minutes, and like others I would afterwards be kind of confused, tired, and have a bad headache. I would often not remember the few moments right before I blacked out.

I have also had a few full body/tonic-clonic/grand mal seizures. They have only happened in my sleep though, within a few minutes. The first time my wife (fiancée at the time) witnessed it while I was napping. (I’ll tell that whole story another time, I’m starting to ramble.) I’ve only had about 5, but they included the kicking and jerking you see on TV. I’m usually still out for a minute or so after the seizing stops, and tired and groggy after that.

Recently (the past year or so) I’ve had seizures that are an in between of simple partial and complex partial. They sound similar to what **TheBori **has. I get the strong déjà vu but stay conscious. I have some audio hallucinations; I hear the people around me talking and I know what they’re about to say because it’s the exact same thing they were talking about the last time I had a seizure! (As soon as it’s over though, I have no idea what it was). Again like TheBori I have trouble talking and finding words and I say weird things if asked questions, which is how my wife can tell how long it last. This has led to some interesting conversations.

Wife: What day of the week is it?
Me: [Thinking] *Day of the week . . . it starts with a “T” . . . which days start with “T?” * [Speaking]: Ta . . . Th . . . Today.

Another time:

Wife: What month is it?
Me: October
Wife: Good. Spell “stop.”
Me: I’m fine! It’s over!
Wife: Spell it!
Me: S – T – O . . . [meekly] Shut up.

As far as the brain being weird, how’s this. My seizures affect my (for lack of a better word) “current awareness” and short term memory but don’t touch my long term memory. If my wonderfully amazing wife asks me “Who is your wife” I’ll respond “Mrs. Gedd.” If she asks “Who am I” I appologize and say “I’m sorry, I know I should know, but I don’t.”

Have any of you lost your drivers licenses because of these kinds of seizures?

Will various kinds of partial seizures result in your license getting yanked? Do you avoid going to doctors and getting any kinds of diagnosis and/or treatment because you fear your license will get pulled?

What kind of partial seizures do you think would be possible, and NOT cause you to be unfit to drive a car?

I got my driver’s license when I was 25 and had it for about a year and a half when I started having seizures again. I had a “medical card” that went with my license and I had to have my neurologist renew it every six months. I think that’s how long you have to go seizure free in most states.

I think even a simple partial seizure could be enough to cause a car accident. Even losing you focus for 1 second on the highway can send you 100 feet during rush hour traffic with no control. When I had my license I stopped driving the first time I had an aura in two years. I guess if you only ever had simple partial seizures your doctor might say it’s OK, but there’s no guarantee they won’t lead to longer and/or stronger ones.

Yes it’s hard having two kids and only one driver, but I’m not going to risk blacking out at 65mph. Driving is soooooo not worth it, and I’m not about to lie to the doctor who’s trying to help me get rid of my seizures. (Plus our car insurance is cheaper with one driver.)