Can you have auras without seizures

Gemma describes what happens when she has an absence in the middle of conversation and how How long do the absences last for you? Just a few seconds which in itself isn't too bad but when you consider that most of the time it's sort of a sequence of a few you then, begin to lose sort of a minute of whatever's going on and then it's 'oh what are we doing? Yeah I found that quite upsetting.

People used to say to me that I hadn't been listening to them and I was like, 'Well you didn't say it. Does it always click with you, that must mean that I've had a seizure? Yeah I think it does because you're not always aware that you've had them until you know that you've missed something and if someone says, 'Oh I told you that a minute ago.

But I think with those they're quite common, I think, from people say you grow out of them as you get older but I've grown into them so [laughs]. I think I'd just take those ones with a pinch of salt it just happens. You can't go back and do anything about it so just make sure everyone tells me everything at least three times so that at least I know I've heard it once [laughs].

Do you feel that you have had to work harder because of some lessons or some things have been more patchy? It's been noticeable the last few weeks when I've been going sort of class work to revise and I thought 'we weren't taught that'. I've got this photocopied sheet and I thought 'we haven't done that'.

But obviously we have it's in my folder. I think it's just taken a bit more input from me and I've had to work a bit harder in that respect just to catch up what I've missed kind of [laughs]. Anna tries to remember to tell people about absence seizures to avoid 'social awkwardness'. I mean there is no physical change; I don't feel unwell at all. If it's with people I don't know well, it can be quite embarrassing.

If I forget to tell people, I think I should, I try and remember to tell them before I have a seizure, so they know if it happens.

A couple of times with tutors or friends I've had a seizure and then had to explain afterwards, and that can make them I think feel uncomfortable which then reflects back onto me.

I feel guilty that I've not told them, and that it's broken into a conversation, and it's disrupting, what we're talking about. It's not a physical feeling, it's more a kind of social awkwardness, that it can be normally, because most people are very understanding of it, it's just kind of more because its disrupted the conversation.

I very rarely have a negative reaction to it, and that can be difficult, that can be really difficult, but it's so rare, that is generally fine. Martyn kept his absences a secret for years and learnt to think quickly 'on his feet' when he When I first got them, I managed to, I became a really quick thinker because I had to pull myself out of situations.

I had to say, 'Sorry I've, God I had a heavy night'. Or something but I was eleven so I never had a heavy night in the sense of drinking but [laughs] it was a bad night you know. Whereas the ones I have now if I have a petit mal seizure, I'll still be slightly disorientated afterwards I won't be able to think like that. I don't think that's to do with the medicine or if it's to do with it's just progressed slightly stronger.

The reason I had to admit to so many people is because I couldn't think on my feet straightaway. You see a look of someone, you're chatting to them and suddenly, you realise, ah no it's happened again. But I wasn't able to think quickly enough on my feet to cover myself for that, because I felt a bit mucked ups.

Now there are times when I think I can know if it's happened and because there'll be that slight sensation in my head where you think I wouldn't be able to think on my feet really quickly right now. And it's so minimal but it's the difference between being able to completely make an excuse and brand new straightaway, from coming round, seeing their face and straightaway within a second saying, 'Oh sorry, tired', to then having to see their face and say, 'Did something happen?

Because I can't react and I'm not that straightaway. But the only way I really know is if I'm with someone, talking to someone or if I'm running and then I've stopped, I know I've had something.

Carole had an absence seizure on a train but the ticket collector thought she was messing around I actually didn't, I'm going to admit [laughs], I tried bunking the train basically. I remember this man saying, 'Can I have your ticket? Then he was sort of shouting at me and I fell on the floor and then he thought it had got even worse, you know I was not going to move. They didn't move the train and they were like 'This girl is causing problems,' and they actually, four of them came and physically carried me off the train and this police officer got involved and it got blown out of proportion.

I was absolutely furious cos I was like, 'How dare you? I was having an absence. I was just so furious and it's yet again that battle of not everyone's gonna know, they just thought I was being a petulant teenager not paying and not moving and stuff like that but.

It's yet again another, another thing that just happens. Charli describes what happens to her when she has a tonic-clonic seizure. It's always the same sort of thing that happens, with me I'm quite lucky I know whether I'm gonna go.

But this one, obviously being my first one, I didn't have a clue. All of a sudden my vision started to get blurry and I started to twitch. I know that epileptics there's lots of different ways people have seizures, there's big seizures, small seizures, seizures that you don't even know happen.

I twitch and I sort of start turning round and I start spinning round and then I'll just fall to the floor, have a seizure, I think I start shaking and, and whatever happens next. Then that's it, all I can remember next is being taken out of the school and put into an ambulance and I don't remember any of the period. Like basically I had to get down these big stairs, I don't remember getting down these stairs, like I was in a wheelchair they must've had to carry me down, it was really strange.

So that first experience it was like 'God what was that? Until the second one, that's when I thought there must be something wrong. In my whole time since I've been diagnosed which was in , I haven't really had that many seizures. I've had about six, since my GCSE exam in , it's not that major actually, compared to some people who've got it anyway.

I'm quite lucky. When Harry's seizures were at worst, he couldn't leave the house on his own and felt his life was Harry' Basically when my epilepsy was at its worst my life was hell. I would wake up at day assuming I was going to have a seizure. Mum' We'd be lying in bed waiting for it happen, doors open, pillows on the floor, couldn't sleep. Harry' I would actually have to sleep with pillows on the floor, had to move all my tables around because I would bang my head a few times.

Mum' We've had you on a mattress in our room haven't we? Harry' Yeah, I've had to sleep in my parent's room on the floor sometimes. Mum' You're just always on edge, always constantly on a knife edge with it. Harry' That was it yeah. We were just waiting for it to happen. And it was like going over the top really, you just waiting, you don't want it to happen quick to get it over and done with but you're still, you're waiting, you're anxious for it to just you know like' Mum' Get it over Harry' And I was always, like if a bit of light was shining in, I was quite' paranoid wasn't the word because often I was right it did lead to a seizure.

But when I didn't, like the light it was shining, I was like, 'I don't like this light, shut the curtains quickly. I would just get so upset when I had a bad seizure 'cos it would take me out of college and I loved college really. I loved going to college this one, it's one of my favourite things to do really. Mum' And wouldn't be able to go anywhere without being on edge. Harry' And I would occasionally feel a bit guilty or like my parents couldn't go out sometimes.

Could you just describe what your life was like? Harry' Well I was an 18, 19 year old who couldn't walk down the paper shop on my own. I couldn't walk my dog. I couldn't, I couldn't do anything really. Mum' You couldn't use the bus 'cos you couldn't use public transport. Harry' No, I couldn't use the bus 'cos I had a seizure on the bus, and I got off and I was like wandering around the dual carriageway.

Mum' He didn't get off at the stop did you, and I had to get the car out and chase him up the dual carriageway. Harry' That was very scary a couple of hours after it thinking what could've happened, yeah. Also one of the big fears that I had when I was having these big fits is what if I have some, is it one fit, 'cos these fits are usually dangerous in the sense that they're dangerous to you, your brain can't take it so, 'cos your brain can only take so much.

And I was worried that one day I would wake up and I wouldn't be able to walk or, I would wake up as a you know. Mum' Cabbage. Harry' A vegetable basically. And I wasn't afraid of dying really, I was afraid of that because I always thought if I have a seizure and I die I don't know about it, that's it, but if I'm in a wheelchair or I don't want my life ruined by it.

Becky feels disorientated, groggy and really upset after a seizure. I think my seizures from what people tell me, from what I know, they last for about 2 to 3 minutes I think. That's from me sort of flaying round and you know, and then I gradually sort of come round. Very disorientated, very, a loss of co-ordination, which also sometimes happens before I have them as well. I lose my co-ordination a bit, like I said to you before when I was talking about my friends like if I can't string my words together.

After I gradually come round after my seizures, I'm very distressed, really really upset and I never know where I am. I don't usually know what's happened as well. I don't usually know I've had a seizure.

Someone usually has to tell me. And then I get very upset, cry, cry a lot, quite often I'm sick afterwards as well. I'm like very groggy, and then tired really and I just need to sleep, and I sleep for about 3 or 4 hours maybe.

Then usually I come round and I'm fine again after that. Like I said to you I went power boat riding in the afternoon when I was in Florida, it's just a case of needing to sleep off the you know, come out of the grogginess, and sleep off the what's the word' being unaware of where I am and things like that. A taxi driver refused to give Rania a lift after she'd just had a seizure - she felt groggy and I'm completely unconscious, and I just stiffen up and sort of spasm. My muscles tense up and that so I get a lot of injuries through it you know.

And then they usually last well, one that isn't bad will last under 5 minutes. Auras also have a further advantage for patients who have been treated with a vagus nerve stimulator, a surgically implanted device that delivers electrical pulses at regular intervals to help prevent seizures.

If the patient develops an aura when the device is not delivering an electrical pulse, the patient can use a magnet to provide an extra jolt and potentially thwart the seizure.

At UC Health, we lead the region in scientific discoveries and embrace a spirit of purpose — offering our patients and their families something beyond everyday healthcare. At UC Health, we offer hope. For more information, call:. Contact Us. For more information, call: This is not the same as having epilepsy, which is a tendency to have seizures that start in the brain.

In focal aware seizures FAS , previously called simple partial seizures, the person is conscious aware and alert and will usually know that something is happening and will remember the seizure afterwards. Epilepsy is not just one condition, but a group of many different 'epilepsies' with one thing in common: a tendency to have seizures that start in the brain.

Download the PDF Order the leaflet from our shop. For some types of seizures, there can be a warning. A seizure aura is a phenomenon where your brain signals the approach of an oncoming seizure. An aura is the feeling you may have before the onset of a seizure. Typically, these occur before a focal seizure. However, research suggests that nearly 65 percent of people with generalized epilepsy may experience auras as well.

Auras are actually a type of seizure called focal aware seizures FAS. Auras can include many sensations, from sights, sounds, or smells to pain, numbness, or headaches. The frontal lobe of the brain is located in your forehead area. It controls things like emotional expression, your memories, language, judgment, problem-solving skills, and sexual behavior.

Your frontal lobe is also responsible for much of your personality — it makes you who you are. While auras, or focal seizures, in this area may be mild, there are also more severe seizures and seizure disorders that affect the frontal lobe, causing more significant symptoms.

The temporal lobe of the brain is located behind your ears, and it controls auditory processing and making the sounds of spoken language meaningful. The parietal lobe is located near the center of the brain behind the frontal lobe. It contains the primary sensory area in which sensations in the skin like warmth, cold, and touch are processed. The parietal lobe is also responsible for helping you understand written language and mathematics and judge spatial things like size, distance, and shapes.

The occipital lobe of the brain is located at the back and base of the skull. It contains your primary visual cortex and receives direct input from your retina. Your occipital lobe is responsible for your ability to see, read and understand written language, and process all types of visual information, like colors and shapes.

Some believe auras are simply a warning sign of a coming seizure, but many consider them small seizures. They can be detected during an electroencephalogram EEG , a test that measures electrical signals in the brain.

Some experts believe that auras are caused when a seizure creates a new pathway in the brain that crosses an existing neural pathway for a feeling, sensation, smell, sight, or sound — and forms a permanent connection. Once created, that neural connection acts as a precursor or warning for any seizure that occurs on that specific pathway.