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Epilepsy – Facts

November 17, 2021
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Did you know that about 30% of people who have a diagnosis of epilepsy don’t have epileptic seizures at all? Did you know that a lot of times the real diagnosis isn’t figured out for up to five to seven years? That’s five to seven years of someone walking around thinking that they have epileptic seizures when they don’t. That’s five to seven years of trying medications that aren’t designed to work for them and enduring those side effects. That’s five to seven years of thinking something about themselves that’s not true. That within itself can be traumatic for someone and cause them to mistrust the medical system. Non-epileptic events occur in people who have undergone some form of abuse – physical, emotional, or sexual. Sometimes the person’s not even aware of the trauma they’ve experienced until they start doing the work to understand why they have these episodes. It reminds me of a patient I once had who presented with uncontrolled seizures. We put her on video EEG and captured one of her episodes. It was clear from that episode that she had been a victim of sexual abuse. It was something she had long forgotten, but the subconscious mind records everything – even when we’re not aware of it. All the traumas, all the tough moments, very time someone said something bad about us, did something bad to us, hurt us in some way – it all gets recorded. It was only when we started to unpack that trauma that we could begin to understand her triggers and help her get better. Non-epileptic events can be tougher to treat than epileptic seizures. There’s no magic pill that’s going to delete the traumatic experience from the person’s conscious or subconscious mind. It takes a lot of work to uncover and unpack the trauma, as well to heal from it. Not only that, but no one can ever be certain about what will trigger the subconscious mind to bring that traumatic recording back to the forefront of the person’s awareness and then take control over their brain and body. The treatment of non-epileptic seizures involves a multidisciplinary approach. It involves a team that includes the neurologist, neuropsychologist, therapists, possibly a psychiatrist, and the internal medicine doctor. It takes a lot of work and there are no guarantees. Often the person will have moments where they do well and times where they are being triggered to no end, but the work is well worth it because it gives them the best chance of recovering and creating the life that they desire.

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