Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in the brain that happens when brain activity becomes abnormal, which can cause seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations, or even loss of awareness. Epilepsy doesn’t target a specific type of person, so anyone could develop it over time. There are 3.4 million people that have epilepsy in the United States and some of them don’t understand how or why it happened because it was so random (About Epilepsy: The Basics, n.d.). Understanding how epilepsy works and what is happening when someone has a seizure may help an individual in case they come across someone having seizures due to an epileptic episode or if someone they know is diagnosed with epilepsy. The first step to understanding epilepsy is understanding the symptoms to it.
If someone has a seizure for no reason and starts showing symptoms such as being confused (temporarily), staring “into thin air” for a longer period of time than normal, uncontrollable jerking of the arms and legs, losing consciousness, and developing anxiety or having more feelings of fear than normal; these symptoms followed by seizures are usual signs of epilepsy. For these seizures, they are typically categorized into focal or generalized seizures,
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One of the most leading causes of epilepsy is head trauma (most likely from an accident) which is known as “Post Traumatic Epilepsy.” Another cause is brain conditions; when someone has had a stroke or brain tumor in the past they have a higher chance of developing epilepsy. Also, infectious diseases (such as meningitis and AIDS) can cause epilepsy. Lastly, prenatal injuries: mother acquires an infection or oxygen deficiency to the baby and developmental disorders: autism and neurofibromatosis (Epilepsy, 2017). To figure out if someone actually has epilepsy, they will go through tests to be