Please tell me I'm not alone!

[bmanon]

Hello, I'm new, and I'm here becuase I'm the only person I know with epilepsy. I have a question though. I was reccently out with a freind and I had a problem. I couldn't get on the escalator with her and I had to explain why. It was really embarrasing, and hard to explain. But she was fascinated and started doing all this research. She's actually the one who suggested I get on a forum and see if anyone else has the same issues. So here goes:

I have a very strange trigger for my seizers. Its not the only one, but its certainly one of the more odd and embarrassing ones. I have a problem with long, enclosed escalators. That’s right, not just any old escalator. A nice, short escalator, that is very open doesn’t seem to bother me. But I live in the DC area and I use metro a lot. Many of their escalators are very long and are enclosed, as they go underground. I can NOT ride them. I begin to loose all sense of equilibrium, followed by dizziness, and then a seizure. Thank God the 2 times its happened, I was with 1. my uncle and 2. my husband. Both were able to catch me, mid fall. Now, I avoid them at all costs. I don’t know if this is some sort of epilepsy enhanced vertigo or if it’s a bizarre case of claustrophobia. I’m not normally claustrophobic. I’ve read that some other epileptics have problems with escalators because of the moving stripes, but that doesn’t seem to be my issue. It’s standing on them while they are moving me, down a tunnel. Does anyone else have a similar trigger, or at least something very specific? Some people treat me like I’m making this up, but why would I? This is really a huge inconvenience to my daily life. As if all the other epileptic symptoms weren’t bad enough! Please tell me I’m not alone!

[Bernard]

Hi bmanon, welcome to the forum.

It sounds like a form of "reflex epilepsy" where sensory stimulous is a seizure trigger. It can happen with any of the senses - light (photosensitivity), touch (startle reflex), hearing (volume or specific sounds), taste & smell.

[brain]

Bmanon!

Welcome to CWE! My little sister has
great fears of escalators, and a lot of
other people do too, they'll rather use
the stairs or elevator that to go on a
moving escalator.

------------------------------------

I cannot go on fast moving people movers.
(like at airports) Those aren't escalators,
but people movers and if I end up having
to be stuck with one, I try to wedge myself
between someone in front of me so I don't
see things moving so quickly.

[KAM]

You're not alone. It happened to me after I flew for the first time since brain surgery. When the cabin was pressurizing it sounded like the 4th of July inside my head, I was at the Atlanta airport and those escalators are so long, I actually grabbed the side and prayed I wouldn't pass out or seize. My ears were plugged for a few days so I don't know if had something to do with the inner ear but to this day, I stay away from the escalator unless someone is with me. It is really annoying to look for the stairs or elevator when the escalator is right there but better to be safe. Maybe when I fly again, it will readjust whatever it adjusted in the first place. One thing I did noticed was if you treat it like stairs, keep moving and look up, I am less likely to have issues. Good luck.