Absence Seizures?

[Blue Eyes]

Is it possible to remain conscious, but frozen during an absence seizure? I am having brief, less than a minute,, episodes where I become motionless. If it happens during a conversation, my thoughts become sluggish and I cannot respond. However, I am aware that I need to move/talk because I know I must look like an idiot. Haven't spoken to my neurologist, yet, but my PCP says they are absence seizures. From what I read, though, a person loses awareness during those.

Thank you for your input.

Blue Eyes

[valeriedl]

You can have a mix of absence seizures with other types of seizures.

I'll have seizures similar to ones that you are describing. I'll be aware of what's going on around me and know what I'm doing. I may be talking to someone, I know what I'm saying and what the person is saying to me but usually the only thing that comes out of my mouth is "Yea, Yea, Yea". I can't just can't make up the words. This is usually how my husband realizes that I'm having a seizure like that.

If I'm holding something, the phone for example, my husband will try to take it off of me but he basically has to force me to give it to him.

I know everything that went on during this seizure, I don't black out, I just don't realize that I'm having the seizure.

[Blue Eyes]

Thank you, Valarie. I want SO much for my doctor to be wrong, but even when I asked her about it, I knew--I've had it happen enough times to know that there is no other explanation for it. I'm thinking that, even though I THINK I am aware for the whole event, I might be missing such a small amount of time, like 10 seconds at the start, that I don't even realize it. Maybe I remember all BUT 10 seconds, you know?

Blue Eyes

[epileric]

I have to admit the hard part is not necessarily losing consciousness, it's the fact that we feel as though we've been aware all the time. what makes it even harder is that after a seizure I don't necessarily know if I've lost consciousness.

I'd always thought I was aware during my smaller seizures until one daywhen I was walking on the sidewalk and had one of my smaller seizures, the bus-stop was about 4 yards ahead then I blinked & I'd passed the bus-stop. I found it weird but realized it was because I'd blanked out for a while however it was easy to justify it as a one time thing & I forgot about it.

A few years later at school I was asked to be a teachers aid. The first day just before starting I had a small seizure, nothing anybody would notice but as soon as it was over the teacher (who knew I had seizures) looked & me with that look that says "are you ready now?". I thought nothing of it until half-way through the day I'd realized she knew when my seizure was over. When I asked her about it she said I was still except my head sort of turned right & rocked a bit (that used to happen to me as a kid but I was aware of it). I had no awareness of that and that was what made it scary. I also think that having someone else tell me what happened forced me to accept that I do blank out even if I don't feel like I did.

[mommyexpress]

When I had mine back in February of last year, my husband had to have told me all that I had done. I just remember what happened afterwards. I do remember on a certain occasion going to the grocery store and putting the car in reverse. I ended up hitting another car also going in reverse, but she did not want to wait and get insurance info. In my head I rememeber thinking something is wrong me. There really was no car damage. That was a Thursday and on Friday is when I had four gran mal seizures.

[petero]

Is it possible to remain conscious, but frozen during an absence seizure?

by definition, "no". I guess.

are you sure you're conscious the entire time?

I've had a few incidents where I'll start having a tunnel vision type of thing begin, and have an acute awareness that I've been making a mouth noise for a little bit (the most recent one I recall it was a sortof "AAHB AAHB AAHB" noise accompanied by my hands doing something rolling, repetitive).

but the awareness seemed like the last thing before freefalling away from it
(I'm using the term freefalling because of a possible explanation of myoclonic tics as the brain responding to a feeling of freefalling I read yesterday, but it seems like an adequate description... but freefalling backwards 'into' myself).

for me it has been like drifting into a daydream, but not being able to snap out of it, and then drifting to the point it becomes somewhat frightening

the few I've had of these over the past year and they've all occurred while I've been alone, so really I'm not sure how long this period lasted, or if it developed into something else, but it seemed pretty brief, like 2-3 minutes maybe, overall. But really I'm not exactly sure, because I'd had another T-C seizure within the past few months where I guess my "aura" was along these same lines, but it developed into a T-C seizure my mom said. I was in the car with her at that time.

when I get those seizures though I tend to sortof enjoy them because they seem like a mid-way point between "this" world and "that" world without going all of the way "there".

[petero]

I have to admit the hard part is not necessarily losing consciousness, it's the fact that we feel as though we've been aware all the time. what makes it even harder is that after a seizure I don't necessarily know if I've lost consciousness.
...
A few years later at school I was asked to be a teachers aid. The first day just before starting I had a small seizure, nothing anybody would notice but as soon as it was over the teacher (who knew I had seizures) looked & me with that look that says "are you ready now?".
...
I had no awareness of that and that was what made it scary. I also think that having someone else tell me what happened forced me to accept that I do blank out even if I don't feel like I did.

EXACTLY

that's the hardest thing - that the entire universe time-travels around me
suddenly having a black eye for no reason whatsoever sucks
having my work desk 'instantaneously' turn into paramedics sucks
it's the lack of control
it's a small step to feeling like a sort of multiple personality disorder
"I" wasn't there
"I" don't know where "I"'ve been for the past four hours
"I" don't know what "I" is anymore

[petero]

...The first day just before starting I had a small seizure, nothing anybody would notice but as soon as it was over the teacher (who knew I had seizures) looked & me with that look that says "are you ready now?".

another thing I hate is my family asking me if I'm ok
if I had a seizure

I don't have seizures
someone who looks exactly like me and lives in a parallel universe that overlaps this universe has seizures

I've never had a seizure - I've just dealt with the consequences of the other person having them

I believe what I see and experience personally!