Hi Angela,
Distraction is a very good technique for warding off a seizure or stopping one when you feel it is coming on. This is what shouting or a strong odor can do as well.
I'd be very wary of doing the EEG video and this is why. If the neuro takes you off of drugs all at once you will be having withdrawals which will make it more difficult for you to stop a seizure. If you have one while you are in withdrawals and on video, it will look like proof that you can't control them and could undermine any confidence you are gaining in your own ability to manage your seizures.
At the time we go into a seizure our breathing changes, and our heart rate and brain metabolism with it. When you distract yourself, or use any of the other techniques such as you read in the book, you are changing your respiration, heart rate, and your brain metabolism. You have a wonderful sensitivity to your own body and are intuitively responding to seizures as they start so you can stop them. You are learning as you go along and as you wrote, getting better over time. 95% is pretty good!
Over time, by reacting to a seizure by stopping it before it becomes full blown, is to condition your own nervous system. This is exactly what you would learn to do if you were doing behavior therapy -you'd learn techniques to abort the seizures. People with all kinds of seizures can learn techniques to prevent or abort them.
I learned a to do slow breathing and a self-hypnosis technique to stop mine. Progressive relaxation techniques are another method that has been researched and found helpful. Below is an abstract on one of the studies. Keep up your good work and don't let anyone undermine your success or confidence in yourself!
Zoe
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Epilepsia. 1992 Jul-Aug;33(4):675-80.Links
Controlled examination of effects of progressive relaxation training on seizure reduction.Puskarich CA, Whitman S, Dell J, Hughes JR, Rosen AJ, Hermann BP.
Epidemiology Program, Chicago Department of Health, Illinois.
We determined the efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation in reducing seizure frequency. Subjects were 24 people with epilepsy attending an urban neurology clinic. The experimental design consisted of an 8-week baseline period, a treatment period of six sessions of progressive relaxation training (PRT, n = 13) or quiet sitting (QS, n = 11) and an 8-week follow up. In the PRT group, 11 subjects reported a decrease in seizure frequency (p less than 0.01), and in the QS group, 7 reported a decrease (p greater than 0.05). The mean decrease in seizure frequency was 29% for the PRT group (p less than 0.01) but only 3% for the QS group (p greater than 0.05). This is the fifth recent report of a controlled study documenting the success of progressive relaxation therapy in seizure reduction. PRT is inexpensive and noninvasive and facilitates patient participation. Such a technique should be incorporated into clinical practice.
PMID: 1628583 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]