large crowds and seizures

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Belinda5000

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When ever I'm in a very large crowd I seize.
Does anyone else have this trigger.I've gotten worse with this one trigger in last 4-5 years.And ended up in the E/R once because I bashed my head against a cement wall. I usally either have Simple partial or complex partial.

Belinda
 
Do you think that being in large crowds is stressful, or perhaps it's just sensory overload? I'm just curious - I don't have any experience with this as a seizure trigger - but thought I'd help explore the topic.

BTW, I don't care much for being in large crowds.
 
I don't

seize in large crowds, but they DO make me nervous. I bail, quickly. I used to be able to handle them, and well. Now, and I have no idea why it's changed, I HIDE from them.....

The only 1 that I had in front of a large crowd (500+ people) was my daughter's fault. I was 7 month's pregnant with her, and she suddenly "pulled" a lot of meds from me, according to the doctors. I hadn't missed any meds, and my blood draw the 2 days before had been perfect.
 
When I'm in a large crowd whether it be 100,300 or even 5000 ppl.
I'll seize If I'm at a concert,or some other function that would have a lot of ppl.
I have be in the front.I can't be in the back.I could never go to a baseball,football game It be seizing like crazy.
crowds don't bother me and in todays world it's almost impossible to stay out of them.
If I have a seizure when I'm out in public today that's just life.
:rock:
Belinda
 
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Just a question, but do you think it may be Psychological ?...ie. you tell yourself that as there IS a crowd, there WILL be a seizure ? :ponder:
 
know don't thin this this this is psychological.
I'm not crazy.I've had this as a trigger for my sz's since for as as long as I can remember.:two cents:
Just because there is a large crowd I don't say I'm going to seize except if it's 1000 or more I know it will happen.
 
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I'll ask my question another way. When you are in a large crowd, if you close your eyes and shut out the noise in your mind, does it still bother you (just knowing there are so many people around you), or does everything calm down?
 
know that doesn't calm me down I'll just get to the point where I start moving back and forth that'll make fall down.

Belinda
 
Belinda5000 said:
know don't thin this this this is psychological.
I'm not crazy.I've had this as a trigger for my sz's since for as as long as I can remember.:two cents:
Just because there is a large crowd I don't say I'm going to seize except if it's 1000 or more I know it will happen.
Click to expand...

^ you know that, and we all know that. It's just that sometimes I feel 'able' to bring on a seizure if I link it to something such as a location, ie. if I go somewhere where I had a sz before, it kinda brings back memories, and for me this can trigger a sz. So I have to try and block it out - hope this makes sense
 
It kinda makes since. But with me I don't always have a seizure just 95% time when it's a large crowd. I refuse to stay at home wait for my seizures to happen. A lot of ppl I should. My neuro has never suggested that I do this.
:soap:


Belinda
 
Oh Belinda,

I TOTALLY understand! One word: Wal-Mart. Complete sensory chaos! The crowds, the colors, the aisles, the things hanging from the ceilings (including TV's!), all the talking, and walking, banging, people knocking you with their carts, product placement all down the rows, floor to ceiling hair care products, children screaming, the smell of deli food, the sound of the audio section, multiple ceiling fans spinning, the do-it-yourself broken cashregister, or the overworked and underpaid cashier slowly crushing your bread....Wal-Mart is a very complex unpredictable place I try to avoid! :rolleyes:

Often in crowds, I'll tell my husband "we have to leave, I'm going to have a seizure." I'm not sure about you, but I have multiple foci (focal points) to my seizures (from different lobes). So often times something as stupid as high ceilings can set off a seizure (in Home Depot for instance), or Crowds (in Wal-Mart).

I think of it like this Belinda, when I am going to have or have had a seizure in a crowd, I need to get to a place where I can have a minute of peace to "reset" my brain and help my brainwaves find their natural rhythm. (think of this as the calm after the storm...we all do it) :)
Anyway, most often, in a crowd, it is very difficult to quickly find a place to "reboot" our brain in a peaceful state. I, personally, believe this is why those of us with crowds as triggers have a difficult time figuring out how to stop seizures from reoccuring. But do the best you can and look to us for support and know that you are not alone! (And for heaven's sake, PM me if you want to laugh: I'll tell you how I stopped a seizure in Wal-Mart one day).:D

Take care my dear. -Julie :)
 
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I have a hard time with the crowds and with Wal-Mart too - but I have another thought on the actual trigger - I think it is the patterns caused by the movement of all the people. The motion of walking through the stacked merchandise in patterns under fluorescent lights is also a trigger - Sort of a photosensitive reaction. Do you guys have trouble with parades? - I am not talking about the fire engines and other flashing light sources (those are a given for me) but the pattern that a marching group makes - bands in formation for example. These really set me spinning. If you think about the light then dark then light then dark of the uniforms and sunshine it makes sense - Crowds tend to have the same kind of patterns - some are more of a chaos of light and dark, but still can form patterns of light and dark. High ceilings in many of the Home Depots (and others) have large ceiling fans that cause moving patterns and then they have large light fixtures followed by dark then light fixtures then dark, etc. Any way- it is just what I think might be a trigger for me.
 
Janie,
The type of crowds I'm talking about can be as small as 150 people.
There seated or as large as 5,000 there also seated.
Everyone is there and listening to people on the stage.

This has to do with religion.


Belinda:noevil:
 
Do you guys that have trouble in crowds, also have trouble with the strobe light test in a EEG test? I just had an EEG on Friday, the lady doing the test told me that a very small percentage of people with E are affected by the strobe. I don't think she is correct. Your thoughts?
 
Yep - Crowds sitting down in evenly spaced chairs. There is a nice pattern for you. That would make me dizzy and seizure-ish for sure. Especially if I was up a little higher in the back and could see the whole pattern laid out. Weird I know but it really gets me.
--
Strobe lights are just the most obvious culprit.
I have some serious migraines before and after my CPs and now that migraines are in the process of being called seizure symptoms by some researchers it is all starting to make sense to me. Almost everyone I talk to with migraines have problems with lights or vision to some degree or another. I am positive that there are lots more of us photosensitive types than the documentation shows. I hear migraine suffers saying they are sensitive to lights all the time. When you really start asking the right questions, people admit that certain TV shows and flashing signs really bother them but they hadn't put it together with migraines yet. Then they start telling about pop art posters, Spencer’s Gift Stores, 3 D pictures, blue lights on led panels, those new red lights with the horizontal strobe light, motorcycle headlamps that are ramped up past painful light tolerances, on and on.
 
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OH - One more thing!
WAL-MART!
I had a bad 'migraine' and got really confused and tired and sick - and that is when I went to the neuro and was told I had Complex Partials -

Darn WAL-MART! You love it and it gives you CPs! (I go anyway - I need food and I need to save money)
 
the thing i can't handle anymore is traffic, not around the corner to the store traffic i mean down town seattle traffic at noon. my brain won't think quick enough and i'm afraid i'll hurt someone including myself. the last drs appt i went to was the last time i drove, now i take the bus less stress and cheaper than half a tank of gas. besides i avaid all the parcial seiz i get from the stress of the traffic.
 
others who think they know more about your E

Does anyone/or has anyone ever had the problem with a supposed family member or someone they knew trying tell them what not to do so they wouldn't have a seizure?
It happens with friends of mine all the time and relatives.I explain over and over that what think will bring on my sz's don't like getting upset.
I keep try tell them I don't need be stressed out that's what they do.
:soap:


Belinda
 
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One of my triggers is raking leaves. I dont know if its the different color that my mind is sorting out.
 
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