Auras

Do you have an aura before a seizure?

  • Always

    Votes: 43 33.6%

  • Most of the time

    Votes: 50 39.1%

  • Rarely

    Votes: 19 14.8%

  • Never

    Votes: 16 12.5%
  • Total voters
    128

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Yes.

During my entire teenage years I had partial seizures without anyone else noticing. Everytime I would experience an aura, I didnt want anyone to know so I learned to give the aura great respect and understanding so if in the event of a partial in public I could quickly drop down and fiddle with my shoe laces as if they had come undone.
As soon as I felt one comming on, I would say out loud "Oh Fu*K". My father later told me that I said that just before my first Grandmall.

Its a cool experience, for those without E, I simply explain that its like 'A Glitch in the Matrix'.

Jonny.
 
Well, ya know

I might have either lost my mind this morning, been dreaming, or actually had an aura. I can't decide which.

I was up early, as always, working--at 2:30. And I SWORE I smelled sausage, like what they make at McDonald's. Yet no one was in the kitchen, much less moving in the house, but me. I'm thinking I sort of fell back asleep for a bit..........I just can't decide......cuz my eyes weren't totally open......
 
im never really sure with my auras. my first aura happened right before my first tonic clonic and i saw rainbows. i havent had that specific aura again but now lately and alot i will feel like the front of my head is floating and then i have several myoclonic jerks where i actually feel like my brain is being electrocuted. i know thats a weird way to explain it. how often do auras change? because i would really like to know when im going to have a seizure
 
I almost never have auras. The few times that I have, they have been a sick, dizzy feeling about 5-30 minutes before. And I can recall feeling that I was almost certain that I was fixing to have a seizure.
 
I had auras for the 1st year prior to knowing I was even having seizures and not knowing these were seizures in and of themselves. Then I had the Tonic Clonic and I was getting the aura warning for quite a few years than they just stopped and I would go right into the T/C. Haven't had an aura in years now. Weird, I can remember having 100's a auras a day and some lasting longer than others and I was driving since I had no idea what it was. Kind of living in a weird deja vu, which I would call them "emotional deja vus" because they would bring me back to childhood. My auras would always be something I would see (random things - could be anything) and BANG I would have a deja vu' and I remember always trying to figure out "what is that thought!" It wasn't your normal deja vu though because it seemed like a thought from childhood was trying to break through, weird. Oliver Sacks talks about it in his book "A Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat".
 
My auras happen few seconds before a seizure and i can stop the seizure when the aura is more than a second long ...well at least that's how it was before i started taking keppra which actually helped control my condition.still feel the aura but its much weaker and the feeling goes away right away mostly so the seizure doesn't happen.
 
Last edited:
Chris515 said:
Sometimes I appreciate the warning, but it's never a fun event.

I had one on the way to work this morning. The auras I have either make me feel deja vu or fear. This one was like impending doom, even though logically I know nothing is seriously wrong. I'm still feeling strange trying to concentrate at work.

One thing I never like are these feelings that the seizures make/cause.
Click to expand...

what do you mean by fear??
 
i ahve auras that are mostly visual. like being in the store looking at products on the shelf and all the lines of stuff begin to blur at the edges.when that happens i know whats next. but lately i have noticed one i never did before.just before my last few seizures i started feeling lightheaded and dizzy like when you have the flu and sometimes a jerking feeling thats hard to explain. its not my muscles because noone else whos around notices it. its more like my brain jerks a time or 2 like a car engine sputtering.when i feel any of these i sit down right where i am.you should see the looks i get.all in all though i would have to say i would much rather see one coming than just wake up bleeding in the hospital ER.concrete doesnt give much when you bounce off it.
 
Stopping my auras and seizures

Hi,

Always felt strong auras of distant voices speeding up, people walking around me, walking too fast, conversations getting louder and more confused. Happens about once a week.

They used to last up to a minute and morph into absence seizures and blackouts. That was 30 years ago.

But today I have learned to 'push' the auras away by distracting myself to think about something else.
Walking away from where I am also can help.
Even thinking about walking away helps to distance myself from the event and latch on to something concrete. An image of something solid and soothing.

Closing my eyes and blocking out the stimulus always works for me.
 
Larry T said:
Hi,

Always felt strong auras of distant voices speeding up, people walking around me, walking too fast, conversations getting louder and more confused. Happens about once a week.

They used to last up to a minute and morph into absence seizures and blackouts. That was 30 years ago.

But today I have learned to 'push' the auras away by distracting myself to think about something else.
Walking away from where I am also can help.
Even thinking about walking away helps to distance myself from the event and latch on to something concrete. An image of something solid and soothing.

Closing my eyes and blocking out the stimulus always works for me.
Click to expand...

Closing my eyes is the stimulus for me and picturing images lol
 
Actually that can happen me too.
I should have said, picturing the 'right' images.

I always have images in my mind and some images trigger an aura. But most do not.
I try to remember the 'safe' images. Almost as if the seizure can't process the safe images.

Lar
 
If my seizures happen during the day, I am always "lucky" enough to have a warning of familiarity or fear telling me to focus on something else and dead end this oncoming seizure.

I just had a generalized seizure night before last and it seemed to end a month of severe depression. Is that a common occurrence? My muscles, good God they are sore! but my thoughts are no longer stuck in the cemetery. Does anyone ever seem to feel better or happier after a seizure?
 
I nearly always had an aura followed by a partial seizure.
I used to remember the start of the aura (funny dream in my head) & then not remember anything until I came out of the seizure.
 
I do get auras, I have had auras that do not culminate into t/c's, and 3 of my 4 total t/c's I have had, have been preceded by an aura. I am 32 yo, and have been experiencing seizures for the first time in my life, beginning several months ago. It's quite the maze.

My first aura, my first seizure related event, happened at work, while I was talking to a co-worker. In the middle of a 1:1 conversation, I began receiving this stream of images, almost as if a visual hallucination, in muted, almost black and white colors. I can only describe this as, what felt to me to be, 'other people's dreams'. So vivid, so sudden and unprompted by anything in my external environment. Following this stream of images(like I was downloading a movie in my mind), my vision went to white, then returned immediately, and the aura was complete. At the time, I had no idea what had occurred, as I have no history, and there is no family history of seizures.

Now, on copious amounts of Keppra, I still have the occasional aura, but they moreso take the form of an overwhelming and random sense of de ja vu. And I am noticing what seems to be a heightened psychic-ness? Am sensing things before they happen...have always done this my whole life, but it definitely seems heightened. And I am not the only one noticing, so I know it's not just my seizure-ridden mind making it up, lol! We have to have levity with these things, I feel.
 
and, @ daydreamer, I do sometimes feel happier after a seizure(at least there's one benefit!), it's actually a pretty common phenomenon in the postictal state...I have heard it explained as, a seizure can function as a natural electroshock therapy, which is still used for folks with severe depression who are resistant to medication...
 
I was getting horrible Jamais vu (I can remember thinking in my head, what is happening but I couldn't move, speak or try to recall where I was) before being diagnosed. I also had partial seizures which was a clue a biggie (tonic/clonic) was headed my way... Basically the jamais vu aura is the opposite of Deja vu where you know the environment is somewhat familiar but you can't recall it so then it seems unfamiliar. When I would snap out of it, I felt bewilder about what just happened and how long I was like that...and I would feel a few small surges of electricity/pressure in my head (which is a horrible feeling) then a headache and felt tired. I also have migraine auras where i lose my sight for 20 minutes (which I have had for years) and usually get a headache afterwards. But since I have been taking Lamotrigne I have been pretty good with very small sensations/seizures that have not lead to grand mal noctural seizures which is great! And I still may get a migraine as well but not as bad. But you still never know especially if stressed. I feel really sick and can't speak when a tonic/clonic is coming on. Even if I felt awesome all the time I would be afraid to stop taking the meds because I hate the sensations that go along with seizures. I have a low stress threshold even though I try to prevent getting stressed. I guess it's the brains way of telling me to slow down.
 
Hi John of NZ
HAHA. Seizure auras are definitely a weird experience/journey. I pay more attention now to what is happening. It's kind of interesting...and i check my eyes so that I am not having a stroke or something as my eyes always lock/cross before a seizure/aura, visually they feel crossed to me but to look at my eyes they are not. I have a strange brain.
Electra
 
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