Seizure Triggers

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What are your seizure Triggers? I know most EEGs diagnose Epilepsy with the strobing light and hyperventilation but can you have epilepsy without those kind of triggers?

I also know it's hard to diagnose from an EEG when you don't have a seizure during it, so if you're not photosensitive or go into seizures by hyperventilation, how can they diagnose you?
 
There are many, many different kinds of seizure triggers -- physical, physiological, emotional, environmental... Fatigue is the #1 trigger, but they can run the gamut from dietary issues to infections to hormone fluctuations to changes in temperature or barometric pressure. They can occur in combination and they can change over time. Because fatigue is a biggie, sleep-deprived EEGs are recommended. Photosensitivity is realtively rare as a trigger, whereas hyperventilation is a bit more common, and is especially known to trigger absence seizures. Both of those are easy to simulate in a hospital setting, so they are also part of the standard EEG test.

These threads from the CWE archives provide a lot of info about triggers:
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f22/epilepsy-triggers-516/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/weird-seizure-triggers-do-you-have-any-1153/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/weird-triggers-7511/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/getting-know-your-triggers-6000/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f21/seizure-triggers-casinos-798/
 
Also as time goes by you kind off realise what your triggers are,i now know that stress seems to be the biggest trigger for me.I figured this out by what was going on days,weeks before a seizure and i usually pin point some sort off stress in my life before hand.
 
funny, sort of, last seizure I had was a sleep TC after going out late to a club (sleep deprivation and strobing lights) and my lady friend was warning me about going out because of the risk of seizure. And voila!
a panic issue with me also are crowds, people - being among a lot of people... which was also a factor at the club. Stress and panic are bad for me.
I'm reliant on patterns, or at least control of situations, trust in situations. Upheaval of situations is a big panic factor with me.
And now also seeing anyone wearing scrubs. lmao
 
Thanks everyone, Cint, my doctor mentioned something about hospitalization to observe, don't know that he'll do that.

And being he mentioned possible scarring on the brain, my trigger could be that, especially since I had a bleed. I suspect my triggers can be physical such as kidney failure, dehydration.

Since I've had so many things go wrong with me, anything is likely a suspect but everyoe suspects brain trauma as the issue and if it's something that happened so long ago, including as far back as a baby, I'll probably always be at risk.

In Walmart, lights may have had a role in it also. It's hard not knowing but my doctor is going to order another EEG in November so hopefully that will produce some results. I suspect sleep deprivation can play a role with me too cause I don't sleep the same as I used to since my first surgery.

When you have a stoma, you learn to wake yourself up to empty a bag every night, sometimes two to three times to avoid leaks and you get sleep deprived and I suspect I've had myoclonic one's in my sleep, legs jerking, arms and stuff that wake me up immediately. Thanks for the links.

petero, I panic in certain situations, usually when I'm in an unfamiliar city and get lost, scares me, just hope that wouldn't be a trigger but since I haven't been anywhere much lately, that's not usually a problem.
 
I have a handful of triggers.
#1 is lack of sleep. I need approx 9-10 hrs a night.
Also, stress/anxiety, hormone fluctuations, and missed meds.

I haven't discussed photo-sensitivity with my neuro, but it's a maybe. . .
But only certain types of lights that flash at certain frequencies. (Police lightbars)
 
For me, my #1 trigger is lack of sleep. Then comes stress, or if I missed a dose of my medication.
 
I've got a thing about the vehicle lightbars too, not definitely a trigger that I know of, but the LED lightbars.. I get transfixed on them, mostly wondering with a morbid curiosity whether looking at them will cause a seizure.
I NOTICE them when they're around - and then I'll look briefly - and then I'll avoid looking at them... so I don't know if they're a trigger, but I've definitely created a 'process' involving them and get transfixed, but peripherally
which overall is just annoying, but I can't say I could identify them as a trigger... unless this fear/analyze/process thing is a type of seizure itself


I guess that's what they're designed for though - to get ones attention and to trigger an alert response through their cycles per second whatever



I have a handful of triggers.
#1 is lack of sleep. I need approx 9-10 hrs a night.
Also, stress/anxiety, hormone fluctuations, and missed meds.

I haven't discussed photo-sensitivity with my neuro, but it's a maybe. . .
But only certain types of lights that flash at certain frequencies. (Police lightbars)
 
My 2 main triggers have always been stress & being overtired or overdoing things. I'm sure I had other triggers but those 2 were the main ones that I notice.
 
My biggest one is sleep. It seems to be the only really consistent one. And possibly high caffeine content (but I only drink a lot of caffeine when I'm really tired, so it's hard to say). Also a weird one is related to fire. Like, if I see someone wearing a fire department shirt I will feel funny or think about fire. However seeing fire itself doesn't really seem to affect me. It's very strange. I asked my neurologist about it because I thought I was possibly just being crazy and he said it's not that abnormal for a certain image/thought/smell to trigger a seizure. Also we have these handicap buttons in my building that seem to trigger them if I'm very tired). Though it seems to be lessening (either that or my new addition of Lamictal is working).

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not complately sure what mine are.... i used to have them playing games but i can stay in a full concert with strobe lights so dont think its that.....think mine is mostly stress or excitment or lack of sleep .... when i get excited or stressed i always get really fuzzy head if i dont take a tc
 
Stress is my number one trigger. Any time something stressful happens all we can do is wait for that seizure to come. I try not to let things get to me but sometimes you just can't.

I don't know if you would consider these stress or being upset/depressed or not but they are also triggers. If I get very upset about something I'll usually have a seizure. A few examples are when I had to put one of my cat's down and when my grandma had a heart attack and was put in the hospital.

Not getting enough sleep will usually bring on a seizure too.
 
Has anyone had trouble with the barium contrast drink being a trigger. Yesterday morning I had a CT scan for a hernia caused by a TC a little over a week ago. I am extremely allergic to IV contrast so the barium beverages began the night before. I woke up terribly confused about 4 am after first drink and was full TC within minutes. After ativan I was drowsy however drank down the additional 14 oz. as instructed. Thd test was done exactly as scheduled and within 10 minutes I was again in seizure mode and an ativan jnjecyion.

Note I am also 5 days (8 doses for the moment) into an intro to Keppra XR. I slept odd little naps during the day yesterday. It is HOT here 112 and 20+% humidty. Heat combined could always be factor if it hadn't been so early.

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I am 100% the same with lightbars. Emergency vehicles in our car especially after dark- whoever is in the car scream at me to cover my eyes quick.

Worse than Walmart for me I have noticed the lights at our small regional hospital are trigger #2 on my list. I use medical care out of town, so my sons's ankle injury during wrestling practice combined with me to unstable to be left alone- we all packed in. I sat with my head between my knees 90% of the time to prevent our own additional emergency. Of all places? No wonder when I have been dragged in there for that reason they get worse- I now am rethinking the stress theory.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 
The strobe lights (during EEG) didn't cause a seizure in my son, but TV seems to be a trigger sometimes.

Also cold -- like swimming in cold water, or being in a cold wind, or maybe just getting cold at night (he never stays covered).

Sometimes bumping his head can trigger a seizure.

Getting startled awake when he's asleep.
 
I have noticed one of mine is when there is a lot going on around me, like a lot of noise and chaos, it seems to disturb my brain. LoL. Not fun since I am a single mom of 2 very active, almost always loud boys! **sigh**
 
Yeah...noise and chaos...that tends to send Jon into "autistic" mode -- he'll get all stiff, and hands will start flapping over his head, and he'll make these repetitive grunting sounds...and then that night he'll often have a seizure.

Hard to deal with noise and chaos when one lives in a city of 12 million.
 
When you think of it, seizure triggers and hypnosis are similar, both have certain things that would trigger certain behavior. So it makes me wonder if hypnosis would work to alleviate seizures. Just a thought.
 
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