More Research Goes Into Epilepsy

There are many forms of epilepsy.  Some forms of epilepsy are caused by accidents, some are hereditary and some occur from brain injury and disease.  Epilepsy is not contagious and you can't swallow your tongue during a seizure!

Most people with epilepsy have just one kind of seizure.  Seizures are episodic which means that they come and go.  They are often unpredictable.  Absence seizures used to be called petit mal seizures, but now are called absence seizures.  This is the kind I have.  For some unknown reason they have changed the name of this kind of seizure.  

Absence seizures can be either simple or complex.  Simple ones last about 10 seconds and complex ones last up to 20 seconds and usually involve movement.  It looks like someone is staring off into space, moving their lips sometimes, or moving their hands.  No first aid is needed for this kind of epileptic seizure.  The person can hear and think clearly afterwards.  Some people have seizures every once in a while or up to 100 times a day.

Most forms of seizures cannot be cured using surgery because of the complexity of the brain.  The only form of epilepsy that can be cured using surgery is when it involves certain portions of the brain, such as possibly the frontal lobe or a portion of the brain that you don't really need.  For most people with epilepsy, surgery is out of the question.  Until modern surgery becomes more advanced, medicine and chemicals are the answer.  

Most epilepsy medicine is taken with water or other form of liquid.  There are pill forms of medicine and liquid forms of medicine...and a kind you can put in an IV.  

As I mentioned before, some forms of epilepsy are genetic.  This is the picture of the DNA double helix, which is how they discovered the fact that some forms of epilepsy are inherited, but not all forms of epilepsy are inherited.  In the future they may combine medicine on a genetic level for people with epilepsy.  There are many possible future treatments for epilepsy, just like there are many causes of epilepsy.  If I could, I would gladly get rid of my epilepsy because it's the only disability I have that I find distracting.  They need to put more research into epilepsy, because epilepsy is more  distracting than reading and learning disabilities because it's hard to adapt to life with epilepsy.