Has anyone outrun a seizure?

@tonyde
An interesting question. I hope others reply with their experiences.
That has never happened to me. I never remember anything. Lying on the ground aching and with tongue and mouth chewed up I never figure out I had a seizure, I always have to be told.
If you sleep after a seizure I wonder if the running away could have been part of a dream. Although I would think remembering anything during any part of a seizure episode would be challenging.
Take care,
Jake

@tonyde I did not have this happen like you had it happen, but the analogy is kind of the same. I will use my experience to kind of explain what I went through. I have noticed that I’ve gone through this a lot with tonic chronic seizures, never with the patit mal, also known as absence seizures. I have noticed that when I start to get an aura before the seizure it’s like my body goes into panic mode. It knows this well because it’s like a warning before all the bad stuff starts. On many occasions, I will try and scream out for help, but I cannot scream out. I remember distinctly trying to even utter a noise and I couldn’t. I knew that I would succumb to the seizure and I would remember nothing and usually there would be pain in a lot of suffering associated with it afterwards, and no memory of what happened, but on many occasions, it was like my body in my mind were trying to yell for help, but I just could not yell so in a way it was kind of like my body saying yeah let’s scream for help like we can avoid this, but never can we . I’ve tried this many times when I’ve had the aura and I cannot make a sound and no one hears me and then at that point I lose consciousness so in a way, I understand exactly what you’re saying. I think it’s the fighter flight in our mind saying we want to get away from it but we can’t ,Because at that point we have no control. I hope this makes sense. It is a very small thing that happens prior to a tonic chronic and then the rest I have no memory..

closetmonster93
I have only had one aura. It was a déjà vu episode and it didn't progress any further.
During the aura are you able to move to a safe place or can't you move either.
Thanks,
Jake

I often have an aura, it's hard to explain what it is, possibly small seizures before a bad one. I had an aura in a restaurant; I remember my wife helping to the car, nothing beyond that. Another one happened in my living room, I remember asking my wife to help before felling straight down on my knees. The next thing I remember is being on my sofa with a severe pain in my hip that lasted for several days.

About 20% of people scream during a seizure, my family said I've been part of that 20% during a few seizures. One seizure happened in the hospital; I remember waking up and hearing a doctor talking to a nurse. The doctor said he "would have thought I was faking had it not been for that". The nurse replied, "we heard him all the way down to the nurse's station" and "we called in the stroke team". I went back out before I could ask what they were referring to, don't know if it was real or a dream.

@jakedduck1 Once my aura starts I don’t have any control at that point to get to a safe place or do what one would normally be able to do prior to a seizure. When I have my aura, I’m already partially started into the seizure. I know that when I have that aura it’s going to be a big one, tonic clonic. I do have auras with the smaller type of seizure, absences, but it is much different. When I have an aura with the absent seizures, I know that it is going to happen immediately and sure enough it does and most of the time I stay cognizant of what is going on and can sometimes pick back up with what I was doing without much time elapsing. However, with the tonic clonic, that is not the case. Once I have that aura and it lasts usually for over a minute, I know the seizure will be very bad. I have no memory of anything once the seizure starts until the seizure has unfolded. There have even been instances where I have had a tonic clonic and continue to do things not knowing that I’m doing them. I’ve had people tell me this when I had one at work several years ago. I don’t know how this is possible. I just know that in someway, it’s almost like a flight or fight response. I do not know how it is possible because the brain is such a complex organ. There are many processes about the brain that even experienced physicians don’t understand. I just know that I’ve experienced some very strange things prior during and after. I don’t necessarily try to understand it, because there’s so much that I don’t understand about it, I look at it more like I guess when something so complexes involved a lot of things are possible that we don’t have answers for.

My situation can be similar. Like I know they are coming which gives me time to warn my wife to expect something. This happened to me on Saturday. We were walking and I felt it coming. Everything started to become disconnect. I felt visually disconnected. I could see the different shades of green on a single blade of grass and even notice a drop of water on one particular blade. It is surreal when it happens. At the same time I could barely walk and as I was about half a mile from home one leg went stiff and then my steps got all out of whack. Thankfully no neighbors saw this! When I got home I had a full seizure. What was unusual about this seizure was it impacted my eyes. They hurt the rest of the day. Yesterday they hurt really bad and I'd see double. Even now as I write this I am seeing double and triple. I learned that it could be due to eye strain during the seizure or a neural straining due to nerve firing in that part of the brain.

I have had thoughts when I'm having a seizure that I would jump out of the car. Since my seizures tend to be semi-aware my thinking get's all screwed up which to me is far scarier than the actual seizure itself.

Further complicating my epilepsy is I also have FND seizures which are far more intense, they last longer, and leave me feeling completely beaten up afterwards.

One of the best things about this site is that it teaches us we're not alone and we're not crazy.

I get double vision that will last several minutes before going away. I get blurred vision and no glasses can help. It happened during an eye exam and I couldn't read the biggest letter. That got me some strange looks until I explained why.

My seziure in the car is the one I came out of with a memory of wanting to run away but couldn't get my body to function properly.

There was a time when I would count the number of days I went without a seizure believing that would help work towards being seizure free. One day I realized do so was counter productive and leading to a bigger downfall when a seizure occured. Seizures are only part of the journey and not the journey itself. They don't define me.

The most frustrating part is not knowing what you did; is your memory right, imagined or was it a dream.

@tonyde
@dannoyes
@closetmonster93
@jakedduck1
Good Morning to All of You,
Well before being diagnosed with epilepsy (left temporal lobe epilepsy with mesial sclerosis), I had learned that when an aura started, I could interrupt it many times by stopping what I was doing. Example: when I was reading a book or just working on my computer, when an aura started, I would stop immediately those activities and get up and walk, and could many times interrupt it. Much later, after the diagnosis of my epilepsy, I learned to focus my attention on my left hand when an aura was starting. This activates my right temporal lobe (which is normal) to take control. By this, I could many times interrupt my aura or simple partial seizures. After interrupting my aura, I focus on the middle of my brain, between the two hemispheres, where no seizures can occur. All that was taught to me by Dr. Donna Andrews, from the Andrews-Reiter approach.
With the practice of yoga, I have been learning to identify my prodromes, which are early warning symptoms or sensations that occur before an actual seizure. When I have prodromes, I take it easy on myself, rest and practice the focus on the middle of my brain.
But when my seizures evolve from simple partial (auras) to complex partial, there is little that I can do. I can, in some circumstances, shout "seizure" or appear in my husband's home office with my blank stare (he already knows well this blank stare of mine) when he is around at home. After that, I cannot remember a thing anymore.
For those whose seizures start straight away with a generalized seizure, those experiences I share are not applicable. I understand this is your situation @jakedduck1, correct?
With the years in my epilepsy journey, I have observed that my auras have become shorter in time and sometimes are unperceived. I have thus focused more and more on identifying my prodromes.
For those interested, I can share some links regarding the Andrews-Reiter approach.
Take care!
Chris (@santosha)

@santosha
Yep, you're correct. Virtually all my seizures are generalized tonic-clonic. I have only had one aura/focal aware episode, at least that I remember. Never had a prodome, not that I recognized anyway. I don't think I ever had auras with my few focal-impaired seizures either.
I'm interested in the Andrews-Reiter approac. Links would be appreciated.
Take care Chris,
Jake

I have an aura before a seizure including a general tonic-clonic seizure, a sense of something not being right, possibly small seizures before a major one. I remember little if anything during general clonic-tonic seizure. I remember my wife saying you're crashing into the door when one started, nothing beyond that for serveral hours. I remember crashing down on my knees during another, nothing beyond that for several minutes.

I have other seizures where I get a 2 second memory part way through it. That may be mutiple seizures with a 2 second break between them. It was during one of those seizures that I have a memory of wanting to run away from the seizure. There's no way to know if that is a real memory or I came out of it wishing I could have run away from the seizure. Anyone know how to classify those types of seizures?

My general tonic-clonic seizures started after a head injury from bad fall 18 months ago. I was previously diagnosed with partial complex seizures controlled by medication provided I didn't do anything foolish. I found out trying to wean myself off meds because I hadn't a seizure in years causes a hospital stay.

I am very interested in learning more about the Andrews-Reiter approach.