Working closely and regularly with your doctor can prevent many seizures. However, there is no guarantee that seizures will not occur. Knowing what may trigger your seizures can help you recognize when a seizure may be coming and help you prepare to lessen the chance.

Seizures in Epilepsy may be related to brain injury, genetics, immune, brain structure, or metabolic cause, but most of the time the cause is unknown.

Some people find that their seizures occur in a pattern or are more likely to occur in certain situations, called a trigger. Examples of triggers are stimuli such as flashing lights or noises, stress, sleep deprivation, alcohol or drug use, low blood sugar, hormonal changes, and caffeine.

A trigger is something that occurs fairly consistently before seizures and more often than by chance. One way to identify triggers is to keep a seizure diary in which you note the time of day, what was taking place at the time of the seizure, describe the environment, and note if commonly reported triggers were present. Share and discuss your seizure diary with your doctor.

Epilepsy does not discriminate. It affects children and adults, men and women, and people of all races, religions, ethnic backgrounds, and social classes. Epilepsy is most often diagnosed in either childhood or after the age of 65, but it can occur at any age. It is the 4th most common neurological disease.

About 3.4 million people in America have Epilepsy. 1 in 26 people in the United States will develop Epilepsy at some point in their lifetime.

Each time a seizure occurs it has the potential to be fatal. People who continue to have seizures are at greater risk of complications, the most serious of which are injuries and dying. One of the more common causes of dying from seizures is known as SUDEP, Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy. In SUDEP, no other cause of death is found when an autopsy is done. This is the leading cause of death with uncontrolled seizures and the best way to prevent SUDEP is to lower your risk by controlling seizures.

No Epilepsy is never contagious. You cannot catch Epilepsy from someone else nor can anyone catch it from you.

For most people living with epilepsy today, the disease can be controlled with available therapies and good seizure-management practices, such as avoiding seizure triggers and including the support of an epilepsy specialist. For people with the most severe types of difficult to control epilepsy, there are steps an individual can take to lower one’s risk, including epilepsy surgery, neurostimulation devices, dietary therapies, and participating in research to find new, more effective therapies.

It’s not unusual for a person to not know what kind of seizure they have. Often diagnosis is based on the descriptions of an observer, which may be incomplete. See an Epilepsy specialist who will evaluate you and recommend a treatment plan.