Epilepsy myths<\/p>\n
Epilepsy is often misunderstood with different facts and myths surrounding the condition despite over 500,000 people in the UK having epilepsy. We want to dispel the many myths that still exist and bring you important information about seizures, seizure triggers and epilepsy first aid.<\/p>\n
MYTH 1: You\u00a0shake and jerk\u00a0when you have epilepsy<\/p>\n
FACT 1:\u00a0Not every seizure means a person shakes and jerks, nor is a person always unconscious during a seizure.\u00a0Shaking and jerking while unconscious are usually associated with\u00a0tonic clonic seizures.\u00a0There are a range of seizures which have different side effects and can affect people\u00a0differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYTH 2: Flashing lights cause seizures in everyone with epilepsy<\/p>\n
FACT 2:\u00a0Around 1 in 100 people has epilepsy, and of these people, around 3% have photosensitive epilepsy.\u00a0Photosensitive epilepsy is more common in children and young people (up to 5%) and is less commonly diagnosed after the age of 20.\u00a0Triggers differ from person to person, but common triggers include a lack of sleep, stress, and alcohol.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYTH 3: You can restrain someone during a tonic clonic\u00a0seizure and put your finger in their mouth<\/p>\n
FACT 3:\u00a0During a tonic clonic\u00a0seizure you should never hold the person down or put anything in their mouth.\u00a0It’s important to know exactly what to do when someone has a tonic clonic seizure so that you can act quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYTH 5: The only side effects of a seizure are tiredness and being confused<\/p>\n
FACT 5:\u00a0Having epilepsy can affect people in different ways. Knowing that a person \u2018has epilepsy\u2019 does not tell you very much about what happens for them or how epilepsy affects them.\u00a0For example, some people may have problems with sleep or memory and\u00a0for some people epilepsy may affect their mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Information updated: January 2021
\nSource Epilepsy Foundation <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Epilepsy myths Epilepsy is often misunderstood with different facts and myths surrounding the condition despite over 500,000 people in the UK having epilepsy. We want to dispel the many myths that still exist and bring you important information about seizures, seizure triggers and epilepsy first aid. MYTH 1: You\u00a0shake and jerk\u00a0when you have epilepsy FACT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":961,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions\/961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipswichepilepsy.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}