Absence Seizure...What does it feel like?

Hi, My absence seizure are quite long and I do not have them that often as far as I know becuase I have absolutly no idea that I am having one. The only time I know that I have had one is if I have been watching the teleivision or having a conversation with someone. An example is a few months ago when I was at university and doing some work with a freind, one of my tutors walked pasted which I remember Later one of my other freinds asked when my tutor would be back and my freind said after the meeting ect. I was sat there and asked how she knew this and apperently my tutor had said this on her way out. I asked what I was doing and apperently I was sat looking at her. She must have stopped on her way out, and started talking to us. I was having an absense at the time, and was totally oblivious to the whole thing. that is one of my exsperiences I hope it made sence and helps a bit take care Hayley xxx

Hello, my name is Susan, and I'm not a parent, but had absence sz's (called petit mal back then)when I was your daughter's age and am now 33. I also have simple and complex partial, and Tonic/Clonic (grand mal) just to give you some background. I get absence sz's that serve as an aura- or warning--that I'm going to get a T/C, and to this day I've never remembered having any of them. I used to have a dog that knew when I was having an absence and would get me to a safe place, and between work, school, and home, I'm rarely alone, anyhow. All I know is that my eyes lock in on something that I'm unaware of, my vision blurs, and I cannot correct it, and I stare off into space. I don't speak, but it is very peaceful, and painless, and I don't get ANY of the symptoms I get during a simple or complex partial (which are located in the Temporal Lobe, unlike the absence and T/C's) and I have no memory of it. I do also get the absence sz's alone, and the only symptom is my vision blurring, and I have no control over it, but it only lasts seconds, and comes back into focus. These are the ones that caused the teachers in school to accuse me of daydreaming. Daydreaming is the only way I can describe it, also...the partials I get include some very strange and some downright uncomfortable sensations, and I'd take an absence over a partial any day. I hope this helps, Susan

Hi, You're child is only 3 1/2, but I'm 32 and absense seizures are what I experience the most. For me the seizures last less than a minute, but there is still a period of 'dazed and confused' for up to 20 minutes. I'm common-law married and my boyfriend of coming up on 5 years is really good with seizures, he calls them "spacey" episodes, and if we're in public, he just says I'm spacing out. To give you the 'analogies' I gave him that helped him to really understand the best...hope this helps (granted a 3 or 4 year old won't get this at all, but adults will) Scenario A: I always parallel this with an absence seizure. Yes, I used to drink, really wrong though. Picture that party you're at where you have one too many & you know one more drink and it's going to hit you. Now, have that one more. Ok. Now, picture a good friend throwing you in a cab & taking you home. Well, you've gone through a bit of a "flash in time" you don't remember, you wake up some where and are like "where the hell am I and what happened to me?" and you have killer headache and potentially other parts of you hurt. Difference -- at a party, you choose to have the drink, go over the edge and feel that way. Seizures, brain waves go screwy...it's just it's the same confusion as if you had one too many drinks at a party. And there's that same slight bit of rage as if "what happened, where am I then it's...ow! head, seizure!"...make sense? Scenario B - for my really short absense seizures. Picture a really boring staff meeting at work where you drift off and have to ask "so what just happened, what's the recap". Well, with my shorter absense seizures where there isn't the 20 min confusion and I bounce back quicker it's like I go into a dream like state & go "ok so what happened in life..ok, there's maybe 5 min. I won't get back". Basically for me, absense seizures are like a dream followed up by a killer headache and then there's a gap in time I'll never see...it's not really a memory loss thing for me, it's a glimpse in time I won't see. Does that help? EC