![]() Research indicates that differences in how the brain reacts to increased levels of the hormone cortisol during high anxiety moments may also help explain why stress causes seizures in some people.Ĭortisol is a hormone your body produces more of when you’re experiencing stress and anxiety. However, anxiety can disrupt sleep quality and duration.Įven people with well-managed epilepsy may experience a seizure as a result of severe sleep deprivation. That’s why healthcare professionals recommend keeping a strict sleep schedule as a technique for managing seizures. Lack of sleep is a common trigger for seizures, and this can often happen in people who are experiencing overwhelming stress. However, according to research on the experiences of people with seizures, stress and anxiety can trigger seizures, and current research often underestimates the role they may play. Since measuring levels of stress and anxiety can be subjective and vague, there’s no clear proof that stress and anxiety directly cause seizures. If you experience seizures, you might find that they become more frequent during particularly stressful times. How might stress and anxiety cause a seizure? ![]() Researchers have found that the brain regions and mechanisms involved in seizures overlap with those critical to anxiety. Unfortunately, the stigma of epilepsy and seizures is also very real and may contribute to your anxiety. This element of surprise may take a serious toll on your mental well-being. Knowing a seizure could occur without warning might lead you to feel anxious in social or public settings. ![]() Seizure symptoms that may worry some people include: It’s natural to experience feelings of anxiety in the wake of a seizure or if a doctor has just given you an epilepsy diagnosis.Īs with many chronic conditions and traumatic events, seizures can be unsettling, and some people find them scary. The researchers also recommend that visitors get enough sleep, avoid alcohol and recreational drugs, avoid standing too close to the stage and promptly move to a location away from the lights if they begin experiencing symptoms.Here’s what we know about how seizures and anxiety are connected. Meanwhile, visitors with a history of photosensitive epilepsy should either avoid these events, or inform those accompanying them of their condition, as these seizures can occur very quickly, Salet said. Valencia, who spoke on behalf of the American Epilepsy Society, wasn’t involved in the study. Ignacio Valencia of the Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. Organizers of EDM festivals should warn visitors of the risk of seizures in situations where strobe lights are expected, as is done for some video games and movies that have intense light effects, said Dr. This is especially true for people with photosensitive epilepsy, for whom exposure to flickering or flashing lights and patterns can trigger electrical disturbances in the brain.Īfter treating a 20-year-old man with no history of epilepsy, who was brought to the emergency department following a seizure at a nighttime dance party, Newel Salet of the VU Medical Center in Amsterdam and his colleagues set out to assess whether such cases happen more often than realized.Īlthough use of recreational drugs such as ecstasy - which has been associated with increased seizure risk - was also more likely during nighttime events, the proportion of seizure cases in which the drug was used was similar at both daytime and nighttime concerts, the researchers note. Lights strobing in the frequency range of 15-25 hertz, or cycles per second, are known for their potential to cause seizures, the study team writes in BMJ Open. But those lights may be putting certain visitors at risk of injuries, hospitalization or other complications related to provoked seizures. Young people flock to electronic dance music festivals that are popular for their loud music and intense stroboscopic light beams piercing the darkness. (Reuters Health) - Flashing light effects that have become the norm for electronic dance music concerts could bring on epileptic seizures in young people who may not know they have a vulnerability, Dutch researchers say.
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