Living with Complex Partial Seizures

Partial seizures take many forms and medical treatment does not always control them. People who live with frequent complex partial seizures may face many challenges. One involves personal safety.

Things like fire, heat, water, heights, certain machinery and sharp objects are all potential hazards when people are unaware of what they’re doing and don’t feel pain.

However, there may be ways to reduce obvious risks. For example:

• Using a microwave oven for cooking instead of a gas or electric range;
• Taking plates to the oven or stove to serve oneself to avoid having to carry pans of hot food or liquid;
• Using a regular knife for carving, not an electric knife or, if possible, leaving the carving to someone else;
• Keeping electric mixers and other electric appliances far away from the sink or source of water;
• Setting the water heater low enough to prevent scalding during a seizure and taking sit down showers if drop attacks are frequent;
• Making sure open fires have guards and that electric or other space heaters can’t be tipped over;
• Not smoking and not carrying lighted candles or hot ashes from the fireplace through the house;
• Limiting ironing as much as possible;
• Padding sharp corners and carpeting floors.

Although some risks can be limited, others are accepted with partial seizures as part of living a normal life.

Every day, people living with this type of epilepsy go to work, take care of their children, take part in sports, ride buses, cross busy streets, go on escalators, wait for trains and – perhaps most difficult of all – risk having a seizure in front of a public that too often does not understand.

Dealing with the reactions of others may be the biggest challenge of all for people with complex partial seizures. That’s because many people find it hard to believe or accept that behavior which looks deliberate may not be.

Lack of public understanding has led to people with complex partial seizures being unfairly arrested as drunk or disorderly, being accused by others of unlawful activity, indecent exposure or drug abuse – all because of actions produced by seizures.

Such actions may even be misdiagnosed as symptoms of mental illness, leading to inappropriate treatment and, in some cases, commitment to an institution.

The Epilepsy Foundation and its network of affiliates are committed to making the public more aware of this type of epilepsy so that painful misunderstandings can be avoided.