TRIGGER OBSERVATIONS LEARNING ABOUT YOUR TRIGGERS FOR EPILEPSY To learn about what could be triggering your seizures is a step in the right direction.  Keeping track of them, can be a positive experience.    Once you knew what they were, wouldn't you want to do something about them? You can learn how to do this here. __________________________ Epilepsy is a hard condition to diagnose, and not even an EEG is 100% accurate. Doctors must then rely a lot on background information given to them.  What happened during your childhood years, did you have any accidents that you can recall, what were your seizures like and when did they first start?     The EEG scans the brain for any abnormal structures.  It does not actually diagnose Epilepsy, but it may explain why the seizures are happening.  If the test comes back negative this means that no cause for the seizures have been found.  It does not mean the person does not have Epilepsy. No test can truly diagnose for certain. What the Doctor does is to collect all the information he gets from all the tests, along with the patients history to come to his diagnoses.   That was when you were diagnosed.  Now … you have been given medication, nothing appears to be working, what happens now?  There are a lot of Doctors, and even Neurologists, who can suggest you try a different type of drug, or possibly increase or decrease the dosages given.   It can be a long road to walk, many tests taken, nothing in particular showing, many different drugs tried, nothing in particular working.  Sometimes if you are taking more than one drug, it could be because they are both doing basically the same thing.  Both of the drugs are trying to control the severity of the seizures.  What would happen if you had one for the ‘severity’ and the other for the ‘number’ of seizures?  Or they could be both from the same family just different brands.   Remember now, that the test the Doctor took did not prove to him 100% that you have Epilepsy and that he is going by all the information you have given him.  This means you have to continue to give him information.  Keep your Doctor informed.  A simple way of doing this is by keeping a Chart.  Make yourself a scribbler/or even on your computer and you would be amazed at how interesting this becomes.  You may learn your seizures are happening right around your Menses time, or because you have been out in the hot midday sun a lot, or possibly you have lost/gained weight and your medications are in need of adjustment.  Information like this now becomes very valuable material for your Doctor. We have found an excellent system for "Tracking Seizures and Keeping Records" available for free download on the Epilepsy Foundation, Victoria, Australia website. The Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria was one of the first epilepsy associations in the world to place its general consumer information on the world wide web. Their mission is to provide a comprehensive and responsive range of services and programs to meet the personal, interpersonal, socio-economic and cultural needs of people living with epilepsy. We have permission from them for us to provide you with the below link to access this useful and comprehensive tool for keeping track of your seizure Triggers  http://www.epinet.org.au/content.asp?ContentId=606 Additional things you may want to note as well:  how and what were you doing just before a seizure (were you out in a crowded setting that had loud noise and bright lights?), what was your appetite like in the days before?, during your seizure were you completely unconscious?, was your seizure different to the usual ones in any way? The information that the Doctor needs to know in order to make an informed decision are things we call Triggers.  These are Triggers that can provoke an Epilepsy Seizure. Some of the more common triggers are:         - not taking medicine as your Doctor prescribed         - not getting a proper amount of sleep         - not eating regularly and not eating the right kinds of foods         - too much stress 10 Tips for Reducing Stress Keep a positive attitude. Accept that there are events that you cannot control. Be assertive instead of aggressive. "Assert" your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive. Learn and practice relaxation techniques. Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is fit. Eat healthy, well-balanced meals. Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events. Don't rely on alcohol or drugs to reduce stress. Seek out social support. Learn to manage your time more effectively. There are many more things that can trigger  seizures and this is just a sample of some of the things you can keep track of.  Keep a Daily Diary and then as time passes you can possibly see a pattern beginning to form.  How do I correct what I see is happening?  Let us say your seizures are happening every month around the full moon. When it comes close to that time of month we can help control them from happening by taking every precaution possible. We can’t change the full moon but we can make sure we pay strict attention to all the Triggers possible. If we have also noted that the hot midday sun has a tendency to send out funny warning signals, now would be the time to refrain from going outdoors unprotected at that time of day. Maybe we do know that during the last 6 months when each seizure happened our appetite was far from perfect.  In fact, we couldn’t care less if we ate a decent meal.  This would be the time to try our best to eat many small meals a day, if not then by giving ourselves a little boost with a meal supplement shake between meals.  Little steps like this can, along with our drugs, go a long way to help control our seizures.   We sometimes think that the Doctor should be able to cure all our seizures.  I think we all like to believe that. I know I did and it didn’t work.  If we know what our Triggers are, we can work with them, along with the help of our drugs, and possibly … just possibly, keep them better controlled.   If you have noticed any particular Triggers that provoke a seizure in you, and if you don’t mind, we would appreciate hearing from you about them, and also telling us of how you came to recognize your Triggers  and how it helped to be aware of it. Eventually we will be putting out an Extended Triggers List and yours could be added to it.  Click here to request a copy   We hope this has been helpful to you and should you have any questions at all, or if there is anything else you would like  us to put in our Free Newsletter please just let us know. We hope that everyone has had a seizure free great day today and that this will continue for you in the future. We wish you good Health and Hope How to contact us?   - Just click here to send us an email   Disclaimer: This article is not meant to replace consultation with trained health care professionals. The publisher and author are not responsible for any adverse consequences of effects resulting from the use of any of the information or suggestions contained in this article. All research has been done in good faith, using recognized sources.