Epilepsy Talk
Auras without Seizures… | November 21, 2025
Do any of these sensations sound familiar to you?
Suddenly you’re sweating, flushed, become pale or have goosebumps.
Your stomach feels queasy, like you’re going to puke.
There’s a foreboding or fear that something awful is about to happen.
You feel like a mess emotionally.
Maybe you feel an odd sensation, like a gentle breeze, buzzing or ringing sounds.
Voices that aren’t really there, a nasty taste in your mouth, weird smells, visual distortions.
You feel like you have zoom eyeballs.
Visual and spatial perceptions are off. (Sort of like “Alice in Wonderland” except this is NOT wonderful!)
There’s a distortion of time.
Maybe like an out-of-body experience.
Déjà vu. You’ve been here before.
You’re seeing people and places or experiencing events from the past. Yet, new places and things seem familiar – as if they’ve happened before.
Or maybe it’s the other way around.
You’re uncomfortable with your surroundings and things that are familiar to you.
Well-known places may suddenly seem strange.
It’s an aura, right?
BUT WHERE’S THE SEIZURE?
Are you going crazy?
Are you imagining things?
Nope.
You’re probably having a Simple Partial Seizure.
(I know, I was blown away, too!)
The aura IS the seizure.
An aura is actually a small seizure itself — one that has not spread into an observable seizure that impairs consciousness and your ability to respond.
You don’t lose consciousness.
In other words, something is going on in your brain.
But it isn’t spreading.
Sometimes this abnormal electrical activity tapers off.
At other times, it spreads and leads to severe seizures.
Auras can occur as a warning that a bigger seizure is about to happen.
And sometimes they can occur just by themselves.
A way to distinguish between the two is if you have no movement at all, then it’s considered an aura.
If you have actual movement, then it’s considered a Simple Partial Seizure.
One person describing her auras said “The sensation is kind of like lighting a firework that turns out to be a dud.
The fuse starts hissing, but then instead of the firework going off (i.e. having a full blow seizure) it just fades and stops after about 10-15 seconds.”
What are YOUR experiences?
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Resources:
https://www.verywellhealth.com/seizure-aura-4783782
https://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/seizure-with-aura
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1184384-overview
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/temporal-lobe-seizure/DS00266/DSECTION=symptoms
http://science.jrank.org/pages/cma5hkjdoz/Epilepsy-Seizures-Diagnosing-Epilepsy.html
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Epilepsy Talk 
These are the seizures I have every day.
or ‘Focal impaired-awareness seizures’
not fun 😦
When I come out – I don’t even know what time it is!
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Comment by Tyler King — November 21, 2025 @ 11:27 AM
That sounds miserable – and scary
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Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — November 21, 2025 @ 12:06 PM
Anytime I felt scared and had no reason for it, I knew it was the start of an aura. I would start talking or singing and the feeling would go away about 90% of the time. I felt the brain couldn’t stop working if it’s being used.
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Comment by Ed Lugge — November 21, 2025 @ 12:32 PM
BRILLIANT, ED!!!
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Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — November 21, 2025 @ 3:56 PM
Auras are the beginning of a seizure that does not happen. I use to get up to ten a day.
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Comment by lanceminnis — November 22, 2025 @ 2:06 AM
OMG. What were your symptoms? How did you feel? How long did they last?
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Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — November 22, 2025 @ 10:08 AM
Let’s not leave out an emotionally troubling realm – sexual aura’s and automatisms. If I had them as a boy, I’d be in worse psychological shape than I can imagine. Seizure-induced orgasms afflict women far more often than men. If I spontaneously had an orgasm while just riding on a bus (as some women report), I’d become an emotional wreck. However, I do know what it’s like to have an all-night erection that requires ativan to fully get rid of. Not your generic priapism, cuz it’ll go away if you get up and walk around or meditate on a calculus exam that you failed in school – you can shift the brain activity a little bit, so to speak. But when you try to resume sleeping, the *&^% thing stands back up again, and cutting it off is not an option.
Auras also can wreak havoc on test-taking. I had to retake my qualifying exam for attaining PhD candidacy. Somewhere out there are schoolchildren who are very smart but probably don’t tests well at all for the stress-related aura. Just another reason why I advocate treating epilepsy as a frequent mental illness in my own writing.
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Comment by Jeffrey Lee Hatcher — November 26, 2025 @ 11:56 AM
Jeffery, the seizure induced orgasms is a new fact for me. Both enlightening and educational. Wow. Thank you for this valuable “chunk” of awareness.
It seems obvious when you consider stress related auras. Sexual actuations and actions are definitely up there.
Thanks so very much for your acuity. And adding so much value to this article.
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Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — November 26, 2025 @ 12:11 PM
Speculation only – sexual aura and automatism probably have contributed to epilepsy being the most stigmatized condition.
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Comment by Jeffrey Lee Hatcher — November 26, 2025 @ 12:01 PM