Epilepsy is not a dirty word. Neither is pseudo-seizures.
But they both coexist, side by side.
One of the most common complications is the misconception that people who suffer from pseudo-seizures are hypochondriacs, hysterics, or “faking it.”
The name for the condition alone, “pseudo-seizures,” perpetuates that misunderstanding.
The term “pseudo-seizures” is extremely misleading. The seizures are quite real, and people who have then do not have conscious, voluntary control over them.
Some know it as non-epileptic seizures (NES), psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), or pseudo seizures.
And then there’s epilepsy. Which is what?
What seizures all have in common is that they are usually sudden, short, and cause a change in the person’s awareness of where they are, what they are doing, what they are thinking or what they are feeling.
Some people have more than one type of seizure.
For example, around 15 in every 100 people with non-epileptic seizures (NES) also have epilepsy.