Epilepsy And The Brain

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The brain is a beautiful, hardworking, miraculous muscle in our body that works in way that we still cannot understand. The definition of epilepsy is “a central nervous system disorder( neurological disorder) in which the nerve cell activity in your brain is disturbed, causing a seizure during which you experience abnormal behavior, symptoms and sensations, including loss of consciousness” (Mayo clinic, 2013). Epilepsy is a general term for someone who has had two or more seizures. The most common cause of epilepsy usually involves some sort of injury to the brain. Epilepsy is a life threatening disease. The effect that each seizure has on the brain depends on the location in the brain, the extent of reach it has in the tissue, and the length of the seizure. A seizure is considered to be anything that disrupts the natural circuit of the brain. When a seizure happens, the brains neurons fire uncontrollably, causing the brain to make the body jerk, abruptly fall, or have distorted vision. The normal electrical balance in the brain is lost, the nerve cells misfire, and there is a sudden, brief, uncontrollable burst of abnormal electrical activity. This causes out of sync signals from the brain to misfire (Sahoo, 2014). There are over 3 million people who suffer from epilepsy in the United States alone, with most of them being diagnosed by the time they are twenty-five years old.( Epilepsy Foundation, 2014). More interesting than the seizures and epilepsy itself, are the effects that it has on the brain and the emotional side effects from continuous seizures and the medication that is given to maintain stabilization in the brain. In high school a friend of mine hung herself; she was diagnosed with epilepsy after her second seiz... ... middle of paper ... ...the connection with epilepsy and emotional distress behind is does not look like there is an answer in the near future. Most patients have a choice between being on medication and watched closely with intense therapy, or continuing with the risk of seizures. Neither one leads to a normal life, but then again there is nothing normal about epilepsy. New medications in the future may be the answer, or more advanced surgeries. Finding the exact cause of epilepsy in the brain before a seizure happens would be the most effective thing. Preventing a seizure from happening and having the resulting damage is the logical explanation. Only time will tell with advancements in research and finding an answer to stopping it. Though modern medicine has made leaps and bounds to prevent and lessen the extremes of seizures, there has been no medical miracle to stop them completely

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