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Last night I went with some of my friends to some salsa lessons at a dance club. After the lessons were over, the lights were turned off, except for some very bright flashing colored lights. The music was very loud as well.
After about 10 minutes of this, my head started hurting a little. Then I became confused and sleepy. At one point, I felt almost panicked, as if I were being attacked. I've always been sensitive, to the point where intense light and sound are physically painful, but I haven't felt confused before. Has anyone had an experience like this?
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Shigosei, There was a thread about this, or about strobe lights. Some people have a terrible reaction to them. I will see if I can find the thread. It might have been Raia? Someone who acts.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Hmm...I don't think I had a seizure, since I was aware of my surroundings the entire time. And the lights weren't going fast enough to be strobe lights--they moved around and turned on and off a lot, but it wasn't exactly a strobe effect.
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I have heard something about kids playing Nintendo and having seizures/reactions. No, that is wrong. It is that Japanese style of cartoon, like Pokemon. It is something about the light.
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While I was assisting a laproscopic OB-Gyn surgery, the video screen had flashing red strobe-y issues, and it triggered a migraine for me. I almost vomited into the face mask.
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I've had migraines in the past, and this felt a little like pre-migraine symptoms, except I didn't have a visual aura and I never actually developed a migraine (perhaps because I came home and went to sleep).
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There are all sorts of migraine variants with similar pathophysiologies. I'd avoid that situation in the future, if I could. (And in my case, I do, with a passion. No more wombs with a view for me. )
[ September 06, 2004, 07:46 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Sara, you're wonderful. Womb with a view. Hehe!
For me, a fluorescent light with a faulty ballast is unbearable. I have to leave the room or risk something resembling an anxiety attack. Instant claustrophobia. I don't know if it's physiological or psychological.
Posts: 230 | Registered: Sep 2003
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It actually was an episode of Pokemon that caused all those seizures in Japan. The Porygon episode.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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It COULD have been a mild seizure. It in a known fact that strobe lights, under certain situations, can trigger seizures in otherwise normal people without a seizure history. Some of my seizures are mild (or petit mal) in which I suffer from severe virtigo, difficulty in breathing etc.
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So....should I go see a doctor then? If this was a seizure, am I at risk for more even if I avoid strobe lights?
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Seeing a dr. might not be a bad idea. However, even if it was a seizure, there is an excellant chance that an EEG will not pick up any seizure activity at this time. My daughter had seizures for years - including grand mal ones - and her EEGs never picked up anything. But, it never hurts to be checked out!
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It wouldn't hurt to see one. The tricky thing about diagnosing seizure disorders is it is hard to pin them down. You can have 8 normal EEGs and the 9th one show the problem. In my case, all the regular EEGs WERE normal. It was only during a 24 hour sleep deprivation Holter monitor type EEG did my spike show up. Your caution to avoid strobe lights would be, in a lot of cases, futile. School buses, ambulances, police cars, stores (Walmart for one) mail trucks, wreckers, Store 'security' cars, roadside signs, sand trucks (in the winter) fire trucks ALL have strobe lights. Even sitting at home watching TV will subject you to strobe effects in commercials, movies... life for an epileptic can be hell. And I would wish that on no one.
Also, I will note that people can have one seizure and never have another
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Well said, BookWyrm. Many people do in fact have no reoccurance of seizures, and seizure disorders are incredibly difficult to diagnose at times. Sometimes, in fact, drs. are leery of diagnosing them. You can get checked out, but I wouldn't be overly worried at this point. No doc is going to diagnose you with a seizure disorder and put you on meds because of one incident that may or may not have been a seizure.
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