Seizures are not only present in Epilepsy

If you've ever watched another person have a seizure, you never forget it - the terrifying transformation, the storm of convulsions, the indignity of it, the relief when it's over.

Your first hint may be the twitch of the thumb or eyelid, a dropping of the voice in midsentence. Then you sense the person slipping from consciousness.

The capacity to seize is not limited to people with epilepsy. We're all capable of seizures under certain conditions.

A seizure is an electrical "storm" in the brain that appears to have adaptive value, a sort of flushing of all circuits, followed by a shutdown and a reboot. It's a lifesaving trick for the brain.

For days to weeks after a seizure, most people have abnormal patterns of brainwaves on their EEGs, which traces activity. But some people have seizures with no electrical changes in their brains.

Outwardly, they appear to have a typical seizure, but the EEG is normal.

These nonelectrical seizures suggest the possibility of a psychiatric disorder called conversion disorder, the involuntary manifestation of the signs of an illness without the causal pathology.

These people are not fakers or malingerers. Many of them also have electrical seizures at times. The best way to figure out which seizures are nonelectrical is through a two-day evaluation by a neurologist in a hospital. Often, but not always, such a study can distinguish the tricks of the mind from the tricks of the brain. Then the right treatment can begin.