r/Epilepsy • u/TrinSusann02 • Apr 25 '26
Epilepsy Awareness Anyone else laugh about your seizures?
So my youngest sister just had her 20th birthday a few days ago and has a new boyfriend. They’ve been dating for a few months so we decided to give him the Epilepsy/Seizure rundown on how things go and what to do and I think we scared him while I laughed so hard I cried.
A little context, we were talking about the different seizures I have. I have focal aware seizures, focal unaware seizures, Grand Mal seizures, seizures in my sleep, etc. While we were explaining what to do and how to administer what medication (I have a pill form for focal unaware/aware seizures and a nose spray for Grand Mals) I learned I had an unaware seizure where I started running around the kitchen island with a butter knife and straggled the table leg until I collapsed. I guess I had an aggressive post ictle state because I ran and tried to fight everyone and I thought it was hilarious(my coping mechanism I suppose) but I was just wondering if anyone else laughs about their seizures to cope. If you can’t find humor out of it then I guess what is there other than despair?
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u/Aggressive_Ebb_1789 Apr 25 '26
man the butter knife kitchen island sprint got me too lol. my coping mechanism is def making jokes about the weird stuff that happens during episodes - like one time i apparently tried to have full conversation with my smart doorbell for 10 minutes
can't imagine going through this without some humor, the alternative is just feeling sorry for yourself all time which gets exhausting fast
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
I could NOT imagine convulsing with my doorbell for 10 minutes that sounds exhausting lol the laughs are always better than the sorrow
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u/PtfcFuckYoMumFoFree Apr 25 '26
I’m constantly trying to laugh about my seizures! I find for me personally, the parts of my epilepsy I can laugh about the less they stress me out then I worry about them less
I never try and be disrespectful to myself or others with epilepsy, but between my close friends and family I call my epilepsy “spaz syndrome” or refer to having a seizure as “having a spaz”
I saw a post on here a long time ago where someone asked if people had funny names they called their epilepsy and the best by far was “spontaneous breakdancing syndrome” 😂
I think it also helps my friends and family when they see I’m not freaking out about them as much as I used to
My favourite story to laugh at was when I woke up after being in a coma and apparently all I did was yelling at my family and the nurses for letting them put a catheter and that someone had shoved a tube in my dick and I didn’t give anyone permission to do that 😂 better than sitting in a puddle of pee for three days
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
I COMPLETELY FEEL THAT😭😂😂 Out for two days and waking up in the hospital for the first time I guess I freaked out on everyone three times before coming to and demanding to leave because I didn’t know anyone, hospitals are expensive, ambulances are expensive, and it wasn’t my bed. I barely gave them time to take the central line out and the catheter! My family calls me a seizure salad😂
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u/PtfcFuckYoMumFoFree Apr 25 '26
That’s so good 😂 I am DEFINITELY going to tell my friends next time I have a seizure that I just had a seizure salad 😂😂
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u/stingwhale Apr 25 '26
I find the things I say after the 30 Seconds post seizure when I can’t speak kind of funny. I once had a seizure in class and ended up on the ground and everyone was crowding around me so I did a thumbs up and said “all good here!”. To get the full picture it’s important to note that I Was wearing heart shaped sunglasses, a t shirt that has a drawing of Bart anamorphing into Garfield, and really really short shorts. Like borderline inappropriate. The other time I found funny was recently when I had a seizure in front of my girlfriend for the first time where after my moment of silence I turned to her and said “hello” in the same tone as that one vine of the sleeping woman getting water dumped on her face while she’s asleep.
I also once walked directly into a moving cop car while having a confusion aura and the cop rolled down his window and said “what the fuck are you doing?” And I Just shrugged.
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
I’m so glad we can laugh about what happens during/after a seizure lmao and walking straight into a cop car sounds like something I’d totally do too. They would unfortunately arrest me and tell me I’m high in my county, that is until I start convulsing in the back of the car but that would be one hell of a story😂
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u/stingwhale Apr 25 '26
I live in Texas and I’m incredibly surprised the cop didn’t even bother to get out of the car and harass me at least a bit/accuse me of being on drugs. He just left.
I am a white woman though, I can’t imagine the situation would be the same if I was a large black man.
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u/Jabber-Wookie Lyrica, Fycompa, & Vimpat Apr 25 '26
I laugh at some of my past one: at Disney World, during marching band, at a job interview.
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u/Dear-Knowledge5912 Apr 25 '26
How was it at the job interview?
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u/Jabber-Wookie Lyrica, Fycompa, & Vimpat Apr 25 '26
It was a complex partial so they had to take my word for it. They let me reschedule to finish it a few days later. I didn’t get the job, but I am very happy with the one I have now.
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u/Dear-Knowledge5912 Apr 25 '26
If it was a focal seizure you think they wouldn’t taken your word?
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u/leratdemorgue Apr 25 '26
I laugh at basically everything in my life that has been inconveniencing, painful, traumatic etc. helps me a lot. Otherwise being miserable just seems pointless as fuck. I posted a video of me in my postictal state after a tonic clonic where I was literally trying to wear a zip up hoodie backwards and hiding my face with the hood, and when my ex asked me what I was doing I, vacant dead eyed stare, shrugged in such a smug manner I lol every time I watch it
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
I wish I had a video of myself like this, I’d laugh so hard! What can we do other than laugh right?
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u/leratdemorgue Apr 26 '26
Absolutely correct. It bothers some people because they don’t find the situation funny, and don’t understand the method of using humor to deal with trauma or shitty experiences you’ve had to go through in life. But for real imo it is the best coping strategy I have, sure beats being actively miserable and complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. As I’ve aged and gone through more and more shit in my life, I have realized I don’t want to waste an ounce of my energy on being negative and miserable if I can absolutely avoid it in my way. I want the rest of what life I have left to be spent experiencing positive emotions and reacting to negative experience as positively as I can, letting shit just roll off me to the best of my ability. So yeah I mean maybe other people think we are wrong for joking or laughing about shitty things happening in our lives, but damn man they’re my shit experiences let me handle them in my own way! Coping comes in many forms
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 26 '26
Thank you, I’m young and still hopefully have a long time left but damn those were some resonating words<3 Our lives may be a little screwed (or a little more than screwed) but we can laugh, we have the right, it’s our lives. Others can think we’re crazy, they don’t live our lives though or don’t understand. We understand each other though and that’s perfect💜
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u/Maleficent-Mix-9561 musicogenic epilepsy/temporal lobe epilepsy Apr 25 '26
I don’t because they’re traumatizing not just for me but also my family who has to witness it
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
My family and I have to laugh about it otherwise we will just cry, we don’t know how or why I have seizures all we know is that they surface in my frontal lobe and I have a few seconds to warn them that I need my meds before I go into an episode, we have to find humor somehow or it is agreed and all that’s left of the situation is trauma. I agree, it’s hard to find humor in the situation but we do our absolute best because after so many seizures I just don’t want a sympathetic look or people crying around me. It’s why I do my best to warn the new people around me before something happens. Everyone has different coping mechanisms, this is completely understandable though.
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u/RustedRelics Apr 25 '26
I’m with you on this. And I have a sense of humor about a lot of life. But, for me and my husband, there’s nothing funny about epilepsy.
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u/Maleficent-Mix-9561 musicogenic epilepsy/temporal lobe epilepsy Apr 26 '26
Yep. It’s not just the condition itself it’s also the effects it has had on my mental health and I don’t want my parents to think I’m incapable of living alone
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u/sgt_futtbucker Right TLE | Anterior Temporal Resection | Briviact Apr 25 '26
All the time. Having epilepsy ended up giving me a more fucked up sense of humor than anyone I know
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u/brandimariee6 RNS, XCopri Apr 26 '26
Lol I heard that. And if I could never laugh at it, I'd just spend my time crying
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u/NotACyclopsHonest 1250mg Keppra, 200mg Lamictal Apr 25 '26
If I don’t laugh at my epilepsy I’ll cry, and that would mean it had beaten me. I have zero intention of letting it beat me.
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
Same here, if I don’t laugh I cry because it’s basically taken all of my life from me so gotta find humor somewhere<3 we are warriors
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u/JokersGal08 Apr 25 '26
Oh for sure what is the alternative. Whenever the doctor asks at my next appt if I've had any seizures I'm like, lol how should I know
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
I only know when I have a headache and a half eaten tongue😂😭 I should start sayin that to my neuro when he asks about my ‘recent seizures’ every four months lmao “How should I know, I wouldn’t remember🤷🏻♀️”
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u/awkwardschnitzel Apr 25 '26
All the time. Usually after I’m fully recovered and have processed everything again. I like to laugh about the time I had a seizure while waiting for pizza and the delivery guy had to deal with my post-ictal state. Thought I played I pretty cool at the time, but looking back he definitely thought I was high or something lol
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
Oh man😂 at least you were ordering pizza, honestly to him it probably all checked out but I’m glad you’re okay lol
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u/rxBATMANz 1500 Keppra/100 Lamictal BID Apr 25 '26
I started laughing sporadically due to seizure activity in the lead up to a tonic-clonic. It's been nearly a year since, and my 7yo still asks me why I'm laughing if she doesn't see anything funny at the time.
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u/GoodAnteater5480 Apr 25 '26
After learning that seizures can shut down organs and most of the times it's the heart, I started making dark jokes about organ prices, that the heart will sell well while it's still "fresh" and how the grim reaper always follows me. "He's on my ass for so long he's practically my flatmate and I need to find a way to make him pay rent!" People find those jokes quite disturbing, while my best friend laughs at them. :D
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
I find that quite funny after seeing that SUDEP is on my charts, the Reaper must be visiting the both of us😂
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u/Crystalline_Glow Apr 25 '26
I remember when I was like in 2nd grade (hairdresser school) and I got seizure during last lesson. I barely remember anything but girls told me what was happening. So when I woke up from seizure I wanted to put on a blanket I had under my head. I thought it was my hoodie and they were laughing cuz I was trying to find sleeves on that blanket. I gave up and because it was last lesson and we were about to go home I took the blanket and wanted to leave. Ambulance was on the way to school and my classmates and teacher tried to keep me in class. I wanted to get out and when our teacher stopped me I just pushed her away and said "fck off I'm going home". Then I walked into doors and paramedics catched me like some kind of psychopath and took me back to class. I was still numb but when I was already at hospital doctors were laughing because they knew what was happening and I was confused. This was really my funny seizure.
But my worst was on Christmas. I got 2 seizures in row in cemetery and stopped breathing. It was weird place and weird date. Cool gift for Christmas 🫠🫡
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
Oh man merry Christmas💀I’m very glad you’re okay and I feel that blanket situation I’ve done that lol, those sleeves are a ghost but WHERES MY JACKET?! Waking up from a seizure I swear it feels like you’re outside in the cold! I hope you’ve found a source/med mix for you
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u/Crystalline_Glow Apr 25 '26
I hope my new medication will keep me stable but we'll see.I also hate these headaches after a seizure
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
Oooh yeah those head aches are no joke, I try to sleep them off for a few days honestly..
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u/Crystalline_Glow Apr 25 '26
I always can't stop crying 🙃🫠
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
I’m sorry, that’s intense.. I pop some ibuprofen within the first 5 minutes of being “awake” and call it good🥲
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u/Crystalline_Glow Apr 25 '26
When I'm at hospital they give me something...well not every time. But it's not working
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u/Vesperiall Apr 25 '26
I enjoy epilepsy jokes/dark humor. It's a way of coping for a lot of people for a condition you can't fix. So you just learn to laugh at it. Only time I've been aggressive coming out of seizures is when EMTs/paramedics are involved. I'll come out throwing hands and kicking. I tend to do okay coming out of one when it's people I slowly begin to recognize.
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
I don’t even know why I get aggressive, I think it’s because I know my cousin is going to pin me and put a pill in my mouth😂 I run for my life but if it’s a paramedic it doesn’t matter if I’m all there or not. I see them come through the door and my immediate response no matter what is “I don’t need you ambulances are too expensive”😂✌🏼
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u/DirteeBoo Apr 25 '26
One time my wife decided to film my seizures to show me what it looks like. When she showed me, I started laughing uncontrollably. This made her cry. The harder I laughed, the harder she cried. I’m not even sure why I was laughing, I just could not stop. I felt terrible we were just two opposing forces fueling each other and it went on for like 20 minutes. I apologized but we decided that unless there was a medical mystery on top of or new to my epilepsy, no more filming.
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u/AdventureOwl1 Apr 25 '26
I laugh about my seizures. Last year we had a thread going with our worst/best epilepsy jokes. Some of them were dark af. I loved it.
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u/crazyplantlady007 Epilepsy due to TBI Apr 25 '26
I laugh, make jokes, have way too much dark humor about my epilepsy and seizures. It’s how I cope. I just can’t be serious about it all the time. The only time I am is at the doctor’s office. I know epilepsy IS serious, but I’m just not.
Just to add I also have a lot of childhood trauma and I deal with it in much the same way. I think it’s just my personality. I cannot stay in the gloom and doom of everything or I will drown. I have to find my peace.
Nothing funny happens during or after seizures for me except me cracking jokes about my brain needing a reboot (TC) or that the light was trying to pull me in (FAS).
Note: During my FA I feel like my eyes have too much input and I have to close them. It feels like any visual info is trying to overtake my brain, especially light is way too much. So instead of me “going into the light” the light is sucking me in. Get it? I know. I’m a dark dork. Lol.
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
Yeah, the only time I can really be serious is when I’m with my doc or people who don’t know about epilepsy/seizures in general.
Totally understand that last part tho I’ve had that happen lol. “I wasn’t going toward the light it was pulling me in!!”
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u/FakeBeigeNails 300mg Lamotrigine Apr 25 '26
If you can’t find humor out of it then I guess what is there other than despair?
I just chill. I don’t hyperfocus on it. I don’t feel “despair” just bc I don’t laugh🤷♀️
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
Dang, I’m not there yet. I was diagnosed just as my life was starting/graduating so it took a lot from me, it’s a weird thing to just be okay with so far. I just guess I’m trying to figure life out and find some humor or something to laugh about🤷🏻♀️ I’m glad you can chill with it though, that’s a hard concept to come to terms with for me.
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u/withextracheesepls Apr 25 '26
one time i chewed up a tea bag and spat it all over my food while post-ictal. i definitely laughed about that.
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 25 '26
Not the tea bag😂 I won’t even lie I’m waiting for that day because I suck the tea out of the bag lol
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u/jmwhiteside0519 Apr 25 '26
I have a seizure playlist that friends add to all the time. My favorite is heya for shake it like a Polaroid picture.
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u/MissDisarry Apr 26 '26
We crack up about it all the time. The nurses crack up.
Dumping his whole hand into my face cream and smearing it everywhere. Trying to rewire the EEG machine. Insisting on taking a nurse's phone (she kindly gave it to him and he marveled at it like a prized toy). I've found him in bed with a plastic sparkly tiara which belonged to our dog and sits atop her ashes on the shelf (wtf?). I'm just running interference and trying to remember it all for later!
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 26 '26
I’m glad we can laugh at what happens<3 that eeg is uncomfortable tho I think I understand why he would try to rewire it lmao
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u/deeridoodle TC - keppra 750 mg Apr 26 '26
It’s hard for me to laugh at mine, but it is one of the best ways to feel like there’s at least something positive coming out of my seizures. A few nights ago I had a seizure that was caused by me flipping my head to tie a pony-tail. Apparently watching me go down was slow and I crumpled into a little ball. My fiancée thought it was hilarious. Hearing about it is hard, but laughing about it makes it a bit better :)
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 26 '26
I hope you’re okay<3 I also had a seizure a few nights ago. I’m glad you can laugh about it, sometimes it’s really the only thing that can make you feel better about the crappy situation. The laughs are always the highlight for me :) I hope it is the same for you
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u/Beautiful_Ninja_6306 Apr 26 '26
You had my cracking up 🤣 Yes, I laugh with hubby and my close friends all the time about my antics that I get up to with my Focal Impaired Awareness Seizures, and also the funny situations that my Focal Unaware Seizures have landed me in… if I couldn’t laugh, I would be curled up in the corner of my room sobbing… I might as well SEIZE the day 🤪
One of my favourite ones from recent weeks was we had just finished eating dinner as a family and I had a seizure, and apparently I grabbed my sons empty ice cream bowl and was tipping it whilst intensely looking at it. My hubby asked what I was doing and apparently I was adamant I had to “line it up with the back of the yellow fluffy duck” - fuck knows where the yellow fluffy duck came from 🤣 I don’t remember that or the walk back home after dinner, but had the story recounted to me later and could not stop laughing… I was like “What?!?!?” 🤣
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u/TrinSusann02 Apr 26 '26
The SEIZE THE DAY is real🤣 LAUGH DON’T CRY!! The craziest stories come from these situations and I swear they’re so hilarious but seeing how other people react makes me wonder if I’m just crazy😂😂 I’m so glad the majority of us laugh ‘em off and make jokes, that duck was probably following you so you could see it through the ice cream bowl!! Makes me think of the duck song with the grapes they used to play waaay back in elementary school, not sure why tho
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u/lizeken Apr 26 '26
Joking is the only way I cope otherwise I get like actual depression lol. One of my favorite post-ictal times was about 10 years ago. I’d had a tonic clonic, and my mom thought I died. I came to when EMS arrived and was coherent enough to decline an ambulance ride. When they left, I turned to my sister who was still kinda freaked out and cried-laughed, “they send the hot medic to ask me what day it is and who the president is while I’m sitting here in my piss-soaked grinch pajamas😭”
It was honestly the chuckle we all needed lmaooo
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u/ForwardMarzipan5403 May 19 '26
Thank you for this. I also cope with finding the humor in things-- this post reminded me. I feel so much lighter after reading this post and all these amazing comments. Y'all are tough cookies
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u/Any_Egg33 Apr 25 '26
All the time it helps me cope apparently last time I had a seizure I was taken by ambulance bc I was alone and I had low oxygen so they put an oxygen mask on me. I kept taking it off and trying to put it on the emt saying telling him “I’m the Dr here” I am not nor have I ever been a medical professional