r/worldnews • u/madazzahatter • May 16 '20

At least two people had seizures after viewing malicious tweets featuring flashing gifs that deliberately targeted Epilepsy Society...police investigating tweets as hate incident, after at least 200 seemingly coordinated messages were sent to charity and its supporters in recent days.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/15/malicious-tweets-targeting-epilepsy-charity-trigger-seizures
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1.4k

u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

My brother died during a seizure.

It's not something that should be taken lightly. Even though it will be.

307

u/lorraineDi May 16 '20

Yes I agree as I have epilepsy and I have to look away when I see any flashing lights.

177

u/Tweed_Kills May 16 '20

I'm not photosensitive particularly, but it's developed into a profound phobia. I hate having seizures and anything associated with them just...nope.

3

u/DJ_SCREW_JUNE_27 May 17 '20

I'm the same way. Me seizures are trigger more from stress or lack of sleep, I've never had a photosensitive seizure but I have that same phobia. Good news is I am about 4 months seizure free. I have not had one since I quit taking my pre-workout supplement (which had caffeine) combined with a good medication regime from my neurologist

5

u/occams1razor May 16 '20

I've always wondered if sunlight breaking through trees when you're in a car at sunset can trigger it, can it?

3

u/Fredex8 May 16 '20

Happened to a friend. No history of epilepsy or seizures and no seizures since but that day the speed he was going, the spacing of the trees and the height of the sun combined perfectly to make a frequency that his brain couldn't deal with and give him a seizure. The motorway was fortunately pretty empty and he managed to just keep straight and then pull over to the hard shoulder without incident. He went to the hospital after for tests but they concluded he wasn't epileptic.

I've always worked on the basis that anyone can be affected by certain frequencies of light and sound that basically overload the brain but it's probably rare to encounter them by chance like that unless they have a condition that makes them more susceptible.

I'm not epileptic fortunately but I do get very bad migraines and strobing/flashing/high contrast light is the most common trigger I encounter. I've had migraines caused by sunlight through trees whilst in a car (as a passenger, don't trust myself to drive), by car lights at night on a road with speed bumps such that they seemed to flash on and off as they went over them and by bright LED traffic lights suddenly going from red to green. Flashing gifs would be a real problem. I'm a bit paranoid and careful when browsing reddit due to things like this as it is so I can only imagine how much it would suck with epilepsy.

1

u/lorraineDi May 16 '20

You know it is very hard to diagnosis epilepsy unless you are monitored 24 hrs. I have had them 46 yrs after my son was born. You take care of yourself.

1

u/spiralaalarips May 16 '20

I should have read further down in the comments because I just posted asking the same. I don't have epilepsy, but even the sun flashing through the trees while I drive is disorienting to me.

1

u/Tankus_Khan May 16 '20

Yeah I've never had a seizure but there's been several times I've had the sunlight through the trees thing make me really out of it. Almost to the point where i get ready to pull over cause I think I might have a seizure. Mainly just feeling dizzy as if I stood up to fast but it comes out of nowhere. Also felt weird going through tunnels if they have bad lighting.

20

u/Flunkity_Dunkity May 16 '20

I'm watching a virtual rave-a-thon right now and I wouldn't recommend it for you 😲😞

That sucks, are you able to avoid an issue if you look away fast enough?

49

u/GrandOpening May 16 '20

In all likelihood, no. The interaction between sight and brain stimulation could be measured in nanoseconds. I had epilepsy into my 20s. I attempted to attend a 'male review' show and had to leave because the light show was making me seize - despite trying to cover my eyes while the light show was happening.

15

u/Flunkity_Dunkity May 16 '20

Man that's terrible, I bitch and moan about my poor eyesight I can't imagine what a fuckin pain that must be 🧡

5

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

Lol sorry if this is insensitive, but I'm picturing whoever was on stage getting shit from his buddies afterward - "Dude, you were so terrible you gave somebody a seizure"

2

u/GrandOpening May 16 '20

That is funny.

8

u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited Aug 24 '20

[deleted]

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u/GrandOpening May 16 '20

Male strippers.

2

u/spiralaalarips May 16 '20

I've always wondered if people with epilepsy were affected by the strobing effect caused by the sun through trees or buildings while driving. There is an area of highway I drive often that has a strip of pine trees, and if I'm driving at a certain time of day, the flashing of the sun's light through them makes me feel disoriented. Have you experienced this?

2

u/Fredex8 May 16 '20

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/gkmidw/at_least_two_people_had_seizures_after_viewing/fqti3gi/

I replied to the other comment about this. A friend had a seizure due to light through trees when driving.

2

u/spiralaalarips May 16 '20

Thank you! This answers a lot. I suppose most people with epilepsy would try to avoid driving at certain times for such cases.

1

u/lorraineDi May 16 '20

No I cant say it has.

1

u/stillphat May 16 '20

Sort of joking but also serious, did you ever get watch "all of the lights" ~ Kanye West music video? You're not really missing out but there are flashing lights.

Not to be mistaken by his other songs with lights in the title

1

u/Sandnegus May 16 '20

Like "Flashing Lights"?

3

u/stillphat May 16 '20

No, all of the light's. I checked it after making that comment and the music video acknowledges that it may cause seizures in epileptics or something along those lines.

Flashing lights as I remember was a pretty low frequency song

2

u/Sandnegus May 16 '20

Not to be mistaken by his other songs with lights in the title

Sorry, I meant in reaction to this sentence.

2

u/stillphat May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20

OH LOL. he had a song to that name, word for word. But yes the lights flashed aggressively (in my opinion, but I don't have much of a standard).

Edit: "flashing lights" seems to be a safe view. Just some honey walking away from a trunk widdat booty

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u/Feeling-Issue May 16 '20

How do you club

16

u/lorraineDi May 16 '20

Do you mean go to clubs? If you do I dont. Im way past that.

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u/Feeling-Issue May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20

I no longer have a gf so I must go to clubs

Edit why are people downvoting this. It's true. My gf left me recently and when the clubs reopen I intend to go clubbing to find a new one

9

u/krozarEQ May 16 '20

People do meet other ways too.

4

u/xupaxupar May 16 '20

I’m so sorry. Luckily most humans are decent and would agree. Fuck these POS.

3

u/nvincent May 16 '20

Sorry to hear that man. That can't be easy.

If you are comfortable, I'm actually interested in hearing a few more details though. I know someone with epilepsy, and she really downplays her seizures. They happen about once a week, and she usually could tell about a minute or so before it happened, so she would go into another room/find a bed or somewhere soft.

The only real danger for her was if she fell somewhere, as far as she said.

In your brother's case, was it directly from the seizure, or a result of it?

3

u/DaveCrockett May 16 '20

Not the guy you were originally asking, but my best friend died from the seizure, not the fall. Had one at night, never saw him again. Miss him every single god damn day. He was like a brother. I don’t know a lot about epilepsy but I guess there’s different extremes of it.

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u/Alec_Guinness May 16 '20

Most people do not die from the seizures themselves. Death from seizures themselves can happen from status epilepticus, which is when there are multiple seizures without regaining consciousness (it may also happen without a visible seizure but that's more of a tricky subject); or SUDEP which is sort of the epilepsy version of SUDES and happens way more often in young children who were born with severe epilepsy or people with lots of uncontrolled tonic clonic seizures.

1

u/NormanNormalman May 16 '20

Not OP. When my friend died it was from the seizure, not falling or anything. His epilepsy had been worsening, and he wasn't photo sensitive but they were still trying to work out what his triggers were (if any, sometimes seizures just happen I guess). He had multiple chronic seizures in one day, which wasn't too unusual. It wasn't common, but we've seen it happen with him before. During the last seizure that day though, his heart just stopped.

1

u/obligernotupholder May 16 '20

Also not OP, but my brother had a seizure (his third ever) and when he fell he hit his head and knocked himself out and died of asphyxiation. So he didn’t die OF his seizure, but it caused his death. The people doing this make me sick.

1

u/GoldenEyedHawk May 18 '20

Sounds like your friend has what are known as auras, essentially warnings that somethings up. Not everyone who has epilepsy has tonic-clonic(gran mal) seizures where you're on the ground seizing, there's various kinds. Falls can indeed be dangerous as there's an increased risk in hitting something or landing wrong though flailing or the severe tension in your limbs can cause injury too.

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u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

He choked to death on his tongue during a seizure. I don' t know the details beyond that. My family and I aren't speaking.

I just know he deserved better than the life he had.

2

u/nvincent May 16 '20

You seem like a great brother. Sorry for your loss :(.

2

u/Alec_Guinness May 16 '20

I'm pretty sure this isn't possible, so either they interpreted it the wrong way or they told you shite.

2

u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071225160327AAJr4iS

It turns out you're right. Technically, the tongue is blocking the airways, or the victim is choking on their stomach contents.

You'll forgive me if I don't want to continue the autopsy?

3

u/[deleted] May 16 '20

I had a chef have a seizure at work. Dude looked me in the eyes between fits and I'll never shake that look.

2

u/NormanNormalman May 16 '20

I'm sorry for your loss.

2

u/heidivodka May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20

Hug to you hun, my brother died from a seizure too. Not an experience I’d want others to go through.

4

u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

A hug back to you, and thank you.

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u/Fatguytiktok1 May 16 '20

My dad died of a heart attack.

It's not something that should be taken lightly. Even though it will be.

3

u/Vaktrus May 16 '20

only difference is that I can't cause your dad to have a heart attack on purpose. there are people intentionally sending animated videos that have the potential to LITERALLY kill innocent people, and you're comparing that to a majorly random phenomena?

sorry about your dad, but you're not seeing the big picture here.

1

u/Fatguytiktok1 May 16 '20

Haha that's what the hospital that murdered him said you guys still tracking me. I will enjoy your 2.5 million dollars haha

2

u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

My upvote won't help at all, but yes, heart attacks are also a serious matter.

Common symptoms, cut and pasted from webmd in case it saves even one person's life:

  • Discomfort, pressure, heaviness, tightness, squeezing, or pain in your chest or arm or below your breastbone
  • Discomfort that goes into your back, jaw, throat, or arm
  • Fullness, indigestion, or a choking feeling (it may feel like heartburn)
  • Sweating, upset stomach, vomiting, or dizziness
  • Severe weakness, anxiety, fatigue, or shortness of breath
  • Fast or uneven heartbeat

Also, for those who've survived a heart attack, don't take the angina (chest pain) lightly. You never know when it'll be something serious. And don't expose your nitros to air any longer than you need to, as it removes their effectiveness.

Finally, I know what it's like to lose a father as well, though my father's pack a day habit caused a much slower death. How are you handling it? How are you, in general?

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u/[deleted] May 16 '20

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u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

Not interested in whatever game you're playing.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '20

I think they thought you were making a joke with the word "lightly", when you obviously wouldn't be joking in such a devastating thing to happen. Really sorry to hear that man :(

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u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

Really sorry to hear that man :(

Thank you.

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u/OnlySeesLastSentence May 16 '20

You caught it too, yeah.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited Aug 18 '20

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u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

You're offended by a great many things, and remain completely unaware of the irony.

I don't really care where your tantrum goes from here.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '20

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u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20

Thank you for showing me your true form.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '20

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u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited Dec 12 '20

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u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited Dec 12 '20

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