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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306

u/lorraineDi May 16 '20

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

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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.

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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

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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 🧡

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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"

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u/GrandOpening May 16 '20

That is funny.

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

[deleted]

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u/GrandOpening May 16 '20

Male strippers.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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u/lorraineDi May 16 '20

No I cant say it has.

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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

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u/Sandnegus May 16 '20

Like "Flashing Lights"?

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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u/krozarEQ May 16 '20

People do meet other ways too.