Epilepsy is classified as a brain disorder where there are repeated and spontaneous seizures. Seizures are caused by abnormally excited electrical signals in your brain. During these periods, there is disturbed brain function that results in changes in your attention and/or your behavior. Epilepsy can affect you at any age. While epilepsy can result in damage to your brain, it is more likely that previous brain damage is the cause of epilepsy.
Cause
When there is either permanent injury or change in your brain tissue, this can cause your brain to be abnormally excitable and result in a seizure. Examples of brain damage that can cause epilepsy include a stroke, dementia, traumatic brain injury, infections, congenital brain defects, brain tumors, metabolic diseases, and kidney or liver failure. However, if the cause of a seizure can be treated, like drug use, and another seizure does not occur afterward, then it is not considered epilepsy.
Symptoms
Symptoms of epilepsy are different for every person; however, symptoms of current epileptic seizures will be the same as a previous seizure. The seriousness of the symptoms varies from a staring spell to loss of consciousness and violent convulsions. General symptoms include changes in your consciousness, emotion, sensation and vision, as well as muscle tension and tremors. You may also taste a bitter or metallic flavor before the epileptic seizure begins.
Possible Complications
Epilepsy does have possible complications that can arise. These include difficulty learning from the brain function disruptions, inhaling fluid into your lungs during an epileptic seizure, sustaining an injury from a fall (if this is one of your symptoms), permanent brain damage and possible birth defects from using epilepsy medications. There is also possibility that you can suffer from status epilepticus, where you have prolonged or numerous seizures with little recovery time in between them.
