Stay.
Stay with the person and start timing the seizure the moment it begins. Keep yourself and others calm. Stay until they are fully alert, then comfort them, explain what happened, and offer to call someone to help them get home.
Know what a seizure
looks like. Know what to do.
Most people freeze because nobody ever taught them. Five minutes on this page is enough to change how you respond the next time it happens in front of you.
Written by La’Shera F. Randolph, who has lived with epilepsy for nearly three decades. First aid follows CDC guidance. General education, not medical advice.
Last updated
The Basics
What is epilepsy?
A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. It can look like a full-body convulsion, or like someone staring blankly for eight seconds, or like a single arm jerking. What it looks like depends entirely on where in the brain it starts and how far it spreads.
Epilepsy is the condition of having recurring seizures that are not caused by a temporary, reversible trigger. Clinicians generally diagnose it after two or more unprovoked seizures more than 24 hours apart, or after one seizure when the risk of another is high.
One seizure does not mean epilepsy. Fever, low blood sugar, head injury, or drug withdrawal can all provoke a seizure in a brain that never seizes again.
Read this first
Everything on this page is general education, not medical advice. Epilepsy is deeply individual. Diagnosis, medication, and seizure action plans belong between a person and their neurologist.
If you or someone you love is having seizures, see a doctor. If a seizure meets any of the emergency signs below, call 911.
Seizure First Aid
What should you do when someone has a seizure?
Stay. Safe. Side. Three words. If you remember nothing else from this page, remember these.
Safe.
If they seem to be falling, ease them to the ground. Clear away anything hard or sharp. Put something soft and flat under their head, take off their eyeglasses, and loosen anything tight around the neck. Check for a medical ID bracelet.
Side.
Gently turn them onto one side with the mouth pointing toward the ground. This keeps the airway clear and helps them breathe.
Never do this
- Do not hold them down or try to stop their movements.
- Do not put anything in their mouth. It is impossible to swallow your tongue.
- Do not give mouth-to-mouth breaths during the seizure.
- Do not give food or water until they are fully alert.
When should you call 911?
Any one of these turns a seizure into a medical emergency.
- The seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes.
- Another seizure starts soon after the first.
- They have trouble breathing or waking up afterward.
- They were injured during the seizure.
- The seizure happens in water.
- It is their first seizure.
- They are pregnant, or have diabetes and lose consciousness.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), First Aid for Seizures (opens in a new tab). Stay. Safe. Side. is the Epilepsy Foundation’s seizure first aid campaign. General education, not medical advice; see the medical disclaimer.
Seizure Types
What are the different types of seizures?
Clinicians classify seizures by onset: focal (one area of the brain), generalized (both sides at once), or unknown. Open each one to see what it can look like.
Focal onset — starts in one area
Focal aware
The person stays fully conscious and aware throughout, and usually remembers it afterwards. Previously called a simple partial seizure.
May look like: a sudden strange smell or taste, a rising feeling in the stomach, deja vu, tingling, a twitching hand, or a wave of unexplained fear. Often brief. Sometimes this is a warning, called an aura, that a larger seizure is coming.
Focal impaired awareness
Awareness is affected. The person may look awake but is not responsive, and usually has no memory of it. Previously called a complex partial seizure.
May look like: blank staring, lip smacking, chewing, fumbling with clothing, repeating words, or wandering. It can be mistaken for daydreaming, intoxication, or rudeness. It is none of those.
Focal to bilateral tonic-clonic
A seizure that begins in one area and then spreads to both sides of the brain, becoming a convulsive seizure.
May look like: a brief aura or one-sided movement, followed by loss of consciousness, stiffening, and rhythmic jerking.
Generalized onset — both sides at once
Tonic-clonic
The seizure most people picture. Previously called grand mal.
May look like: a cry, loss of consciousness, the body stiffening (tonic), then rhythmic jerking (clonic). Breathing may look laboured and the skin may go pale or bluish. Usually 1 to 3 minutes, followed by confusion and deep fatigue.
Absence
Brief lapses in awareness, most common in children. Previously called petit mal.
May look like: a sudden stop mid-sentence, a blank stare for 5 to 15 seconds, maybe eyelid fluttering, then carrying on as if nothing happened. Often misread by teachers as inattention.
Myoclonic
Sudden, brief muscle jerks, often in the arms or upper body, usually without loss of awareness.
May look like: a single violent shock that sends a cup of coffee across the room, frequently shortly after waking.
Atonic
A sudden loss of muscle tone. Also called drop attacks.
May look like: the head dropping or the person collapsing without warning. Very brief, but head injury risk is high, which is why protective helmets are sometimes recommended.
Tonic and clonic
Tonic: muscles stiffen suddenly, often during sleep. Clonic: repeated rhythmic jerking on both sides. Either can occur on its own rather than in the combined tonic-clonic pattern.
Classification follows the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) 2017 framework. General education, not medical advice.
Common Triggers
What can trigger a seizure?
Many people identify patterns. Tracking them in a seizure diary is one of the most useful things a person can do between appointments.
Missed sleep
Sleep deprivation is one of the most widely reported triggers. Irregular schedules and shift work raise risk.
Missed medication
Skipped or late doses are a leading cause of breakthrough seizures. Never stop medication without a doctor.
Stress
Sustained emotional or physical stress is commonly reported, which is part of why support matters clinically, not just emotionally.
Flashing light
Photosensitivity affects a minority of people with epilepsy, roughly 3 in 100, not everyone. The stereotype overstates it.
Illness and fever
Infection, fever, and dehydration can lower the seizure threshold, especially in children.
Alcohol and withdrawal
Heavy drinking, and particularly the withdrawal period afterwards, raises seizure risk sharply.
Myth vs Fact
What are the most common myths about epilepsy?
Myth
You should put something in their mouth so they do not swallow their tongue.
Fact
Swallowing your tongue is anatomically impossible. Putting anything in the mouth of someone seizing risks broken teeth, a blocked airway, and a bitten finger. Hands out of the mouth, always.
Myth
Everyone with epilepsy convulses.
Fact
Many seizures involve no convulsion at all. Staring, confusion, lip smacking, or a few seconds of absence are all seizures. Convulsive seizures are simply the most visible kind.
Myth
Epilepsy is a mental illness.
Fact
Epilepsy is a neurological condition involving electrical activity in the brain. It is not a psychiatric disorder and it is not contagious.
Myth
People with epilepsy cannot work, drive, or play sport.
Fact
Most people with epilepsy work, study, parent, and compete. Driving rules depend on seizure control and local law. Limits come from seizure frequency, not from the diagnosis itself.
Myth
You should restrain someone having a seizure.
Fact
Restraint does not shorten a seizure and frequently causes injury to both people. Clear the space, cushion the head, and let it run its course.
Kids Corner
How do you explain epilepsy to a child?
Your brain sends tiny electrical messages all day long, the way a phone sends texts. Sometimes those messages all fire at once, and your body does something you did not ask it to do. That is a seizure. It is not scary magic and it is not your fault.
It is not catching. Your friend cannot get it from you. And it does not make you any less fast, funny, smart, or brave than you were yesterday.
YOU ARE STRONG
YOU ARE BRAVE
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
The memoir
A Smile That Hid Pain
The Silent Battle Behind My Smile, My Mind, and My Strength
This is more than a story about seizures. It is a story about losing yourself, questioning everything you once believed, and finding the courage to listen to the voice within.
Now teach one more person.
The knowledge only helps if it spreads. Send this page to someone who spends time around your family, your classroom, or your team.