Is very very mild epilepsy a thing?

[markemark]

I’ve always been light sensitive. But for the last 5 years or so I am finding cycling with bright sunlight flashing through trees more of an issue. More of an issue in winter months with the low sun.

I have no other problem and any warnings on tv etc have no effect on me. I never used to enjoy flashing sunlight but it never bothered me. However the last few years it’s now causes me to feel a bit nauseous and I really have to concentrate on what I’m doing especially if cycling. Doesn’t seem to be getting worse but it’s certainly worse than 5 years ago.
Is this a thing or do I just ignore it?

 

[vickster]

Have you had your eyes tested?
Or spoken to a doctor?

I doubt anyone really likes flashing sunlight!

 

[markemark]

I’ve never liked flashing lights. But now it’s something that seems to affect me. Several years been like this and not getting any worse. Wondered if just an age thing.

 

[PaulSB]

I have epilepsy and my triggers have nothing to do with light but are connected to a combination of lack of sleep, lack of food and both high and low blood sugars. I'm extremely fortunate to know this and that I get 20-30 minutes warning of a potential episode. I begin to feel distant and slightly shaky. Sitting down and eating stops the episode.

As I get older I'm aware these warnings are becoming more frequent and I have to work harder at avoiding them.

I've had four full blown grand mals in 54 years and probably two petit mals.

Does one call this mild? I know you didn't mean to be rude or unkind but feel to classify the disease as mild, medium, severe etc. is unwise. There are people on the forum who suffer far, far more difficulty than me, life changing. I feel they are better placed to say whether or not one can term epilepsy as mild or severe. For me we all have epilepsy, mine results in six episodes to date others can fit many times daily.

I count myself as extraordinarily lucky.

I've experienced the sunlight and trees you describe once. It's like riding directly in to a strobe light. Very disconcerting and did worry me but that was all.

 

[Sittingduck]

I was getting really narked last week on a ride with the low winter sun flickering through a distant treeline that much that I had to had to ride with one hand cupped over the peak of my cycling cap to shield my eyes. I was diagnosed epileptic when I was 16 after two surprise fits where I was fully out of it and only came around in an ambulance on both occasions. Had always been prone to what my parents and GP had referred to as 'convulsions' when I was a younger kid and did sometimes have feelings of suddenly becoming unwell - hard to describe, like feeling a bit drunk but in an unpleasant way. I was prescribed medication in my late teens which I fastidiously took for probably 10 years but as I had the feelings less and less I one day stopped taking it and have not had any other fits. Just the two that happened when I was 16. I do sometimes get the funny feeling but it is less these days - although flickering sunlight is still something I am conscious to try to avoid. I don't know if you can develop it in later life I was always under the impression it was more likely to be born with the condition especially in the more severe cases. Often growing out of it so to speak, like I have appear to have done. It is definitely worth talking to your GP and getting checked out, in my case I remember having an EEG with electrodes put on my head to measure for discharge etc. There are implications to driving and licensing, if you are diagnosed and of course cycling especially alone and so on may be a concern if it develops fully.

edit: per the above post from Paul, flickering and flashing lights are only part of the triggering for some. My episodes were both related to lack of sleep/food/stress or a combination of these factors and no strobe lights were involved in either case, although I have never been taken ill inside a club (back in the day of course).

 

[BrumJim]

Looks like we have some experts here from a personal perspective point of view.

My understanding is that the answer is no. Epilepsy is experienced by a feeling similar to drunkenness, consciousness (awake but fixated) etc, rather than nausea.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Do you wear any kind of glasses when cycling? They can reduce the effect of that light flashing through the trees etc. I think the problem is that your eye pupils are alternately dilating and contracting but can not keep up with the change in light. Things are alternately too bright then too dim.

 

[Trickedem]

You are not alone. I am very sensitive to flickering lights and it makes me feel a bit nauseous. fences, trees etc on winter mornings are not nice. Old fashioned CRT monitors often used to give me a headache if the refresh rate was too low. Fluorescent tubes on the way out are also a pain, but must less common now.
The most annoying new thing is in Pret A Manger. They have loyalty card readers that shine straight in your eye and flicker very annoyingly. I am always angling them down.

So all in all a little bit annoying, but I can easily put up with it. My sympathies to anyone who has epilepsy, it can be a very nasty condition.

 

[markemark]

Thanks all. If it’s just this I’ll live. It’s just that it started around 5 years ago and that’s confused me. Kept thinking if it gets worse I’ll see someone about it. But it hasn’t.

 

[PaulSB]

Looks like we have some experts here from a personal perspective point of view.

My understanding is that the answer is no. Epilepsy is experienced by a feeling similar to drunkenness, consciousness (awake but fixated) etc, rather than nausea.

I don't know of these symptoms. In my experience a petit mal is a rather distant faraway feeling but one isn't necessarily aware of this. My wife feels I've had two petit mals, she is a very experienced health care professional.

A grand mal for me is quite simply a total fit and the first one knows of it is coming round feeling disorientated and hopefully with an ambulance crew or other person on hand.

The worst I experienced was halfway up a French mountainside early one morning and alone. I came round totally disorientated, knew I had to get home, walked towards tarmac I could see, arriving at the road I had no idea where to go. Such was the desire to get re-orientated I followed an ocassionally used footpath straight down the mountain believing it had to lead to the village below. I hoped in the village I would be able to find the path I knew would take me back up the mountain to the house we were staying in. I managed it.

The following day I discovered where I had emerged on to the road was 50 metres from the holiday house.

 

[All uphill]

I was getting really narked last week on a ride with the low winter sun flickering through a distant treeline that much that I had to had to ride with one hand cupped over the peak of my cycling cap to shield my eyes. I was diagnosed epileptic when I was 16 after two surprise fits where I was fully out of it and only came around in an ambulance on both occasions. Had always been prone to what my parents and GP had referred to as 'convulsions' when I was a younger kid and did sometimes have feelings of suddenly becoming unwell - hard to describe, like feeling a bit drunk but in an unpleasant way. I was prescribed medication in my late teens which I fastidiously took for probably 10 years but as I had the feelings less and less I one day stopped taking it and have not had any other fits. Just the two that happened when I was 16. I do sometimes get the funny feeling but it is less these days - although flickering sunlight is still something I am conscious to try to avoid. I don't know if you can develop it in later life I was always under the impression it was more likely to be born with the condition especially in the more severe cases. Often growing out of it so to speak, like I have appear to have done. It is definitely worth talking to your GP and getting checked out, in my case I remember having an EEG with electrodes put on my head to measure for discharge etc. There are implications to driving and licensing, if you are diagnosed and of course cycling especially alone and so on may be a concern if it develops fully.

edit: per the above post from Paul, flickering and flashing lights are only part of the triggering for some. My episodes were both related to lack of sleep/food/stress or a combination of these factors and no strobe lights were involved in either case, although I have never been taken ill inside a club (back in the day of course).

Your point about being born with it - epilepsy.

That can be the case but it is not unusual to have a first episode later in life. Ms AU had her first grand mal (tonic clonic) seizure this year at 58.

 

[Sittingduck]

Your point about being born with it - epilepsy.

That can be the case but it is not unusual to have a first episode later in life. Ms AU had her first grand mal (tonic clonic) seizure this year at 58.

Yes well, wasn't sure and I don't think I was born epileptic or diagnosed as such, I mean. I was advised it was fairly common for it to be diagnosed in the teenage years and for folks to then grow out of it so to speak but obviously not always the case. It is very much varied, in terms of the impact and severity of it. Maybe a lot of folks had it underlying and not fully diagnosed until later on in life, for example. Perhaps it can form much like allergies and develop, seemingly from nothing. In any case it is a curious condition and one that I am quite sure we only partially understand.

 

[classic33]

I’ve always been light sensitive. But for the last 5 years or so I am finding cycling with bright sunlight flashing through trees more of an issue. More of an issue in winter months with the low sun.

I have no other problem and any warnings on tv etc have no effect on me. I never used to enjoy flashing sunlight but it never bothered me. However the last few years it’s now causes me to feel a bit nauseous and I really have to concentrate on what I’m doing especially if cycling. Doesn’t seem to be getting worse but it’s certainly worse than 5 years ago.
Is this a thing or do I just ignore it?

Has the street lights around you been changed to LED from sodium lights in the time you've noticed the change?

Added in edit
markemark, I've been living with epilepsy all my life. Any advice I'd be able to give would be based on that. And if you find that describing what you have felt like as you have in order to get answers, then don't be afraid to use it.

 

[harlechjoe]

I know from my working life that light related sensitivity triggered by computer screens was mitigated by the use of tinted glasses. On that basis would it be helpful for you to seek advice from a medical person on whether tinted cycling glasses would reduce the effect of flickering sunlight aggravating your health condition?

 

[mistyoptic]

I’ve always been light sensitive. But for the last 5 years or so I am finding cycling with bright sunlight flashing through trees more of an issue. More of an issue in winter months with the low sun.

I have no other problem and any warnings on tv etc have no effect on me. I never used to enjoy flashing sunlight but it never bothered me. However the last few years it’s now causes me to feel a bit nauseous and I really have to concentrate on what I’m doing especially if cycling. Doesn’t seem to be getting worse but it’s certainly worse than 5 years ago.
Is this a thing or do I just ignore it?

Flashing or flickering lights can be a problem for migraineurs too. The nausea you mention could be part of the migraine family of symptoms. Either way, it bears investigation if it’s new and especially if it gets worse.