What are the facts?

Epilepsy is a neurological condition that causes seizures due to a sudden burst of excess electrical activity in the brain. This electrical activity creates a temporary disruption in the normal messages passed between brain cells and results in a seizure or fit. Most seizures happen suddenly without warning, last a short amount of time and stop by themselves, and the severity or type of seizure differs from person to person. 

How a person behaves during a seizure will depend on the area of the brain affected  – some will experience a trance-like state for a few seconds or minutes, whilst others lose consciousness and suffer convulsions. Generally, epileptic seizures can be divided into two types: focal seizures where the epileptic activity starts in just a part of the brain, and generalised seizures where epileptic activity occurs in both hemispheres of the brain.