Patient Education / For nurses / Patient handout
Patient handout · NeurologyLiving With Seizures: Your Safety Guide
A seizure is a sudden burst of electrical activity in the brain. Taking your medicine every day and teaching your family what to do keep you safer.
Take your seizure medicine
- Take it every day at the same times, even when you feel well.
- Never stop it suddenly. Stopping suddenly brings on seizures, even long ones.
- Ask your pharmacist before any new medicine or birth control.
- Planning a pregnancy? Talk with your provider first.
Avoid your triggers
- Missed doses, too little sleep, and alcohol bring on seizures.
- Stress, illness, and flashing lights trigger seizures in some people.
- Keep a seizure diary: date, time, how long, and what happened.
Stay safe every day
- Take showers, not baths. Never swim alone.
- Drive only when your state's law and your provider allow it.
- Avoid heights and power tools until your seizures are under control.
- Wear a medical ID.
First aid for your family
- Stay calm. Time the seizure.
- Move hard objects away. Put something soft under the head.
- Loosen anything tight around the neck.
- Turn the person onto one side.
- Put nothing in the mouth. Do not hold the person down.
- Stay until the person is fully awake.
Call your provider today if you have
- More seizures than usual, or seizures that look different
- Missed doses, or vomiting that keeps you from taking medicine
- Any new rash on a seizure medicine
- Sleepiness, dizziness, unsteady walking, or double vision
Call 911 or your local emergency number if you have
- A seizure that lasts more than 5 minutes
- Another seizure before the person wakes up
- Trouble breathing, an injury, or not waking up
- A first seizure, a seizure in water, or a seizure during pregnancy or with diabetes
- A blistering or peeling rash
This handout supports, not replaces, advice from your own nurse or doctor.
For nurses and nursing students: the teaching guide behind this handout →