When seizures aren’t epilepsy: Understanding a misdiagnosed condition (opens in new tab)

Body stiffening, rhythmic jerking or shaking, staring spells and even loss of consciousness seem like definite signs of an epileptic seizure. But for thousands of people who experience these symptoms, they are something else entirely.These episodes that are real, involuntary and often debilitating are known as functional seizures, or dissociative functional seizures, because there is no epileptic-based brain activity behind them.