Do u know, panic attack and anxiety can cause seizure?
I just knew about this right after I saw it with my own eyes today. There was a female patient at the clinic, I thought she was just having a 'common seizure', not until I was doing patient's history taking and was told by the family members about what happened to the woman in the past. Yeah, a sad tragedy occured to her.
The woman was 'seen' to be perfectly healthy, both physical and mental. So there was no record of her having any psychiatric issue nor she involved in any vehicle/occupational accident. Family members claimed the woman didnt take any medication.
Now, about the panic attack and seizure. Seizure has 2 types - Epileptic and Non-Epileptic.
Epileptic Seizure happens because of the disturbance in electrical activity of the brain. While Non-Epileptic Seizure (or pseudoseizure) has nothing to do with electrical activity but the features resemble so much with the Epileptic Seizure.
Non-Epileptic Seizure are caused by mental or emotional disturbance, and not because of physical cause. This type of seizure may happen when a person had face an extreme reaction to painful or difficult thoughts until it affect them physically.
For a normal person, when we feel really sad, we may end up crying. Or when we are scared of something, we can feel our own heart racing fast. Or when we are happy, we'll probably laugh till our stomach hurt. How we feel emotionally can pretty much gives an impact to our body
Certain extreme frightening event can be a bit emotionally difficult for some people to express, and they are unable to consciously cope with how it makes them feel. They become 'speechless' when they face the tragedy. I believe Aerith and Barret have this quality.
While in some other cases, some people will unconsciously 'lock' that frightening memory. These memories probably will remain hidden or it'll take some effort for them to remember back the events that have happened. Like in the case of Tifa, she was unsure of herself about what happened in the past, this was bcause her mind was actually protecting her from being sad which lead her to 'repress' the memory. However, she can still recall the sad events calmly.
And in some other cases, the memory of painful events can suddenly pop up inside a person's thought or awareness during an emotional/stressful events when there is something around him that triggers the mind to 'recall' the hidden frightening memory. Cloud shows a lot of this quality through out the FF7R-1.
This is one of Cloud's obvious 'Panic Attack'. U can say Cloud isnt in any stressful event at the moment, but remember, he has just finished the first bombing mission. The 'bombing mission' itself is already stressful + he has some amnesic syndrome & currently in a confused persona AND I BET THIS GUY IS TIRED AF.
The Non-Epileptic Seizure appears as a 'disturb mechanism' to avoid that one 'stressful memory' from returning in a person's thought. Kinda the same like the 'False Memory Syndrome' but the Non-Epileptic Seizure causes some physical effects. Its like ur body's way of 'running' from the painful memory so u dont hve to 'remember' that event.
Let me explain it through a simple dialogue.
Eyes : "Oh hey. Look at that bday party! A kid is hitting the pinata using a big wooden stick and red candies come out from it. Interesting
Brain : "Wooden stick? Red? Hitting? Oh, it reminds me to that one memory where I saw Mr XX hitting Mrs YY using a baseball bat and there was a lot of blood"
Memory : "Wait, wait. Did u call me? Oh yeah, I know that one, u guys keep talking about it. Let me show u the full scene"
Brain : "Oh-uh.. Didnt meant to 'recall' a memory. Time to shut down"
And a panic attack that leads to seizure occur
So yeah, untreated anxiety or severe episodic panic attack may lead to Non-Eplieptic Seizure. Though it is rare for someone to get the first seizure due to anxiety but the there is still a small chance for them to encounter it. Similar to that female patient that I've met.
I wonder if in FF7R- 2, the devs will give more 'episodes of Cloud's panic attack'. I dont want him to get any seizure though. That headaches and returning memory are already too heavy for him to handle.
Aight, thats all. Thank you for being with me. Sorry about my english. Take care !