I just watched an episode of the television show “House.” A patient started having a seizure and a character named Dr. Chase yelled, “Hold him down.” I thought, “Really? That’s what you would do? And you’re supposed to be a doctor?” I am not a doctor. Nor do I play one on TV. But as an epileptic, I know you do not hold down a patient having a seizure, even on a TV show.

I am willing to suspend a little disbelief here for the purposes of enjoying the show. I certainly understand that TV characters and stories need to be interesting or the show gets boring. Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) has to be a little insane to make people watch the show. Even ‘Reality TV’ is not reality. Nevertheless, the public perception of how to deal with epilepsy is, at least in part, shaped by what people see on TV.

According to Time Magazine, medical shows used incorrect or “harmful” procedures in the treatment of seizures 71% of the time (1). That means, since the average person will rarely see a seizure in real life, when someone sees a seizure three out of four times the person helping them is doing it wrong. No wonder people are still jamming wallets in our mouths.

But then epileptics themselves are never really characterized well on TV. Jennie F. Kerson wrote an excellent article for Brown University in which she watched every single film in which a seizure was depicted (2). Her findings were very interesting.

People suffering from seizures were viewed as “sad” and “victims.” Often there was a link between the seizures and “psychiatric difficulty.” Most importantly, epileptics are ALWAYS viewed as “flawed.” Despite advancements in medicine, “Epilepsy continues to be distorted, sensationalized and presented in the most frightening and/or depressing ways.”

People have told me that my blog is “angry.” They wonder why I make a big deal about epilepsy. Then I turn on “House,” and some poor guy having a seizure gets the “hold him down” treatment. I know, I know: It didn’t happen. But some day, somewhere down the road, I’m going to fall down again and the only other guy in the room is going to hold ME down. Because that is the only thing he knows. Because he “heard it somewhere,” or he “saw it on TV.”

Post Script: I have received several complaints asking me, “Well. So what SHOULD I do if I see a seizure?” I am not a doctor but this is a link to the epilepsy foundation’s recommendations:

http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/aboutepilepsy/firstaid/index.cfm

1 – http://healthland.time.com/2010/02/15/what-medical-tv-shows-get-wrong-about-seizures/

2 – http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1528-1157.1999.tb00836.x/asset/j.1528-1157.1999.tb00836.x.pdf;jsessionid=A2ACA7329ED9238ACF3F259DD0C12DF0.f01t02?v=1&t=hnizbriv&s=53be230abab8e9ba70c24a7d2595a4fce9ef9d52