So back in the 1980s, I had childhood epilepsy. My parents tell me that I used to have "Grand Mal" seizures, which is the more serious type that most people think of when talking about epilepsy. Blacking out is a part of it, and so I don't remember any of the episodes, so I'll have to trust their word and that of several doctors. Fortunately, I was put on medication that brought it under control, and all signs of Grand Mal seizures disappeared during my teenage years and have been gone ever since, even without meds.

However, throughout my life I have retained a smaller, less talked-about part of epilepsy, which is absence seizures, also known as "Petit Mal" seizures. These are not severe, and most episodes go overlooked because it resembles daydreaming or "spacing out". At the time of an episode, I'll stop whatever it is I'm doing and just kind of stare off and not say anything -- my mind is somewhere else for about 10 to 30 seconds. The trance can sometimes be broken, if someone speaks loud enough, but I will have lost everything that happened in the short time I was out.

I normally don't talk about this kind of thing, but I felt compelled to because lately I have found myself coming out of a Petit Mal seizure at the top of staircases, of all places. So that kind of unnerves me a bit. I have no idea why it happens at the top of a staircase. Thankfully, all I do is stand there rigid until I snap out of it.

Does anyone else have similar experiences?