What is absence epilepsy

You're going to have to give me the benefit of the doubt as I am not a doctor who knows all the scientific side to epilepsy but I will try and explain as best as I can what absence epilepsy is, through my personal experience of it. 

Absence epilepsy is where you loose awareness of what is happening around you, people call it 'blanking out'. Mine are fortunately controlled at the moment with medication. But when I did have them I would have no pre-warning of one coming, I would just be having a conversation with someone, for example and then 'blank out'. I didn't fall to the floor or jerk. I would just look into space, couldn't respond to anything, anyone would say to me until i came out of the seizure. My smaller ones would last 4 - 10 seconds. Then my longer ones where I have fallen, would last 5 or so minutes or so. Having several of these seizures every day became really frustrating and would knock my confidence hugely. 

The main triggers for my seizures is if I get stressed, or anxious in a situation. Also if I am sleep deprived or have messed up my sleeping pattern. Basically any abnormal pattern towards the brain will increase mine. Therefore i have learnt to try and stay as calm and not stress about situations as much as possible. And make sure i get enough sleep. If i did have a bad night sleep then I would rest the next day as i know i am at a higher risk of having a seizure. 

How do I feel after a seizure? 
The smaller ones, I would feel slightly dazed but could come back into conversation and continue the day. However the longer ones i would have to be taken to hospital, i would feel very spaced out, confused, have an awful headache and just want to sleep. 

The advice I can give on trying to minimise your seizures is understand what sends you're seizures off, keep note of when you have them. where you stressed at the point? If so try and reduce that. I noticed when I controlled my anxiety more, it reduced my seizures. It is a tedious battle but worth it in the long run. 

Also medication, I will many blog posts on this. But briefly I know the struggle of having to start a new medication then experience side effects, not knowing if its even going to work. Having to increase doses of one then decrease another. But the playing around with them will finally get you on the right path. Yes it took me 6 years to figure out the write mix and dose of medication and yes I experienced horrible side affects but they go and it was worth it. So keep going!