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Something odd was happening to Arielle Hoffman.<\/p>\n
It was December 2016, and the aspiring actress was mid-shift at a Manhattan brunch spot when she was struck by a strange sensation. Moments later, she realized she\u2019d wet herself \u2014 and a slice of time had disappeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was almost as if somebody skipped ahead 30 seconds in a movie, and you\u2019re like, \u2018Wait, what just happened?\u2019\u201d Hoffman, 22 at the time, told The Post.<\/p>\n
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Arielle Hoffman was just 22 years old when she began experiencing strange episodes that altered her consciousness. Courtesy of Arielle Hoffman<\/p>\n
At first, she brushed it off. Several of her friends were struggling with anxiety<\/a>, often swapping stories about panic attacks and stress spirals. So when the episodes kept happening, Hoffman assumed she was experiencing the same thing.<\/p>\n But they weren\u2019t panic attacks<\/a>. Instead, an electrical firestorm was raging inside her brain.<\/p>\n A body out of control<\/p>\n The episodes struck without warning, lasting 30 seconds to three minutes and scrambling Hoffman\u2019s speech, memory and movements.<\/p>\n \u201cI would be talking to a table at work or on the phone, and what I was saying was gibberish, but I thought I was saying English words,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Sometimes she\u2019d drop to the floor until the episode passed, repeating, \u201cI just can\u2019t, I just can\u2019t,\u201d over and over. Other times, she\u2019d go non-responsive \u2014 then pick up the conversation as if nothing had happened.<\/p>\n She also struggled with incontinence, one of the most difficult, almost \u201cshameful\u201d<\/a> side effects.<\/p>\n \u201cI was wetting myself during 90% of the seizures that I had, if not more,\u201d Hoffman recalled.<\/p>\n Through it all, she kept working full-time and living like many twenty-somethings in NYC, waking up at 4:30 a.m. for early shifts and spending long nights out with friends.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I was trying to prove to myself that I could handle it, that my life wasn\u2019t that different, and that I\u2019d be fine,\u201d Hoffman said, noting she also needed to keep her job for health insurance to pay for her care.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Arielle Hoffman<\/p>\n From panic to seizure<\/p>\n Two months after the first episode, Hoffman experienced a tonic-clonic seizure<\/a> \u2014 formerly known as a grand mal \u2014 while sleeping. Her now-husband, Alex, caught her as her unconscious body jerked, preventing her from falling out of bed.<\/p>\n She was taken to the ER and was later sent home with a prescription for Keppra, an anti-epileptic drug. But the spells continued.<\/p>\n In April, another tonic-clonic seizure struck while Hoffman was at work. She was rushed to Mount Sinai West<\/a>, where doctors suspected she had a seizure disorder.<\/p>\n Hoffman was told that from then on, she couldn\u2019t be alone. Her mother flew in from Florida, and Alex, her sister and friends rotated shifts by her side.<\/p>\n Hoffman with her then-boyfriend Alex in 2017, shortly after her first hospitalization. Courtesy of Arielle Hoffman<\/p>\n A week later, Hoffman returned to Mount Sinai to review her medical history with an epileptologist, Alex and her mother.<\/p>\n \u201cThey told her they\u2019d been writing down these episodes [I was having], and I\u2019m saying, \u2018Yeah, they\u2019re panic attacks,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd then while we\u2019re in the room, I had one.\u201d<\/p>\n As Hoffman came to, the doctor told her she had just suffered a seizure \u2014 finally putting a name to the strange incidents that had been plaguing her for months.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most reliable difference between a seizure and a panic attack is time course,\u201d said Dr. Lara Marcuse<\/a>, Hoffman\u2019s epilepsy neurologist and co-director of the Mount Sinai Epilepsy Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSeizures that cause panic last from seconds to minutes, they tend to be very short and powerful. Panic attacks last longer,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnother clue is associated symptoms like confusion, deja-vu or abdominal sensations.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoffman and her neurologist, Dr. Lara Marcuse. Courtesy of Arielle Hoffman<\/p>\n A \u201cpacemaker\u201d for the brain<\/p>\n Hoffman stayed in the hospital for a week, where doctors diagnosed her with epilepsy.<\/p>\n She\u2019d been having focal impaired awareness seizures<\/a>, which begin in one hemisphere of the brain and, like in Hoffman\u2019s case, can spread over time. They account for about a third of seizures in adults with the chronic neurological disorder.<\/p>\n In the months that followed, doctors tried several medications to control the episodes. None of them worked \u2014 and they came with a steep price.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so expensive to be sick. I felt like that was a punishment,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cLike, God forbid I survive another day, I now have to spend $800 a month on medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n Fearful she might have a seizure on set, Hoffman was also forced to step away from acting.<\/p>\n The NeuroPace implant used to stop Hoffman\u2019s seizures. Courtesy of Arielle Hoffman<\/p>\n The device inside Hoffman\u2019s brain. Courtesy of Arielle Hoffman<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like my body was turning against me, and there wasn\u2019t anything I could do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Eventually, doctors told Hoffman that her best chance of stopping the seizures would be surgery.<\/p>\n \u201cWith many decades of life to live, Arielle, if not treated, would have been in significant danger from this unpredictable disorder,\u201d said Dr. Fedor \u201cTed\u201d Panov<\/a>, Hoffman\u2019s neurosurgeon and director of Mount Sinai\u2019s Adult Epilepsy Surgery Program.<\/p>\n \u201c[There are] significant psychological issues like anxiety and depression increasing,\u201d he said, plus the \u201csmall but real risk of seriously hurting yourself or others \u2026 and the chances of death go up 10-fold compared to seizure-free patients.\u201d<\/p>\n To stop the episodes, surgeons planned to implant a neurostimulation device \u2014 similar to a pacemaker \u2014 in Hoffman\u2019s skull. Thin wires would be placed in the seizure-prone areas of her brain, detecting abnormal activity and delivering brief pulses of electricity to interrupt it.<\/p>\n Hoffman underwent stereoelectroencephalography to pinpoint where her seizures were starting in the brain. Courtesy of Arielle Hoffman<\/p>\n But first, doctors needed to pinpoint exactly where the seizures were originating. Hoffman was weaned off her medication, and her daily seizures spiked from eight to 21.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember there being so many that I begged for my medication back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n![\"Courtesy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0137ab06b627dab5cbb942455e581e45.jpeg\"\/)
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