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To understand how a fit or seizure can happen, it is helpful to know something about the normal workings of the brain. The brain is made up of billions of cells known as neurones.

Neurones connect to each other so that their electrical signals or discharges are co-ordinated and timed according to the need of the various activities of the body. The neurones use chemicals called neurotransmitters to transmit their electrical signals. These chemical transmitters are either excitatory, in which case they stimulate other neurones or they are inhibitory, in which case they suppress or stop messages to other neurones.

The effect of one neurone on another is a co-ordinated action. A seizure may occur if this co-ordination is disrupted. The amount and type of the disruption will have an effect on the type, length and severity of the seizure. Anyone can have a fit when the normal neurotransmitter co-ordination mechanism is disturbed. It is only when fits are unprovoked and keep occurring that the term epilepsy is used. The term epilepsy is different from seizure. You cannot have epilepsy without having seizures, but you can have a seizure without necessarily having epilepsy.