TikToker Dixie D'Amelio Talks About Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures After Accusations Of Faking

TikTok star Dixie D'Amelio recently revealed that she suffers from psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) following rumors that she "faked seizures for attention."

It all began when the 19-year-old's alleged former high school classmates said she pretended to have seizures in order to escape class.

Following this, D'Amelio took to Instagram to share her experience.

"In my sophomore year in high school, I had very bad anxiety, and it got so bad that I developed psychogenic nonepileptic seizures," she said in an Instagram Live.

Quashing rumors that she faked seizures multiple times, she said she only had it once while at school.

"It happened once. It happened on my last day of school because I never went back since I felt really sick that entire day. I walked out of school and I felt awful. I walked back into school and grabbed my friend, and I’m like 'can you walk me out to my mum’s car because I just do not feel well,'" she said.

"When I walk back outside, I fall to the ground and start having a seizure. I start... convulsing because it’s not an epileptic seizure. After having these for a couple of minutes, I was taken to the hospital. I was there for two days, where they are constantly monitoring me, and I have over 400 of these compulsions," she said during Instagram Live.

She revealed that she was on bed rest for the next five months. She then began attending another school for her junior year. The teen also said she "developed a lot more things that come with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures like a stutter."

"I wanted to address this right away, because that's something I don't like talking about at all but I'm not going to let anyone think of me any other way. I was a person when I was at my old school who I did not like. I was not myself, because I had so much anxiety and everything going through my brain at the time where I couldn't even have a proper conversation with anyone. I'm so thankful for who I am now and what I am and all that," she said.

According to Epilepsy Foundation, PNES "resemble, mimic or can appear outwardly like epileptic seizures, but their cause is psychological." Anxiety, PTSD, physical, emotional or sexual abuse and substance abuse are some of the possible contributors to someone developing PNES.