Not everyone who has a seizure has epilepsy, which involves recurrent, unprovoked seizures, including the convulsive kind many people think of and the nonconvulsive kind, which might involve staring off into space, said Robert Beach, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology at Upstate. Treatment of epilepsy, which affects more than 2 million Americans, can involve drugs, diet, laser-assisted surgery or a device that stimulates the vagus nerve, he explained.