Oh gosh Pemberley - what a mess at school! I can't really answer the trust question right now or think rationally because I have my own headache at the moment (literally lol!)... but fwiw this is what happened with our dd and her seizures:
They came and went. It was just never possible to predict when she'd have one, but when she did have them they did tend to cluster over a few weeks or months of time. And those were the obvious ones that we saw. I've often wondered if there are other times when they've happened and we just didn't realize it. Hers were too infrequent to ever catch on an EEG but she has a seizure diagnosis anyway, based on our description of what happens before, during and after.
The minute I read "staring episode" above, once again, the very first thing I thought of was seizure.
Have you asked your dd about how she's feeling when (or before) the spells occur? Our dd doesn't notice anything before she has a mild seizure, but the larger seizures where she basically passes out, she has an "aura" before the seizure happens - she feels tingly in her arms and legs. You could try asking your dd if she's ever felt like that or if she sees strange lights in her eyes etc - don't do it if you think it would put ideas into her head or scare her, but we found with our dd and her various medical challenges, she experienced a number of different symptoms that she never told us about because she didn't realize there was any reason to tell us.
Gotta run - I'll come back later when I can think and give you some in put on the trust issue etc.
Sending you both huge hugs,
polarbear
