Long-Term Emotional and Psychological Effects of Epilepsy

In November 2017, I spoke about my experiences with Epilepsy... I do not have this condition anymore (I have been off all Epilepsy medication for over five years, and I haven't had a seizure for over ten years!) Today, I would like to talk about the aftermath of having Epilepsy.

Anyone who knows someone who has, or has previously had any type of Epilepsy has a fairly good insight as to what it is like from a different perspective, but for the person who has had an Epilepsy diagnosis themselves, it can be quite traumatic and scary. In my experience, the emotional and psychological effects never go away completely. Here's one reason why I say this: I know that this is no one's fault and there wasn't anything that could be done that wasn't, but about two years ago, one of the students in my English class had lots of mini seizures. I know that this is selfish, but when I saw her having the seizures, I froze for a second and then panicked. You should try to stay calm if you see someone having a seizure, but as this event proved, it's not that easy. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for her!

I don't know why it freaked me out because I used to be First Aid trained and I had first-hand experience with a type of Epilepsy, so I should have been ok. I just had a major flashback to when I had fits, and believe me, it was not pleasant at all!

There were a few things that triggered my seizures; one of the triggers was the heat. If I became too hot, the risk of me having a seizure was quite high. Most of the time, I knew when I was about to have one because first I felt dizzy, and then the seizure would start. My mouth would start to tremble, and I lost my ability to talk... That's when I knew for definite that I was having a seizure.

Although it is great that I don't have Epilepsy anymore, there are some long-term psychological effects that Epilepsy has left me. For as long as I remember, every summer, I have had this small worry in the back of my mind that I might have a seizure because I get hot... I know that it is extremely unlikely that I will and I try not to think about it, but unfortunately, that is one of the effects that Epilepsy has left me with.

Even though other aspects of my life, like stress, triggered my seizures, for some reason this doesn't seem to bother me in the same way. I think that this may be because I focus on the things that make me stressed or worried, so I don't have time to think about the experiences I had with Epilepsy. In some ways, this is good, but not in others.