When did I have seizures?
• I had seizures as a child. If this is true for you, your childhood may have been a bit complicated by the seizures themselves and the medication side effects. School may have been difficult and you may not have been able to do as well as you wished you could. Your ability to be a social person may have been jeopardized, as well.
• I had seizures in my teens. If this is true for you, along with the seizures and medication side effects, you were unable to drive. For some, this may not have stood in the way of getting an after school job, but for many it meant the difference between working and missing out on the first opportunity to experience what it means to work and get a paycheck. And again, fear of a seizure may have created a social isolation that was hard for you to avoid.
• I had seizures as a young adult. If this is true for you, along with the seizures, medication side effects, inability to drive and the lack of teen-year work experience, you now needed to factor epilepsy in to a choice or ability to go to college. Were you not accepted into the college of your choice? Was distance and transportation a driving factor in your college choice instead of desire to pursue the career you feel you would have succeeded at? Were you able to blend with people your own age and sharpen those people skills that are such an important part of employment?
• I left high school and went right to work. If this is true for you, maybe it was your epilepsy and uncontrolled seizures that drove your job choice and not your ability or desire. You may have felt trapped in that first job at the beginning and then, it could have just become comfortable. No need to move. No need to make a change. No need to think ahead. It’s working isn’t it?