Adrian’s story

Right now I would just like to give a short insight regarding my life living with epilepsy during school. I have had it since birth and I was always in and out of the childrens ward at the hospital. Everyone knew who I was and saved a bed for me as I was constantly there.

When I hit puberty and started secondary school my seizures went into overdrive and I was having up to 12 seizures a week. The head teacher wanted me to be sent to a special school but my mum wouldn’t allow it as she wanted me to gain the same opportunities as everyone else (I will talk about the type of seizures I had during that period another time and trust me when I say that I wouldn’t wish them on anyone). I was branded the fit man and that’s not because I worked out and had a muscular body as I didn’t. Everyone in every neighbouring school knew about me as though I was a celebrity. They turned half of the library into a first aid room for me and got the librarian to do first aid courses.

I was having seizures everywhere. People tried to bully me and said that they would give me one punch and make me drop and have a fit but I always stood my ground and showed them that having seizures didn’t mean that I couldn’t defend myself. I missed alot of lessons as you can guess and for me secondary school seemed to take forever and was mainly about survival. It was the worst period of my life. I mainly started to gain a good education when I started to go to college and I also did short courses when available to push up my CV.

I actually gained over 22 certificates by the time I had past 23 and while others I knew who were healthy didn’t have much and were on Jobseeker’s Allowance I was working while still having seizures (the type of seizures I had at that point and the type of work I did I will talk about another time). I have always hated peoples excuses for not working as living with epilepsy has been a total nightmare for me but it still never stopped me from getting an education and getting work. The sad thing though is that I had to get used to lying when going for jobs as whenever I told the truth about my condition I was always turned away, so I kept of putting down that I was healthy to get work and they always found out the truth when I would have my first seizure at the work place.

My physical, mental and emotional health has been badly damaged over the years and I am shocked that I am still alive when looking back at all the places and situations I have been in when having seizures. Healthy and good friends have died while I’m still alive and still suffering while trying to live a normal life. Neurologist’s don’t even care about me anymore so I have to rely on family, strangers and mainly myself whenever I’m ill. I will talk some more about other aspects of my life with epilepsy soon. Thanks.