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please tell me about your experiences with epilepsy and your education
Thu, 10/20/2011 - 17:59Hi guys,
So I also have epilepsy (grand & petit mal although luckily i've been seizure free for almost 5 years now) and am currently doing my training to become a secondary school teacher.
I am finishing up in a few weeks and on the 27th of october I have to give a 15 minute multimedia presentation on an area of special-needs in school.
I have chosen to do epilepsy as my topic because while I was on my placement in schools, many students were affected by it but it was still quite secretive and there didn't appear to be any in outlined support for these students, which was quite disappointing. Although my personal experience ranged from an awesome compassionate school nurse, another person who wouldn't let me have my pills on me so I had to visit them each day to pick them up, one teacher who I refused to talk to for over 2 months because they (imo) made no allowances, to another who had the patience of a saint through panic attacks and would always stop and spell words for me when I couldn't remember (my biggest problem was not the seizure although they weren't fun, it was adjusting to the medication)
So, could you please tell me
a) how having epilepsy has influenced you or your teen in school (social/physical e.g co-curricular activities aspects)
b) what has been the most difficult aspect to deal with in terms of learning / what has been the biggest barrier to learning (here a more academic view)
c) what your school does or has done to help you or your teen / what have they done that has had a positive or negative impact. (can be individual teachers approaches as I descibed above, or the whole school approach, do they provide a teacher aide etc)
if anyone would be willing to make a short video clip (i only have 15 minutes and this is a small part of my entire presentation) or a podcast it would be so very much appreciated the only incentive I can offer is that this presentation is going to be given to a class of 20+ future teachers to be, so telling them our stories can only better prepare them to have positive experience with future students of theirs who may also have epilepsy.
my email address is portiaholmes@gmail.com
thanks
portia
Re: experiences with epilepsy and your education
Submitted by MichaelK on Mon, 2012-01-09 - 23:54
A big area that is just starting to be studied is how seizures affect the quality of life for those who have been diagnosed with epilepsy. Generally, there are 4 areas that all doctors seem to agree on: 1) Depression; 2) Anxiety; 3) Aggressive behavior during the ictal period; 4) Sexual dysfunction. Yet, no set standards of measurement have been set yet for those 4 major areas. Also, there are questions about how people react to different medicines and whether or not those medicines either increase or decrease the QoL for all people with epilepsy, not only those in school. For example, my nephew was diagnosed with epilepsy before finishing his degree. He wanted to continue having a normal life while in college so he refused to take his medicine. There is a case of anxiety: will epilepsy and the medicines hurt his way of life during school. You have taken on a big topic and I wish you the best!