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Doubting and Mistreatment

Fri, 06/21/2013 - 14:17
Since I had my first grand mal and was diagnosed, I've had a lot of family members act like I "made it up" or I'm faking it. They don't believe I'm actually sick. I have seizures almost every day- mostly in my sleep. I have grand mals and partial seizures. I'm scarred up from head to toe. And, they just wave their hands at me like i'm some kind of outcast. The seizures came out of the blue when I was in my 30s, so they don't believe it. Has anyone else had to deal with this? How do you deal with it? Doctors in the emergency room are SO RUDE, and don't want to deal with it so they wave me off when I'm sick from it (can't hold down food, etc...). I'm sick of people acting like I'm some kind of freak of nature! I feel like I don't belong...

Comments

Re: Doubting and Mistreatment

Submitted by plutonium on Wed, 2013-07-03 - 17:34
I am so sorry to hear the way people treated you mainly family .... I am a single guy.... when they took my license.. my kids and girlfriends drove me around... my brother and mother was at my beck and call any time any day... I guess I am very lucky.. I got my license back now.  your family, friends and co-workers were scared of the seizure ...I hate to say they were  ignorant thinking people it out weighed their love...we cant make people think a certain way....I always wondered how many people were burned to death by people thinking they were possessed  when a person had a seizure...in the old days?????

Re: Doubting and Mistreatment

Submitted by rosanna1980 on Sun, 2013-07-07 - 11:48

I wonder, too. I've heard that SO many seizure patients, especially women, have been put in psych hospitals and/or considered possessed. I even had a doctor order a psych test for me once when I was in the ER. I went off on her for her ignorance about seizures and told her she was not qualified to handle my case. I told her I know my name, the date, the president, where I am, and anything else she wanted to ask. I'm not crazy. It's a physical brain condition, not a mental condition. Yes, seizures can look very scary with eyes rolling in the back of a person's head, jerking, and even foaming at the mouth, but it is a medical condition. We're not evil. In fact, I believe it is the opposite. They say most people only use a small percentage of their brains. I believe epilepsy leads us to use much more and is actually a spiritual thing that can bring us closer to God. I have looked up all of the leaders in history who had epilepsy and wondered what the connection was between so many extraordinary, intelligent people having epilepsy. I have very vivid dreams now, and "bionic" senses (hearing and smelling). I believe it is the opposite of evil and is something to be embraced. It is not understood by most. But, for those of you who believe in the Bible, it states that family and friends closest to Jesus did not/could not understand. Mark 6:4, NIV. "Jesus said to them, 'Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.'" I encourage you all to embrace this condition. No matter what kind of seizure you have, it affects your thinking. Use it. I'm not saying we're all prophets or anything like that. But, the fact that our thinking and dreams are beyond the norm is undeniable. Look up famous leaders with epilepsy- From Julius Caesar, Pope Pius IX, Harriet Tubman, and so on. There has got to be a connection between this condition and greatness. We are amazing people....maybe too extraordinary for the average mind to understand.:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_epilepsy

 

 

I wonder, too. I've heard that SO many seizure patients, especially women, have been put in psych hospitals and/or considered possessed. I even had a doctor order a psych test for me once when I was in the ER. I went off on her for her ignorance about seizures and told her she was not qualified to handle my case. I told her I know my name, the date, the president, where I am, and anything else she wanted to ask. I'm not crazy. It's a physical brain condition, not a mental condition. Yes, seizures can look very scary with eyes rolling in the back of a person's head, jerking, and even foaming at the mouth, but it is a medical condition. We're not evil. In fact, I believe it is the opposite. They say most people only use a small percentage of their brains. I believe epilepsy leads us to use much more and is actually a spiritual thing that can bring us closer to God. I have looked up all of the leaders in history who had epilepsy and wondered what the connection was between so many extraordinary, intelligent people having epilepsy. I have very vivid dreams now, and "bionic" senses (hearing and smelling). I believe it is the opposite of evil and is something to be embraced. It is not understood by most. But, for those of you who believe in the Bible, it states that family and friends closest to Jesus did not/could not understand. Mark 6:4, NIV. "Jesus said to them, 'Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.'" I encourage you all to embrace this condition. No matter what kind of seizure you have, it affects your thinking. Use it. I'm not saying we're all prophets or anything like that. But, the fact that our thinking and dreams are beyond the norm is undeniable. Look up famous leaders with epilepsy- From Julius Caesar, Pope Pius IX, Harriet Tubman, and so on. There has got to be a connection between this condition and greatness. We are amazing people....maybe too extraordinary for the average mind to understand.:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_epilepsy

 

 

Re: Doubting and Mistreatment

Submitted by phillips on Thu, 2013-07-04 - 11:20

My first seizure happened when i was 7 then went away until I was in junior high age 14 then I had a second seziure Iwas taken to the hoapital from the nurse room an parents called etc etc. I was off school to see my doctor and then a nuerologist and I waas diagnosed with grand mal epilepsy in 1965 you wantto talk rough I would get in fights over my seizures, I got teased by the boys my age and pushed around to see if they could make me have a seizure so I would fight back and I was the bad guy I was expelled from school and had to see a shrink because I had seizures and even after the shrink said there was nothing wrong with me that I was cuaseing this trouble because I was being provoked the principle allowed me back in school if I behaved myself but 2 weeks later I beat the tar out of a boy that was teasing me and was expelled again and the boys parents filed charges of assault on me the police picked me up at home took me in for questioning and released me to my parents care.I went to court where everything came out before a judge and it was not pretty, I got a lawyer and my doctor ,principal,teachers,a couple freinds,the nuerologist,and a couple others specialist where called on my behalf to make a point of what had happened over a short period of time. I was found to be of stable mind, the charge against me dismissed, the judge spoke rather harshly to the princple for his way of looking at things,and I was told violence never solves anything. As I look back on these months of my first seizures I often wonder how I made it thru and I have heard other stories from other people that are younger than me and how they are embarrased by there seizures,these days my seizure seldom occur and when they do they occur when I am asleep at night in early morning between 5am and 7 am some grand mal and occasionally I will have one were I get up walk out of the house and walk around the block and back home,once I walked into a neighbors house sat down in a chair said "boy am I tired"and went back to sleep .these are things I live with.

My first seizure happened when i was 7 then went away until I was in junior high age 14 then I had a second seziure Iwas taken to the hoapital from the nurse room an parents called etc etc. I was off school to see my doctor and then a nuerologist and I waas diagnosed with grand mal epilepsy in 1965 you wantto talk rough I would get in fights over my seizures, I got teased by the boys my age and pushed around to see if they could make me have a seizure so I would fight back and I was the bad guy I was expelled from school and had to see a shrink because I had seizures and even after the shrink said there was nothing wrong with me that I was cuaseing this trouble because I was being provoked the principle allowed me back in school if I behaved myself but 2 weeks later I beat the tar out of a boy that was teasing me and was expelled again and the boys parents filed charges of assault on me the police picked me up at home took me in for questioning and released me to my parents care.I went to court where everything came out before a judge and it was not pretty, I got a lawyer and my doctor ,principal,teachers,a couple freinds,the nuerologist,and a couple others specialist where called on my behalf to make a point of what had happened over a short period of time. I was found to be of stable mind, the charge against me dismissed, the judge spoke rather harshly to the princple for his way of looking at things,and I was told violence never solves anything. As I look back on these months of my first seizures I often wonder how I made it thru and I have heard other stories from other people that are younger than me and how they are embarrased by there seizures,these days my seizure seldom occur and when they do they occur when I am asleep at night in early morning between 5am and 7 am some grand mal and occasionally I will have one were I get up walk out of the house and walk around the block and back home,once I walked into a neighbors house sat down in a chair said "boy am I tired"and went back to sleep .these are things I live with.

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