How to cope?

Hi and welcome So you were diagnosed last dec.  You think your doctors aren't helping you since they aren't giving you advice or much information. Well you have come to tone of the best sites to obtain information. Epilepsy 101. Types of epilepsy. types of seizures. All you have to do is go to the LEARN section. You did not say whether the doctors talked to you or your parents. I do know that when I was diagnosed my questions never got a direct answer. My questions was What is epilepsy? I was a early teen so they talked to Mom. In order to understand or get an answer I did research to find out what epilepsy is and the different types of epilepsy. There were no forums back then and there was no internet. As for changing your life..... That is debatable. You may not be able to go into the career you wanted to but there are other carreers that you could go into. With me it was a career in the food industry. I was being trained to be a roving chef. I loved that industry and was very good at what I did. But I had a seizure after going 3+ years without one. I couldn't go to work of any kind for 6 months per my neurologists orders. I was also informed that I could not go back into that field since my trigger is gettint too hot  too fast. The way I have dealt with this is understand that epilepsy dose not control me. I control it. I have accepted epilepsy as it is a disability that I have to live and deal with daily. The way I have gotten the number of seizures I was having reduced is by asking my neurologists questions at every visit. They always asked me questions and after  awhile my seizures had stayed the same. So to them I was ok with having seizures now and then so they kept the meds where they were. Once I started asking questions they then knew I wanted better results and I wanted my seizures under better control. For every questions they asked I had one for them/ Is this the best medication for my epilepsy? Is there another medication that can control my seizures better? Is my dosage to much or is it too little? Too much medication is just as bad as too little.. Can we add another medication to this med to help get the number of seizures reduced? Am I right when I take my meds 12 hours apart since the RX says 2 times a day? That answer is yes. If taken bi daily those doses need to be 12 hours apart since meds lose strength while in the body. If taken at 7am and 10pm those 3 hours the dosages is lower thN what it needs to be so break thru seizures can happen. There are many other questions that can be asked. What kind of epilepsy do I have? What kind of seizures can I have? Just because you have had only one kind of seizure does not mean there aren't others yo umight have. You are new to epilepsy and haven't been diagnosed for a year yet. Take each day as it comes and do the best you can. Teach others what you can and live your life the best way you can. As for knowing this is permenant welllllllllllllll to some yes but to others maybe not. My cousin out grew epilepsy and there have been many who had epilepsy and haven't had seizures in years. Some of those still take meds but hten there are others who are off meds. What ever you do have a good relationship with your neurologist, I have been with the same group od neurologists since 1970. One retired and I got the next. He specialized in ALZH so I got he next. He moved to Houston so I got the next. He moved to Seatle and I got the next. He retires to the hill country in Texas and I got the next. He moved and I got my Doc who had been answering some of the questions I called in to get answers on back in the late 1980's. By keeping a good relationship yo ucan call and get some answers without having to make an appointment. I know I may never be seizure free. But I also know I want to be, Doc knows that too so we have a relationship that helps the both of us. He has also tried to find different proceudres and medications that can help get the number of seizures down. By working together we have reduced the number of seizures from 2-4 a week to one every 8-12 days. The time in the seizures has also been reduced from 2-5 minutes to 2-8 seconds. The time to focus (get back to normal) has also been reduced from 15-45 minutes (sometimes longer) to 5-15 seconds. I can be standing in a group of people and we are all talking and I can have one and unless someone was looking at me and knew what to look for they would know nothing of the seizure. That is all due to asking questions and having a good relationship with your doctor. Oh he loves cooking too so at times we exchange recipes. I do hope this helps yo uand please do come back and let us know how things are going Joe