When I was 8 years old (early 1980s) I was given a course of
Electroencephalography (EEG) in the hope that it might explain why I
sometimes seemed to just "zone out of the world" in brief spells of no
more than 30 secs or so. My parents and friends knew about this and
noticed it but it was completely harmless in normal life at the time.

25
years later I now understand that I suffered from simple partial
seizures (SPS) characteristic of a mild form of temporal lobe epilepsy
(TLE). In fact from what I am told by multiple sources I still do, even
though I believed I had ceased to suffer from these attacks in my late
teens.

However I also know that from my late teens, my
previously harmless episodes became something else. Bipolar II
disorder. I even suffered a very serious depressive episode in 1994
that led me to being hospitalised. I don't mind talking about this now
15 years later even though I know bipolar disorder in its milder form
will be with me for my entire adult life.

But I do not believe
that the link between TLE and bipolar disorder has been made widely
known. Medical science is unwilling to make a solid claim of the link
between the two due to the fact that so little can be proven about the
specifics of these two illnesses and how they may inter-relate. But
there is much clinical evidence that they do and I suspect there are
many people out there who live with bipolar disorder without
understanding what its possible origin might be.

 I've started a facebook group to help give people a resource to share information: http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=25599002983&ref=mf

Please join up and share your thoughts. 

I also have both TLE and Bipolar Type II.  In fact, it was my therapist that suggested that I be  checked out by a neurologist.  It is hard to puzzle out what symptoms are TLE and Which are from the bipolar.  I started taking Tegretol XR for the bipolar (it works great for me), and my neurologist left me on it because it works for TLE also.  My neurologist thinks that some of my psychiatric symptoms over the years may have been TLE.  My therapist agrees, but still thinks I am bipolar also.  I figure "same dog, new name" and as long as the tegretol works, I don't worry about which disorder causes what.  But I do wonder if over the years, I could have avoided alot of suffering if the drs knew I had TLE

Good luck, and hope the new meds work well 

I have bipolar as well as epliepsy. I can tell you it is a rollercoaster of a ride. You will have to do the try and test the meds to see if they will work. I have experienced what has worked for the seizures does not work for my bipolar. I believe they are linked together, just for the reason my bipolar spun out of control after I had 3 grand mals. I am currently trying to experiment myself. Good Luck.