My son(13yr old) was just diagnosed with Juvenile Absence Epilepsy.

This site has some great info to start, here's the page on JAE - note that one can't embed links in replies so you have to cut/pastehttps://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-epilepsy-syndromes/juvenile-absence-epilepsyThat page notes not just about the chance of grand mals occurring (most people call them tonic clonics nowadays), but the chance of a less noticeable form of status where a seizure is ongoing and doesn't stop only since it isn't a tonic clonic, you might miss it completely. Generally if one has partials/focal seizures or some type of generalized seizures then one is at risk of having tonic clonics. My child has both partials and some generalized seizure types but has never had a tonic clonic which is lucky (so far) but probably only a small percentage of people with the same stuff are so lucky. While there are some dietary treatments for some forms of epilepsy and some supplements help some people reduce seizures, medication is the primary treatment of choice because nothing else comes close to it in effectiveness. Even though most seizures stop on their own and any one seizure isn't an emergency, one should still consider the impact of repeated seizures - on the brain, on schooling, on quality of life. Using an effective treatment is very very important so while you may be still in the shock of it all, choosing medication is the best course for most for those reasons.

For me, I’ve gone from grand mal seizures, where I would without warning pass out and get bruises all over my body because my body would just drop me to the ground and tense up. Now, with having medication it’s a lot more manageable, but I still tend to miss a lot of school because of them. It’s said that the Keto diet helps some people with epilepsy and that’s what I’m looking into right now. I’d still (in my own opinion) would suggest maybe looking into some meds. You can always try to regulate his schedule, like going to bed and waking up at a strict time, so his body can have a rythm. My doctors have said that it’s all about the timing and if you put your body on a schedule it can make things easier. There is so much information out there and I hope you will find what works for you. Good luck and keep your head held high, because having hope and optimism is the most important thing right now!

Thank you for your input. Did you start with Absence and graduated to Grand Mal? if so, how long from diagnosis to grand mal?