Has epilepsy affected your friendships?
Finding true, supportive friends can be hard for anyone! And when you're living with epilepsy, maintaining friendships can have unique challenges.
Has epilepsy affected your friendships? Has your condition made it hard to make or keep friends?
Tell us about your experiences, and any advice you may have for finding true, supportive friends. 💜
I have epilepsy
Yeah it's definitely affected friendships, i pretty much don't have any because nobody understands sadly
Male 55 - I was first diagnosed at the age of 7, school was very hard for me. My peers saw me as different and the teachers didn't understand epilepsy, in all honesty neither did my parents. Yes I was beat, kicked, bitten at school and nothing done about it!
I grew up alone other than one or two other ostracized friends that I would talk to and the older girls who wanted to mother me.
I therefore did everything I could to prove I could do everything what everyone else could include put my life in danger in the sea! It lead me getting into trouble with girls at an early age and also with the police.
I am married now with children and a very good job, socially I struggle in new situations without people I know around me. I much prefer a female environment to a male one because that's what I grew up in. I am happy now but life has been hard and this is the first time I have spoken so Frank about it. @
I am so glad you had the courage to speak so openly and honestly with us. Our community understands and you are welcome to share when ever you want. You have been through so much, I hope by expressing these words, in some way, helped. Jill (Team Member) I l know exactly what you mean about feeling left out when a child but I was so sorry to read that this negative side of having epilepsy is still around with your parents. As I am an oldie I have brought this subject up to my GPs to get them to speak to a wider family of anyone who has started to have seizures. If you have siblings how do you get on with them?
I notice you mention you are now married with children etc so that is great. It takes time but as the years fly by so one has no choice but to learn to get used to the negative side of having a condition that many still do not want to know about.
Good luck and take care
Yes it has but one man showed me that the friends who backed out on me were not my friends and he has been a life long friend since we were kids and never backed off on me one time for my seizures and always helped me out with anything I needed and that showed me who a real friend is
I love that you have this life long friend who is always by your side. That is a true friend. Jill (Team Member)
