People with epilepsy suffer from emotional and social consequences resulting from ignorance and prejudice of the environment to these patients and diseases. The burden of disease is greatly enhanced by the stigma, which, even because of the concept of epilepsy throughout history, is still adhered to this disease state. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions. This is not one disease, but a common name for neurological disorders characterized by recurrent seizures, and after the attacks, a person is, in principle, healthy. When they diagnose epilepsy in the child, parents begin to feel confused and they wonder why their child and how he will live with this disease. Then they learn that a person can live a normal life with this disease. When a teenager grows up and is diagnosed with epilepsy, he is wondering how to tell the other person that he has epilepsy and whether he will understand it or not. A big problem is posed by the question of whether to tell the employer that you have epilepsy. You never know how a person will react to such information. People with epilepsy also greatly limit the ban on driving because they depend on other people and public transport, which is particularly poorly developed in the countryside. *Epilepsy?* Is a disorder, usually in the cerebral cortex, but it can also be in the depths of the brain or a change in the genus that is inherited. This change in brain cells means that they are more sensitive and may start to be exaggerated, which is apparently seen as a disorder in the functioning of the brain. 'The medicines we know, they just soothing the situation but not healing. Unfortunately, we can't heal that group of cells that is causing the attacks. Causes can be numerous disorders of the central nervous system, congenital developmental disorders, infections, tumors, vascular diseases, degenerative diseases, congenital brain disease disorders, metabolic disorders - disorders of metabolism or injury. In childhood, the most frequent cause is birth or neonatal injury, followed by disorders in the development of blood vessels, congenital defects, head trauma, infection, neoplasms or tumors. In Adulthood, the most common causes are a cerebral stroke, head injuries, poisoning or excessive drinking and taking drugs (or both at the same time), tumors and infections. It has been proven that using the appropriate medicines can be 70% of people with epilepsy without seizures. However, specialist controls with EEG still need to recorded, possibly simultaneously with the implementation of provocative methods (insomnia or possible imaging - sleep analysis). Regular sleeping is recommended, a shift work should be avoided, especially nighttime work. It is true that attacks can occur at any time and without a special cause. Therefore, we must recognize the circumstances in which we are faced with attacks and which can be causally associated with them. In this way, the attacks will no longer be completely unpredictable, and may also be prevented. https://lowvelder.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/44/2016/06/epilepsy-520x400.jpg [Image Source](https://lowvelder.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/44/2016/06/epilepsy-520x400.jpg) *The main reasons why a person with epilepsy start to develop certain psychological changes* *Psychosocial factors* -The fact that you know that you are suffering from this type of disease contributes to not being good. Although for some people this suffering and inconvenience that it can bring with, in some situations don't mean any restrictions, and for others, it can pose a significant obstacle to their everyday life. For example, there are certain risks when an epileptic seizure can occur, like a drowning caused by an attack in the water, traffic accidents, complications in pregnancy, etc... *Characteristics and frequency of attacks* - The higher the frequency of seizures, the greater the psychological consequences. Manifestations of depression is a complex problem that has many related neurobiological and psychological determinations, including the clinical features of epilepsy (frequency of seizures, type, and site of attack), and neurochemical and iatrogenic mechanisms. Other risk factors are family history of psychiatric disorders, especially depression, lack of control over attacks and iatrogenic causes (pharmacological and surgical). Epilepsy leads to the development of depression when is exposed to chronic stress. Attacks that are unpredictable and difficult to foresee can trigger sadness, a feeling of loneliness and despair, and low self-esteem, which leads patients to social isolation, stigmatization or instability. Patients with epilepsy have a 4 to 5-fold higher risk of depression and suicide compared to a healthy population. *Medicines* - It has been found that the use of certain epilepsy management medicines can give people an advantage over emotional wellbeing, but there are others who do the opposite. Some patients, for example, report that after taking Levetiracetam (Keppra) they feel that they are not the same, that their mood changes and do not behave the same way. It should also be noted that the fact of changing a drug or dose may affect the person to present certain psychological and emotional changes. *Is that true?* I need to say something that I read not long ago, and I think something is on this. I'm not sure if this is true, but I'm having a feeling that something warns me before the attack, and now I know what this is. It's an aura. What is that? It means a warning, an idea. It combines a variety of discrete symptoms, signs that appeared before an attack, which can also be seen by the surroundings. It's hard to list them, as there are many: a feeling of sparkling, strange smell and taste, anger, sudden grief, strange sound signals, weaknesses and vomiting, sleepless nights, involuntary movements, various unusual feelings, unreasonable feeling that something is small or big, a feeling that something has already been seen or never seen, sense of decay, sudden heart failure, etc. These symptoms cannot be detected by the younger child because they can't detect the surrounding environment. Today we know that these 'small' symptoms are essentially very mild attacks with the aura either they evacuate or are followed by one of the forms of visible attacks. Which of these discrete characters will appear depends on from the part of the brain, where the attack comes from and which is responsible for the functions, which it shows with the aura. *Just so you know;* If a person has only one attack in his life, that does not mean he has epilepsy. Five percent of the population can have an attack only once in their life; these attacks can occur for a wide variety of external causes, such as increased body temperature, drug use, excessive alcohol consumption, various inflammatory diseases of the brain. All of these reasons can be treated and thus seizures can be eliminated, which means that it is not epilepsy. *And for conclusion* Life is just as it is, say, that we get it as a gift, but in life, it is important to find a way. Even if a tree grows in front of the house from concrete, we will not cut it out. Life finds a way in one way or another, and this is essential. Even if you are ill, you live with it, you fight. Maybe now I'm a little less afraid of the attacks than I was afraid at the beginning because I had a period in which I had a great deal of fear of very serious attacks. I'm watching and trying to live so that I don't challenge the attacks. I'm trying to find the right measure, that I don't have too many attacks or that I'm not too stressed. It was a time when I was just thinking about how to rest and healthy eating, and then I began to ask: " What about life?" It is necessary to find the middle path, to accept some compromise and not to be scared during the attacks. It’s hard to accept the fact that you are suffering from epilepsy but if you want to accept this, then you need to open your heart and listen to what's telling you. Your heart never lies to you. You need to have the courage to ask yourself, why you're not accepting the fact that you are epileptic. Usually, when we decide to hide things about ourselves, this is because we are embarrassed about what we are trying to hide. This is not something you should be ashamed of. People with different diseases and disorders are confessing they are sick. They learn to talk about problems in their lives and educate society about them. This is the way to cure scars in them. Society becomes less afraid of many diseases and disorders that unfortunate individuals need to live. There are so many support groups and research studies. Nothing will improve for epileptics until we learn how to help each other. There are self-help groups for everything because people are aware that they have to accept what they have to change and strengthen and learn to live with them in a productive way. We have to look at life in a positive way. We need to say to ourselves, " I'm not happy with the person, that I become. I have to change and I will do that now!" This is the first step towards the recovery and strengthening our soul and self-esteem. Be proud of who you are. Be grateful for every new morning that you are able to wake up and feel the sunshine on your skin and look at the beauty that is around us. That’s it for today. Have a nice day and till the next time ;) With love, @tinabrezpike ❤
Originally posted here: https://steemit.com/health/@tinabrezpike/life-with-epilepsy-it-s-time-to-accept-the-fact-that-you-are-an-epileptic
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