I think just to appreciate that it’s not the end of the world, you know your life does go on. There will be changes to your life, there will be minor changes. I think that’s dependent on your type of epilepsy but provided your friends and your family are understanding and you explain to people without keeping it bottled up, your side effects and your feelings, then theres no reason why you can’t progress with your future, I live my life. I feel that I’ve progressed and succeeded academically, the epilepsy hasn’t necessarily interfered with this. I lead a healthy life style and it doesn’t interfere with your health in that sense. You can pursue other things. I’m continuing to pursue new interests, alternative interests. Just remain focused, just maintain your focus upon the objectives you had prior to your diagnosis. There will be changes physically, mentally, just continue to remain balanced and career focused.

From the point when it was diagnosed, I remember laughing about it. But when you have the opportunity to actually sit down and realise that you fall into the category of being disabled, slowly your smile wears off. You realise that there will be new challenges, people will perceive you in a different way.

But there are emotional spells, you have your ups and downs. You aim to control those but I am just so grateful that I’ve a supportive family and supportive friends who take a great interest in the problem itself and my progress.

…Provided you inform people, the sensation of the experience when you have an attack and what they should expect if and when you do have an attack, it generally tends to help. You have to have a sense of humour so despite the fact that they are sympathetic, they can’t really appreciate what you’re going through. It does help a great deal and its not always the case, that you do have an attack in someone elses presence.

I always look for particular links prior to ever taking the medication. About a year ago I noticed there was a definite link between food colourings and also particular ingredients within medication. For instance there was a, there was a medication called Amoxicillin and that has specific food colourings in it.

So did you make this link yourself or did?

I did, that’s right. I’ve always had to report back to the actual consultant, I did make this link, I pursued this particular link, read into it and because I’ve noticed theres a pattern, there was a specific correlation that when I’d eat particular foods, I thought that I just had a reaction to these particular additives. And I’d say that without the medication that I would continue to have these attacks. And as a consequence I can still carry on eating the same foods because the medication controls it these days. However, I do avoid amoxicillin as medication. And I just wonder if anyone else has had the same experience.

Have you ever tried any complementary therapies or alternative treatments?

No, no. I’ve always been one for exercise, I thought that exercise would say prevent attacks if anything, but it has interfered to a point, not really with say strength training but with the aerobic training such as running and rowing in particular I’ve experienced problems say towards the end of my, my workout or the activity. So its, its quite de-motivating. You hope the exercise will actually improve your motivation. However, when you have attacks whilst exercising, it can damage your enthusiasm.

It certainly does damage your confidence, particularly at work. However, I’m looking at alternative employment, working for myself perhaps. Theres work which I’ve originally been interested in which I know would perhaps you know increase the likelihood of attacks, so I know now that I need to try and find something which if possible is more relaxed. Although I’m prepared to actually work at anything, just work hard, I do need to just consider the fact that any stressful job will actually bring on attacks and I’ve experienced that this week, one intense day, where so much was expected of me resulted in an attack that evening.

Have there been any financial limitations because of the epilepsy?

I feel that there has been, without a doubt. The job that I’ve been doing previously, and the choice of jobs, a) because of the limitation on the type of jobs you can do and b) the change in your ability to deliver yourself, say when we talked about sentencing [problems with speech and remembering words]. I feel that that does actually interfere and it would actually hinder my progression in the job that I would hope to do, or had hoped to do in the past. The job that I’ve been doing recently wasn’t the most financially rewarding, so although there have been other jobs that I could have done which would have paid more, I did feel that there was a direct link in the job that I went on to do following my diagnosis and the salary I received.