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Jenny’s Story: I’m not afraid anymore

Holiday photo 2This personal story was submitted by Jenny who is living with epilepsy and now feels she is not alone thanks in part to your stories. I hope you enjoy getting to know Jenny’s experience with post-ictal psychosis. 

Jenny’s Story

I’ve had epilepsy since I was 14 (now 31). It was 6 years ago that I first started to suffer from post-ictal psychosis. These are side-effects that only occur after a seizure; similar to short-term schizophrenia. They include paranoia (becoming positive that people were talking about me), depression, insomnia and hearing voices if I haven’t slept for the night.

It was mainly the fear of this problem that scared me the most. The question I asked every time I heard a voice was, “How is this possible?” It just sounded so real and I didn’t know how it could be happening.

Knowledge is power

I decided that if I answered this question then it wouldn’t be so terrifying when it did happen. So I began reading up about naturally occurring brain chemicals and neurotransmitters. This knowledge made hearing voices scientific and not supernatural. Now, if I have trouble after I seizure I make a bit of fun out of it, telling people: “I’ve just had a seizure so don’t take it personally if I tell you to stop talking about me!”

The main cause of insomnia used to be the fear of hearing voices if I hadn’t slept. Now it’s not a problem because it’s not something I’m scared of. I know it’s possible and will tell someone: “I’m hearing a voice so I need to take some rispiridone.”

Let Jenny know she’s not alone by leaving a comment below.

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2 Responses

  1. David
    | Reply

    I still wonder if my son (now 6) will be able to communicate what he feels leading up to and after a seizure since he started having them before he really had words to communicate what he was feeling.

    Thanks for sharing your story.!

  2. Fiona Ward
    | Reply

    Thanks Jenny. My daughter has seizures that have been getting progressively worse. She has been getting depressed and I didn’t realise it could be an effect of the actual seizures rather than how she’s feeling about her situation.

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