Quote:
Originally Posted by Nabeel
I'm starting a novel in which the main character suffers from epilepsy, apparently makes a complete recovery, but then comes down with it again.
Can anyone recommend sources to find out about this condition? I'm particularly interested in the day-to-day experience of living with it.
The novel's set in the 1940s.
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Epilepsy is a "catch all" tag for very many conditions. It is NOT a single disease!
You do not "catch it". It's rare that it's not diagnosed before adulthood. But Adult onset cases do exist.
People might have a few epileptic attacks in their life and never know if they were sitting or asleep.
Consult with your local Epilepsy association and online Epilepsy association resources before even considering having such a character.
Some are due to brain damage
Some are due to different unrelated genetic reasons
Some are also suffer with poor cognition, others are unrelated, i.e. An athletic genius could suffer from it.
Some are fatal in childhood
Maybe a 1/3rd have no known cause.
There is from birth, child hood onset and adult onset (rare) conditions.
There are about 6 types of fit/episode/seizures. Some sorts of epilepsy have only one kind of episode. One kind has all of them
There can be a 20 second loss of consciousness without convulsions (used to be called Petit Mal). Risk is injury from falling.
There can be slurring of speech and partial loss of motor control / incontinence.
There can be convulsions and different phases with a long recovery afterwards (used to be called Grand Mal)
Frequency can be from many times a day to monthly.
Many (Maybe near 70% even in 1940s) can be managed with drugs, ECT, brain surgery or diet. Or even avoiding triggers. Before drugs and ECT and surgery only management was a special diet (1920s) called the Ketogenic diet. It's still a good idea to try for the 30% or so that are not helped by drugs. The "Atkins Diet" is dangerous Celebrity diet based on it.
Generally brain surgery is tried on people with already a severe cognitive disability where the episodes are dangerous and frequent and nothing else works.
ECT is controversial for ANYONE (how many are helped and side effects of temporary memory loss, cognitive impairment etc).
Only a tiny percent are managed by avoiding triggers (like getting too tired).
Maybe only 3% to 5% have video / lights / flashing as a trigger.
There isn't really a cure, because we don't know what it is. If drugs, change of lifestyle or whatever results in no "attacks" for five years some countries will allow a driving licence. Often if the drugs are stopped, or diet dropped, or triggers not avoided the symptoms return.
Ireland is fairly typical of the West for this:
Population 4.75 million in the Republic of Ireland. About 440,000 suffer from Epilepsy (but many of those people, perhaps 80% are living totally normal lives. Perhaps it's completely managed for 75%), that though might include NI, I'm not sure.
Commonest cause of injury is falling.
Commonest cause of death is drowning in the bath. Totally avoidable.
There isn't really any typical type.