My 19yr old daughter was recently diagnosed with epilepsy?
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Being diagnosed with epilepsy is by no means a mental illness! It is sometimes a difficult thing to live with, but once it is recognized it is pretty easy to manage. I would just explain to her that it is something people live with everyday and for the most part, unless someone has witnessed your daughter have an episode, they will never even know.
She should'nt let something like this define her. She needs to know that YES, she does have epilepsy, but epilepsy does not have her! She's young, so it makes it harder for her to understand and to cope with, but millions of people have epilespy without their peers or schoolmates even noticing.
I have never heard of any one classifying or mentioning epilepsy as a mental illness. She just needs to relax. This is part of her now and she can either accept it and keep control over it, or become controlled by the disorder.
Sounds like she has a good support system and the important thing is to make sure it is not made into too big of a deal by anyone. Good luck!
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/the...
I have a friend who´s had epilepsy for most of her life. Still, she´s going to university next year, she´s really smart, she plays soccer professionally and is goodlooking. She´s got loads of really good friends, all of who know of her illness and don´t think it´s anything special. Classic story of how epilepsy is not something that will stop you from living a normal life!
Hook her up with a support group in your area. Find an online talk board about epilepsy. Deal with your own stigmas, fears, and stereotypes, particularly of the mentally ill. I can understand struggling to accept a chronic illness diagnosis. I can understand hating having to take medication for life. I can understand fear of the illness. I can understand lots of things. I can't understand being focusing on fear of being branded mentally ill. Half the world has some form of psychological dysfunction. Most people with neurological mental illnesses are high functioning and would not be thought of as one of "those" people because the disease is managed. It is an illness. It does not make one inferior. I am bipolar, professionally employed, family, friends. I can understand the difficulty accepting a diagnosis, but I resent the hell out of the implied 'not as good as' prejudice. Besides, no one views epilepsy as a mental illness these days, anyway.
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