Can Epilepsy be caused by stress?
Stress can sometimes contribute to people developing epilepsy in the first place. This is more likely if your stress is severe, lasts a long time, or has affected you very early in life. In very young children, stress affects the development of the brain.
How long do epilepsy patients live?
Reduction in life expectancy can be up to 2 years for people with a diagnosis of idiopathic/cryptogenic epilepsy, and the reduction can be up to 10 years in people with symptomatic epilepsy. Reductions in life expectancy are highest at the time of diagnosis and diminish with time.
Can you get money for having epilepsy?
If you have been diagnosed with epilepsy and you can’t work and you expect to be unable to work for at least 12 months you can file a claim for Social Security disability benefits. Social Security disability benefits can provide money that you need to pay for things like housing, bills, food, and other expenses.
Can Epilepsy make you aggressive?
It is now believed that most people with epilepsy are no more likely than others to act aggressively. A few do have episodes of aggressive behavior between seizures (interictal aggression). Researchers have proposed that there are syndromes of interictal behavior changes that can occur in people with epilepsy.
Does epilepsy change your personality?
Epilepsy can be accompanied by changes in cognition, personality, affect, and other elements of behavior. There is no single epileptic constitution or personality complex.
How do epileptics behave?
Those most often seen in children with epilepsy are sleep disturbances, fatigue or listlessness, lack of enthusiasm, and frequent emotional outbursts. Other behavioral issues, such as anxiety, agitation, frustration, or impulsive behaviors, often accompany depression.
Does epilepsy affect mood?
Mood problems such as anxiety and depression are common in people with epilepsy. In some cases, there may be links between a person’s epilepsy and mood problems. Possible links include how epilepsy affects their life, how their brain is affected, and their genetic or family history.
Does epilepsy affect your memory?
Seizures. Any type of epileptic seizure could potentially affect your memory, either during or after a seizure. If you have lots of seizures, memory problems might happen more often. Abnormalities in the temporal or frontal lobes of the brain are the most common reason for memory problems in people with epilepsy.
What are the long term effects of epilepsy?
Long lasting seizures, or status epilepticus, may also cause brain damage or death. People with epilepsy are eight times more likely than people without it to experience certain other chronic conditions, including dementia, migraine, heart disease, and depression.
Does epilepsy damage the brain?
Prolonged seizures are clearly capable of injuring the brain. Isolated, brief seizures are likely to cause negative changes in brain function and possibly loss of specific brain cells.
What can’t you do with epilepsy?
Yes there will be some things you can’t do, at least until your seizures are well controlled. For example, you’ll need to be careful with water, heights, sharp objects and some electrical equipment. Until you have seizure control, here are some of the things you could consider to keep yourself as safe as possible.