Brenna, 18, USA

I found out I had epilepsy when I was twelve during gym. Surprisingly I wasn't scared, just shocked and calm. Years have passed and I had more seizures. Two years ago, I started to hemorrhage then the seizures got worse and happened more frequently. Now l have them every month and I usually bite my tongue which causes infections. It's hard having epilepsy, but I think positive and stand strong.

I take three types of medicine: Lamotrigine, obviously to control my epilepsy. Levetiracetam, because I twitch sometimes but it keeps me up at night so I take Amitriptyline for sleeping. Side effects that I get from the Lamotrigine is drowsiness, headache, and being tired a lot. Side effects from the Levetiracetam drowsiness, and being tired. For Amitriptyline I don't have any.

Having epilepsy is tough because I bite my tongue and it gets infected which hurts a lot for a week or so and it leaves a scar on it. I have scared someone away because of my seizures which gets me nervous and worrying that I will scare away other people that are important to me. My cousin, who lives with me, has seizures but it's Psychosomatic seizures. So it's pretty hectic when we have seizures at the same time but for my grandma, it's easy.

Usually my seizures last for 1-2 minutes and I'm out of it. Since I drop to the ground immediately, people don't get the chance to catch me so I have had many concussions so now I have Post-concussion-syndrome which means that my concussions last longer and have constant headaches.

I'm 18 years old and most of my friends can drive and have a job, even my friends who are a bit younger than me. Even though I don't have an ID, can't drive, can't get a job, and many other things I can't do that people my age do, I'm fine with it honestly. Since I can't get a job, I will go to college and hopefully get a degree so I can do something I can do that I love doing. Writing. I want to be able to write a book and possibly publish it.

Sure I get upset that I can't go places by myself but I have accepted it. Hopefully soon I can get friends that are my age so I can go out and have fun. It gets boring that I sit around doing nothing because of my epilepsy, but I have been putting up with it and I'm fine with it.