Caring For Someone With Epilepsy

Just as every person is a different individual, so is their epilepsy. Each person with epilepsy requires a different type of care. Some can live a completely independent life because they have less frequent symptoms, and there are those in constant need of help. Some people with epilepsy only need help with possible malaise. Unfortunately, some patients have unpredictable seizures.

A Guide for Caregivers

Family member, relatives or a friend can be a caregiver. A caregiver’s role involves patience, knowledge, and compassion. A caregiver can help live a good quality of life for the epileptic person.

The caregiver is responsible for:

1. To provide security for a person when he or she has a seizure. Before a seizure, the patient may experience an aura, a prior warning signal so they can take necessary precautions to steer clear of possible injuries. The caregiver can help the patient before an impending attack. Once you know the course of the patient’s seizures, you can know in advance what precautions will need to be taken.
2. If necessary, call for help, provide first aid, or administer the necessary medications
3. To accompany the patient home after a seizure or to stay with him or her for a while until he or she fully regain his or her state of consciousness
4. Observe and record any seizure factors that can be presented to the doctor later. If possible, the caregiver can also make a video, which would also help the doctor.
5. Make sure the patient always takes medicine. There may be drug side effects: coordination problems, headache, anorexia, dizziness, tremor, weight loss or gain, blurred vision, deteriorating memory, hair loss, or excessive hair growth.
6. Accompanies the patient to the doctor, takes notes, tells the doctor in detail about the seizures.
7. Participate in the patient's occupations if the activity poses a risk of epilepsy (such as swimming).
8. Providing passenger transport if necessary.
9. Help to create a safe environment. For people with epilepsy, the chance of injury is higher than for healthy people.

Epileptic patients may also develop other health problems, the treatment of which is an extra task. And let’s not forget that living with an illness can also lead to psychological problems: stress, depression, emotional changes. Epilepsy can change over the years, which means either more or less work on the caregiver's part. Now you can see that patient care comes with serious responsibility.

When you are Recording Seizures, make a note:

1. What was the patient's behavior before and after the seizure?
2. What the patient did before the seizure
3. Were their provocative factors
4. Time duration of the seizure
5. Did the patient's color changed
6. Did the patient's breathing change?

Also note, if the patient:

1. Made automatic movements
2. Have tremor, and if so, in which part of his body
3. Fell
4. Bit his tongue
5. Lose bowel or bladder control
6. Was injured.

Coping

In the case of residual seizures, it is essential to assess and analyze with the patient and then improve how they can deal with challenging situations. Coping is any cognitive, emotional, or behavioral effort by which an individual attempt to deal with external or internal influences that threaten his or her previous balance. The coping process can help the patient adapt to the new situation, but coping techniques result in lasting tension.
Problem-focused coping in epilepsy means an enthusiastic attitude: seeking information, choosing a personalized doctor, visiting self-help organizations, changing ourselves.
Emotion-centred coping includes expressing emotions, seeking social support, distracting, denying the significance of the situation.
Problems with loss of control: In the case of residual seizures, a person with epilepsy may experience a severe loss of control over the events of their lives. Not only can you not reliably control what might happen to him in the next few minutes, but the near and distant future may also be considered uncertain. Therefore, any effort to promote control is significant.

A Guide for Parents

Usually, parents feel helpless after they identify that their child has epilepsy. They should know that they can treat this, and their child can live a fits free life with some medication and little change in their lifestyle. For more details, read this article EPILEPSY AWARENESS. Learning about how you can preside over epilepsy may also help focus your mind on your child's needs.

What are the Signs of Childhood Seizures?

1. Rhythmic head nodding
2. Sudden unresponsiveness
3. Rapid blinking
4. Repeated irregular movements
5. Memory gaps
6. Sudden fall for nothing
7. Sudden fear, anger, or panic without any reason
It is not easy to distinguish a seizure from a child’s unusual behavior. What is worth paying attention to is the pattern of behavior that occurs too often by accident.

How Can Parents Help?

Gain an Understanding of Epilepsy

Parents may feel helpless and confused if they have very little knowledge about epilepsy management. That is why you should start learning about managing epilepsy because it can help you make the right decisions be it ayurvedic medicine or some lifestyle changes. Speak to support groups or with other parents of kids who are experiencing similar challenges.

Understand Your Child’s feelings.

A child with epilepsy may experience low self-esteem, anger, anxiety, or a feeling of powerlessness as kids are often afraid of being different. Many kids may become anxious about having a seizure in front of their friends, even if seizures are well controlled by medication. It is essential to talk with your kid about their feelings. If you are open to learning and are a good listener, it can help build your child’s self-esteem.

Give independence

Too much protest can harm a child’s emotional development. If you keep restricting your child, this fear of new things will characterize him or her as an adult. Help your child build self-confidence and nurture independence.

Disorders in the family

When there is a family member in a family who is permanently causing problems and living with an illness, family relationships around them may develop differently than usual. If epilepsy occurs in childhood, overprotection may develop.
If the father is a family member with epilepsy, experiencing the malaise may adversely affect the child. No undue secrecy must develop in this regard. It is vital that fatherhood, which is crucial in the upbringing of children, is not compromised.
Suppose the family member with epilepsy is the mother. In that case, the difficulties are often since relatives often take care of the infant from the mother's hands. Instead, it is essential to help epileptic mothers take care of their children by creating safe conditions.

Develop a Positive Family Environment

It would help if you enlightened all members of the family and good friends. Tell them about the course of the seizure, any abnormal behaviors that the patient produces during the seizure. Share with them what the symptoms are when you need to call an ambulance. Siblings may feel intimidated because they think they may catch epilepsy. However, they may also be jealous of an epileptic family member who is given extra time and attention.
Although a child with epilepsy has the same responsibilities in life, there should be no exceptions. It is not the responsibility of minors to care for their epileptic sibling. However, they need to be aware of what to do in the event of a seizure. Older people may be misinformed, so it is worthwhile to enlighten all relatives.

A Guide for Teachers

Communication

Even before starting school, it is worthwhile for the parents to meet with their teacher to describe the child’s illness. Educate the teacher about epilepsy, and explain what to do if the child has a seizure in class. Let the teacher know that side effects like lack of concentration, mood swings, drowsiness, or hyperactivity are common in childrens who regularly take allopathic medication. The teacher should report any epileptic episode to the child’s parents.

How Teachers Can Help

Support the student

Teachers play a vital role in the academic, emotional, and physical well-being of students with epilepsy. The child often feels excluded, fearing that he or she will have a seizure in front of his or her classmates, and his or her self-esteem and thus his or her school performance will decrease. You can’t accept being different from other students. They do not dare to take their medicine in the presence of others.
It is the teacher’s job to have mutual acceptance between the epileptic student and classmates. You don’t have to overdo the epileptic child. Feel free to let him or her play sports, attend classes with other classmates. Encourage the learner to set goals for themselves.

Inform The Classmates

Sometimes children face teasing, ridicule, or prejudice from schoolmates. Schoolmates can be unfriendly to the child if they do not understand the condition. It is highly up to teachers how the future generation will relate to people with epilepsy. Teachers can prepare students for what to expect and how to deal with a seizure. It can help kids become less unsettled and more supportive of the child with epilepsy when they experiences a seizure at school. A teacher who reacts to seizures calmly and supportively will help students learn to do the same.

The discussion could include the following points:

1. Epilepsy is not a disease that you can catch from someone else it is a condition that results in seizures
2. seizures occur when there is an unexpected discharge in the brain you cannot stop seizures
3. be careful to protect the attacker from possible injury after the illness, the patient regains consciousness.
Teachers need to know if a student has epilepsy. Teachers should have a basic understanding of epilepsy, manage epilepsy, its effects on the child's emotional, social and physical development, and its effects on learning. If you want specific information, contact your child’s parents, who know their child’s epilepsy best.