Hi, I’m Anoushka and my blog is about the educational aspect of living with epilepsy and since I am turning 18 this month and going to university, I have a lot of experience of being in full time education!
A lot of time has gone towards going to doctors appointments or having scans which consequently does affect my education when I have to miss lessons. For example, during my GCSE mocks, I had a lot more seizures than normal, and usually my seizures are quite well controlled. Because of this, it was worrying to me that it would affect my studies and therefore my grades as I had to have even more doctors appointments as well. However, looking back I would’ve told myself not to worry about that and to focus more on myself otherwise it would be a vicious cycle of built up nerves. I also made sure to catch up on any work I missed to prevent me from falling behind as well as going to help sessions if I didn’t understand a topic. -try and get notes from your friends if you have to miss lessons as well as emailing teachers in advance to see what you will miss too!
I also started to implement wellbeing techniques into my life to stop the seizures occurring, such as:
- Taking more breaks from studying to talk to friends or do exercise when I felt overwhelmed
- Don’t cram in revision and spread it out over a period of time
- Keep a journal to write down all my worries
- Download apps such as headspace or calm to help me sleep or declutter my mind
- Keep to do lists or a timetable and stick to it
Tips such as these, really helped me during my actual GCSES, and I ended up getting the grades that I hoped for as well as learning how to control my stress too! During my AS and A level mocks, I was able to incorporate these techniques and ended up having no seizures as well as exceeding my expectations of the grades I got! I am now going to university this September to study medicine, I know it will be a big step up from school but I know I can use tips such as the ones above to help maintain a good work-life balance. I am also making sure to maintain control of my epilepsy in university such as staying in a shared flat with others, signing up to a local GP and keeping in contact with my epilepsy nurse and doctor too.
And most importantly, remember that your mental and physical health is a priority and shouldn’t be overlooked compared to grades or work! As much as it may seem, academics are not the most important thing in the world and make sure to always tell someone if you feel overwhelmed with work or if you can’t stay on top of work being set, because for me, stress was definitely a factor in my frequency of seizures.
Hope this helped anyone currently in education and remember you are not alone!
