General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Snowden (who really does, apparently, have epilepsy) helps an epileptic. [View all]RainDog
(28,784 posts)Because everything you mention is about TLE, afai can read, not other types, which do not have the same affect or effect.
TLE is very difficult to manage sometimes, but not in the way Snowden has acted, from what I know from a woman I met who was considering brain surgery to remove part of her brain that was connected with the seizures. hyper religiosity or sexuality can be no different than someone who is not epileptic, tho... iow, it's not just a medical condition.
I initially thought it possible that my son was having seizures - and he may have had them b/c autism is sometimes accompanied by seizures, I later found out. But he hasn't had them since he was 4 and we never put him on meds for epilepsy b/c we wanted a second opinion, etc. He's never been on any meds, except for ear infections.. which, I found out later, can mess with gastro-intestines.. and people with autism already often have different micro-gut environments.
I had a seizure when I was 18 or so, had to have a brain scan, etc... and the dx was inconclusive. The doc told my dad I might've had an allergic reaction to birth control pills... which really pissed me off, because then my dad knew I was taking bcps... and the doc threw a prescription for dilantin at me. I took it for a few days, the muscles under the skin in my forearms started twitching and I threw away the script.
Never had another seizure.
So, I also think that "epilepsy" may be a generally catch-all phrase when there are no other explanations for a seizure, too. With me, I lost consciousness... could feel it coming on, the room started to look like color tv static (no one knows what that looks like anymore, right), then lost consciousness, lost control of my bladder, I brought my arms up to my chest and held my fists in balls... I was having dinner at a friend's house with two other friends. Didn't draw up my arms, they said, until they spoke to me b/c I guess they saw I zoned out or something. Never knew the cause of it. Maybe it was spaghetti...
All to say - I still don't think epilepsy is an indictor of Snowden's actions when you consider how easy it is to become "radicalized" when someone sees something that is outrageous to them. I became "radicalized" when I saw what happened with the Bush/Gore mess because it all made me so angry.
So, I'm just saying I am not prone to ascribe to an illness or disorder what can be explained by the normal actions of people in abnormal circumstances.
My son was really concerned when that Elliot guy did his thing b/c people were saying Rodgers was autistic. I read the guy's manifesto and I told my son... you've never been like that. He doesn't seem autistic to me - he seems like a narcissist. But ascribing Elliot's actions to autism, initially, really bothered me - or any action, really - to ascribe it to a mental illness or disorder does a disservice to people, the majority of whom never act out in ways that we read about when someone harms others.