Our son of 16 diagnosed 1 year ago JME.
He does t really talk to us much, we try keep an open dialogue but teens are still teens and parents are still parents, epilepsy notwithstanding.

First we approached the school who have a counsellor and he sees the counsellor once a week or so. He says it’s rubbish of course! etc but he does go and that tells you it’s a useful outlet and pressure valve for him.

Second, apart from that we try give him as much freedom as possible and we have given all his closer friends a bit of a briefing on who to call, what to do and what it looks like in a seizure. They’ve really stepped up even at 16, most of them have now seen him have a seizure (he had one in school assembly poor lad!) and he is assured that his friends have “got this”. This, plus the openness, has done a lot to assure him if it happens it will be fine, which has been more or less.

I printed some cards on what to do in a seizure with phone numbers and action plan (put something under head, timer, call parents, etc etc) and he can hand to his friends, or more likely I can.

Third, he sleeps with a empatica bracelet monitor which works brilliantly and while we as parents can have late night anxiety, he knows in his sleep we’ve got him covered.

Finally the school is fully briefed and they’ve been great. NB we’ve agreed with the school that sleep trumps everything else in his life and so he can come in late if he needs to. This has materially reduced sleep anxiety ‘cos he knows he can always sleep late if needs be rather than be up early. It’s been a crucual intervention for us and that, plus openness with friends, are the two things I’d recommend most of all.

Best of luck

I take keppra

I am an adult child with JME. I graduated college with a 3.6. I moved across the country for my first job. I’ve traveled to Europe with friends. I have a husband and a child.
I’ve made mistakes and had seizures in public before. However, one of the best things about JME is that it almost always happens in the morning. Take time waking up, learn to listen to your body, avoid triggers (like people putting unnecessary stress on you) and you’r son/daughter should be fine.

I ended up being diagnosed with epilepsy when I was 13 and I even took Keppra I got "grand Mal" seizures

My son is 13 and he was diagnosed with Epilepsy last year. He is on Keppra. He also takes vitamin B6 to help with the anxiety.