I'll credit epilepsy.

[finalpoet]

I will, I'll credit epilepsy. This disorder is why I quit smoking. Why I quit drinking. Why I have nearly no stress in my life. It's also why I don't drink coffee and energy drinks, my only caffeine intake is the occasional chocolate bar. I drink nearly no soda. But most of all I don't fear death.

 

[CathyAnn31]

If you're nearly stress free by cutting all those things out then it's a good thing, epilepsy or not.

 

[Nakamova]

All credit to you! Epilepsy may have given you a push, but clearly the strength and discipline to modify your lifestyle were always there.

Puts my resolution to lose a few pounds this year in perspective...

 

[Pinkhorse]

Interesting. I have also quit coffee (decaf - yes, I had to quit decaf after drinking it a lot and starting to get kind of weird seizurish feelings) and alcohol (luckily wine doesn't taste good anymore. I've been giving away my nice bottles.... Stress not so much, unfortunately. You'd think that working for a hospital would help but absolutely not, and I work so much that it's hard to get exercise in AND sleep. The part about not being afraid to die is the interesting one. There is something to that just losing consciousness and it's over. I think about the one tonic/clonic I had, as well as the time I got knocked out. It just goes. I don't know if I would ever even know it was happening. But I want the time to say goodbye to people. I guess I should think about it as always doing my best to let people know that I love them.

 

[resaebiunne]

I don't think epilepsy was your motivation to do that. I think you just had the willpower to do those things naturally. Or perhaps your epilepsy is just more powerful than mine. I don't know. I do know that my epilepsy has nearly killed me twice now, but I have not seen the light of day to realize just how close I came to that point. So, in my lack of judiciousness I continue to delight in those things which may not be the best for me. It doesn't seem to be a problem though.

 

[knothing]

Epilepsy is why I don't drink any caffeine, early on I did but it gave me a false reading of how tired I really was. The only way to ensure I knew if I had enough rest was to not use stimulants at all. Alcohol is a no and it liked to Epilepsy, my medications intensify the buzz to a point where one drink is like 6. It made alcohol no longer fun, when I 21 it would have been another story.

Epilepsy presented me with choices to make that I didn't have to make before because there was no outstandingly bad thing about caffeine and moderate drinking. Nothing that was at least a clear and present danger.