Hi Janellie8,
Though I was diagnosed at 11, my seizures REALLY kicked in during my junior year of high school. I'm sure only this group will understand how difficult that was- where my strengths used to be languages and math, those parts of my brain were changing and not capable of doing what they previously had. My memory was awful, and it made my last two years of high school super tough academically. In retrospect, I wish I would have told my teachers about it. It's not that I wanted or needed extra attention, but it might have helped them to understand certain limitations of mine at the time (which, by the way, does NOT mean your current limitations will always be limitations for you!) I struggled so much in ways I might not have needed to had I just admitted to myself and to others that my needs as a student were now different. It didn't mean I wasn't as smart or as talented, but the way I learned was now extremely different than it had been just months before. And they had no way of knowing this.
For example, my senior year French teacher was new to the school and didn't know my previous handle on the language. It was a small class (probably 5 of us?) and every day, she'd asked me what we had reviewed/talked about the day before. I could NEVER tell her because I could never remember. Seriously, I drew a blank, you would have thought I hadn't even attended class. She, understandable so, took this to mean that I wasn't paying attention, and was just being a negligent student. At the end of the year, she told me, one on one, that I was a difficult student. (I'm the furthest thing from a difficult student). This was painful and haunts me to this day (and I'm 31 now). I wish I had told her what I was dealing with - it's not that I wanted different treatment, but she might have been able to understand where my performance limitations were, and maybe even help me through it.
Not to discourage you, but there will be some folks, even teachers, who don't understand. It even took my parents some time to fully understand what my seizures meant to my cognition (and they're both medical doctors!) The morning of the SAT IIs (science, I think?), I had a seizure. I couldn't even remember my own name, but I'm pretty sure they thought I was faking it and made me go. I remember eventually walking out of the test because I had no. clue. what I was doing. I barely knew how to fill in the damn bubbles. Luckily that test wasn't an important one for me
Super duper long story short, I guess what I'm trying to get at is, if you're dealing with something that's affecting your performance in school, it's much better to let your teachers and loved ones know because, in the long run, you want your grades to reflect your talents. It may not change anything at all, but it just might. If they're able to help you get those grades by adjusting small things for you, you should welcome that, and please don't feel different or guilty about it.
Best,
Sarah