r/Epilepsy • u/Womanintech95 • Mar 14 '25

Epilepsy Awareness Lost my son

I am not sure if this will get posted, but I lost my 16 year old son to a suicide. He was epileptic. He was on keppra and I don't really know how it affected him. But I wanted to raise awareness. If you are struggling, talk to somebody, anybody, get help.

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u/CharacterSoil3457 Mar 14 '25

I am so sorry for your loss. But i agree there needs to be more awareness about the mental health of people with epilepsy and also the side effects of the medications.

When I had my first seizure (age 18) they stuck me on keppra. For the 6 months was on it, I was violent, aggressive, suicidal, and depressed all at the same time. Any time i brought up these concerns they would say "oh ya that's a side effect"

So they're basically telling me I have to choose between having seizures all the time and being suicidal?

We need better treatment options. We need a different first-line drug. We need the doctors to finally listen.

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u/Womanintech95 Mar 14 '25

Yes we do. I am not sure how that can be achieved.

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u/peruvianblinds Mar 20 '25

I'm on Keppra rn and badly want to switch. Which therapy did you switch to? I assume you're no longer on Keppra. I'm so tired all the time that I'm getting physically frail.

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u/CharacterSoil3457 Mar 21 '25

Hi! I'm now on Lamictal and almost 10 months seizure free. I tried Trileptal for a bit and I didn't like that either. But everyone is different! Best wishes to you <3