Plants are incredible for improving mood. I personally discovered this by chance. 7 years ago I was very unwell, but I purchased a few plants. All I can say is: “Wow”. Back then and to this day, they have continued to help me chill, distract me from awful thoughts, and give me focus.

Loads of illnesses can cause lethargy. With epilepsy, it’s not the diagnosis itself that causes it, but the seizures, the medications, and often the all-too-common comorbidities including sleep disorders and psychiatric illnesses.

As soon as I started Anti-Epileptic Drugs (AEDs), overnight I went from being an energised sprinter to a ghost who attempted eyelid-opening.

I used to drink. I wasn’t supposed to drink because of my epilepsy. I knew that I wouldn’t sleep well afterward and really knew that I might as well scream from the rooftops "Give me a seizure, darling!”.

The night before last I had an epileptic seizure. It was the first focal-aware seizure that I’d had in a few months, and I was scared. Hey, the seizure could have been heaps worse, but I was scared that it would develop into a tonic-clonic seizure.

Time and again, week after week, I hear of comments such as “You have no reason to be depressed”, or “You should count yourself lucky, look at the starving children out there.”. Now, this is nuts and a clear expression of ignorance.

Sometimes people presume: “She’s typed this piece, she is fine!”. Do you know that many people with mental illnesses can appear fine one moment and quite the opposite the next?