Epilepsy

Overview

In this section you can find out about the experience of epilepsy from people sharing their personal experiences. 

Researchers travelled all around the UK to talk to 41 people in their own homes. Find out what people said about issues such as symptoms, seizures, treatments, and impacts on lifestyle, family, and work.

We hope you find the information here helpful and reassuring.

You may also be interested in our section on young people with epilepsy.

Jonathan Miller introduces the Epilepsy website

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Hello I’m Jonathan Miller. It’s not generally realised, although people are familiar with the term, that epilepsy is perhaps the commonest of all the disorders of the nervous system. There are extraordinary misunderstandings about this disease. Everyone knows the name but they don’t know what it involves and you will find an extraordinary variety of personal experiences here which you can access very easily. You will find the information on this website detailed, sympathetic, and rigorously researched and I’m sure you will find it extremely helpful.

Epilepsy in Adults - Site Preview

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Interview 12: It's hard to actually say when I first, found out I had epilepsy because I was a very little girl and I had older sisters and a younger sister.

Interview 27: So, so sometimes my speech gets distorted, sometimes I get a bit tongue tied, and I'm aware of that. Sometimes I just start to feel like I'm going to faint or pass out.

Interview 19: So at the very beginning, the first few times it happened, I would be looking at something and I’d be able to see it quite clearly in the same way as I can see yourself now. But then in front of that would be like this daydream.

Interview 26: You know, I can't drive home, I can't do the ironing by myself. It's only sensible to make sure there’s another adult around when I get into a bath. So most of the time it’s quick strip washes with several bowlfuls of water if I’m alone.

Interview 30: I’ve never met anyone who has taken a disliking, or a offence isn't the right word, but taking-, taken issue with the fact that I have epilepsy.

This section is from research by the University of Oxford.

Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences logo

Supported by:
Sir Siegmund Warburg's Voluntary Settlement
Welton Foundation

Publication date: March 2003.
Last updated: November 2025.

Last reviewed: November 2025.