Hi Mary, welcome to our group.  I'm sure we will be able to figure out
which Mary we are communicating with because of your email address.

I don't think there are a lot of people that think that people who need SSD
and happen to have epilepsy should not receive help.  If some people think
that way, that is their problem, not yours.  I'm glad you finally got the
help you needed.

Best wishes,
Julie, Volunteer Webmaster
Epilepsy Foundation of Idaho
http://www.epilepsyidaho.org

"pipercub49" <flyboy98@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message

OK, if you call yourself Mary Lou (nothing wrong with that) I'll call myself
Mary Bee.

Mary

Hi Mary Lou:

Glad to meet you and thanks for the background information.  Just turned
58, have two daughters in their thirties.  No grandkids yet.  I
currently have complex partial seizures (also have had simple partial
seizures), which are controlled nicely with medication unless I get
pretty sick.  Was diagnosed in my early forties although I had been
having seizures since 19 or 20 years old. No one is sure where my
seizures came from; could be inherited or could be due to blood clots or
something else. I was a staff member at a sheltered workshop for a
number of years where a lot of our clients had seizure disorders on top
of developmental disabilities.  Just find it unusual that I was walking
around that place working, having seizures, and nobody noticed a thing.

Don't worry about what other people think about disability payments.
I've never received benefits myself but have worked as a staff member in
 a sheltered workshop where at one point disability benefits were taken
away from some low to moderate functioning people by SSA.  It was
ludicrous.  I've heard the same junk, people complaining about someone
getting benefits that they believe shouldn't.  I don't know what's with
those kind of complaining people, but they certainly aren't too sharp.

Barb

Not being able to do paid work is not the end of the world. when I was 20
I had fear that, for other reasons - I didn't have epilepsy at the time -
that I would never get an interesting job, I attempted suicide.
That was what later caused my epilepsy but I continued in my job for
another 9yrs but was allowed to reduce my hours because of the
side-effects of the drug.

When I married my second husband we moved and I haven't had a paid job for
22yrs. However, I have kept busy doing voluntary work (mainly Citizens'
Advice Bureau work) and been on several people representing committees
(first the Local Health Council and then elected to the Community Council
in 1998. My menopause either caused or made more visible my bipolar
disorder (manic depression) which was far more disturbing than my epilepsy.
It took ages to be diagnosed because doctors thought everytning was due to
my epilepsy. Now I'm being treated for that I'm studying again and
considering paid work.

The important thing is to keep busy and try to do useful things which
reassure you that you are worth just as much as those being paid.

Chris L.