Hi

I know what I am writing alot of people with epilepsy will know already but some people may not know how badly and cruel the treatment use to be if you suffered from epilepsy.

First of all the ancient romans belived you was possed by the devil and came from demons you was secregated and locked up for this as it was thought to be infection and you could pass epilepsy on.

In past years you could be locked up in aslyms or intitutions or detention centres from been children and never come out or early in adult life, you would often be class as mentally ill, or insane, restrains and locked up in padded cells for days sometimes was very often used as a seisure was looked on as mad evil or mental.

The nurses and doctors in the mental asylums did not have alot of smypathy for epileptics, and paients was often so druged up to keep them quiet and also ill treated with punishments once locked up in asylums some people was forgotten about by familys as they was ashamed of them and never saw family again, and the patient because
institutionalize and if ever did get the chance let out and been in the places for so long could not cope with the outside world and was put back in the asylums and institutions, and often died in there.

The other thing they did to epileptics was sometimes forced sterilization, it was again looked on as they did not want children born with epilepsy so best get them steirilized and also was forced into having electric shock treatment which in them days was common if you was suffing for depression, but they also did it to epileptics and usally the epileptic person had no say in the matter, the doctor ordered the treatment and that was that

The old electric shock treatment was to induce a seisure where as you was given a anisecic and eletrodes placed on the head to induce a seisure this was surpose to make you forget thats why it was used also for depressed people, and the idea with epileptics was if you forget your problems no stress and then no epilepsy, (but there it was often said that because the paient with epilepsy was already mad it was a waste of time and money)

Sometimes people was locked up in the old workhouses because of the illness could not surport themselves, they was a parts of the workhouse and the segregation for mentally ill and epileptics came into that catogory.

It was if you was epileptic you was condemed you had no say in what you did with your life, sometimes children was told that they was been taken to the seaside for a day out and taken stright to the asylums or instutions, there was no schooling so as well as been epileptic they was often illiterate which further surjested that the person was also simple which again came under the fact that they was mad.