Snowden (who really does, apparently, have epilepsy) helps an epileptic.

[RainDog]

77. I'm discussing Joe or Jane Average

And I take issue with the statement that epilepsy causes behavioral changes like those attributed to strokes or major brain injuries from accidents.

If you look at epilepsy advocacy sites online, the behavioral changes they talk about, in general, have to do with withdrawal, depression, anxiety - i.e. typical responses for anyone with an illness or disorder that is stigmatized by society.

There are distinct types of epilepsy, however, and someone with temporal lobe epilepsy will not have the same experience, other than a seizure, as someone with petit mal seizures, for example. Someone with complex partial seizures may not even appear to have a seizure as we understand them, other than "spacing out" for a time.

Grand mal seizures are the ones commonly associated with epilepsy, however. Those are the ones with thrashing, etc., not just a loss of consciousness.

So, just to say, epilepsy does not indicate behavior change like you are talking about here. Temporal lobe epilepsy may sometimes be accompanied by hyper religiosity, sexuality, etc. - the same sort of issues someone who has untreated manic/depressive illness (i.e. bipolar disorder) - but, with medication these are not considered part of the behavior of someone with either bipolar disorder or temporal lobe epilepsy.

Before my son was dx'd as autistic, the doctor thought he might have temporal lobe or the complex-partial seizure form of epilepsy. Mom that I am, I read up on everything I could find about the subject and participated in an online community to find out information.

I don't think it does anyone with epilepsy any good to misrepresent their circumstances.

If someone fell and had a brain injury b/c of epilepsy, that would not be considered a feature of epilepsy itself. That would be considered a feature of a traumatic brain injury.

I'm not saying this as pro or con Snowden. I'm saying this as the mother of someone who has a son with a disorder that's often stigmatized and misrepresented in media, etc.

If you know of studies that indicate epilepsy itself causes actions that those associated with traumatic brain injury, maybe you can post them here - because the advocacy sites talk about emotional issues related to stigmatism, not acting out - beyond the situation I mentioned, above, with c-p seizures.