Alcohol

As a young adult, you could find that alcohol becomes a more important part of your social life. Having epilepsy and taking anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t drink alcohol. But there are some good reasons why you might choose to drink less than your friends, or choose not to drink at all (who wants a hangover anyway?!)

Alcohol can make the side-effects of some AEDs worse. If your AEDs make you feel sleepy, dizzy or light-headed for example, alcohol may make this worse. AEDs can also make you feel drunk more quickly than your friends.

Drinking a lot or binge drinking can cause you to have ‘withdrawal seizures’. These seizures may start seven to 72 hours after you’ve stopping drinking.

When you’re drinking alcohol, try and keep your routine as normal as possible. If you miss meals, forget to take your medication or you don’t get a good night’s sleep, you’re far more likely to have a seizure. 

Most people with epilepsy can have a couple of drinks – perhaps more –
without it triggering a seizure. But everyone is different, and some people find even a small amount of alcohol is a problem.

• More information about alcohol
  

Drugs

Recreational drugs can sometimes trigger seizures. Recreational drugs can be made up of many different ingredients. There’s no way of knowing what ingredients are in them and whether they could trigger a seizure. Sometimes it’s the actual drug itself that is the problem. In other cases, it’s the extra ingredients added to the drugs. 

Taking drugs can lead to other problems, such as not getting enough sleep, getting dehydrated, not eating or forgetting to take anti-epileptic medication. Any of these things can make you more likely to have seizures.