Dear friends,

My name is Austin D'Souza and the following is an autobiography of my life regarding how I first got epilepsy learnt to cope up with it for 35 years and finally defeat it successfully.

Two months after my birth, I had high fever, which finally led to epileptic seizures. My seizures would quickly erase all that I had learnt in not only my music classes but also my lessons in school as well as in college. Due to lack of concentration, I became moody, irritable, impatient and suffered from frequent fits of anger. My activities were few and laziness quickly took over. I felt inactive and lifeless without any goal in life. At the age of 29 years, I decided to get married and settle down. Little did I know what was in store for me? One by one all my proposals were turned down the moment people came to know that I suffered from epilepsy. I began to feel like an outcast in the eyes of the public. Wherever I went, people used to pass snide comments as to my sickness and my failures. All this led to a feeling of isolation and insecurity that further increased my depression for 10 years and struggled without any hope until the age of 38 years of age. Due to old age, my parents expired and I felt shattered. My grief was uncontrollable. It was then that my elder brother took me as his responsibility and even gave me his moral support. With his guidance and good advice he rekindled the flame, which at one time had nearly gone out of my life. In the beginning the going was tough but certainly not impossible. Slowly, I began to eradicate all my problems and to my joy, I even found that all that I had learnt. Finally stick in my memory. What I had once lost had been returned to me namely the power to memorize anything that I had learnt at one time. Will power and determination soon followed and I found myself looking at situations in a more positive and broad-minded way. My goal was to live an independent life without any encumbrances. My dosage, which at one time was 16, tablets a day have now come down to a quarter of that amount. I also have a flat of my own and I am in full control of my life. My friends are many as well as helpful. No doubt I may have lost 25 years of my life due to epilepsy but at the same time, I must say that what was once a dream has finally become a reality.

My friends, I conclude by saying that though tablets help in a certain way, the real cure is in having the will power to achieve something which will help us in the long run. As there is great potential in each and every one of us, it only needs to be extracted and made use of it rightly used; this potential can easily help an epileptic patient in living an independent and healthy life. My parting advice is that a strong determination, help and exposure play a huge role in our lives thus enabling us to cope up with epilepsy and finally defeat it once and for all.