Al - Interview 44

Age at interview: 24

Age at diagnosis: 17

Brief Outline:

Al was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 17. He's been using recreational drugs for a while and is now trying to get clean. He has occasional seizures.

Background:

Al is 24 and single. Ethnic background / nationality' White British.

Last time Al had a major seizure he was very drunk, had been taking recreational drugs and had...

Well I haven't had a seizure since May [four months previous to the interview], I went to my friend's wedding that was the last time I bought like a lot of marijuana and after the, after the wedding we, yeah we sat on the beach drinking and smoking and taking lots of drugs [chuckle], and, so yeah we just got back on the ferry. Yeah actually I forgot to take my medication because I was so out of it and like I just passed out. I was quite paranoid as well because it's, kind of come down from taking Ecstasy and I was awake I hadn't gone to sleep and there was a lot of sort of old people about because it was like, they got like viewing decks on ferries like, anyway.

I was just so drunk that, and numb that it just happened, you know? I was feeling like a prickly sensation, yeah I was, and I was going to, I went and told the, the first member of staff that I could find that I was gonna have a seizure could she get me to the First Aid. But like I went to the First Aid and I woke up and I was in an ambulance at the port, and, you know, friends had stayed [laughs] and were like, 'Shit what have you done? What were you doing last night?' [laughs] 'Stupid'.

Al used to take a lot of drugs and has now been trying to go straight because it was 'messing him...

A lot of us [friends] have grown up and moved on. See I'm a bit of junkie really, and just kinda come out in terms of that I've been a junkie and trying to go straight. It's kinda like part of it.

Yeah. Do you think that's a battle in a way for you at the moment?

Cigarettes it's hard, not smoking, 'cos you see them everywhere. It's okay just to like I can go without cannabis and pills and everything, in fact I'm fine with that. I only ever did sort of amphetamines and ketamine and cocaine like a few times and I'd never really, latched on to them, never really found them that exciting. Ecstasy was something that you could latch on and I did quite a lot of that. I used to go through times when I was working I'd do like five one day and then four the other day, down three the other day, two the other day and one the other day, but backwards. Like if you take a week off from work and you go like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, just doing like, fifteen. 'Cos you could get like about ten for two pounds each. They were quite available. I just realised that it was just messing me up and I read about it, and I had a book and I read about it. It's very good. I can't remember who the author was but it was called 'Ecstasy Reconsidered' it's quite good.

Have you received support in that sense?

No, in terms of drugs? No I never sought it, never sought it and told my GP about it what and when I was doing it but I didn't tell them like how much I was doing.