Wow, this article resonated so much more than I expected when I clicked on it. Mostly because I have epilepsy without the stroke, and after decades of it being stable, around 2021 it got a bit harder to control and started to interfere with my daily living for the first time.

A couple points I'd add/double down on:

1. Find yourself a team of really good folks to work with who treat you as a human - At the peak of my epilepsy acutely interfering with my life, I was at a startup that, after being devastated by lockdowns, decided to scale down from 100 employees to 6 and start over. When I told the founder I'd need a month off twice within the span of 4 months for some very invasive surgeries, I fully expected him to let me go, as he was legally permitted. He told me to take all the time I needed, and for that I'll forever be indebted.

2. Avoid the urge to "other" yourself - the only brain we're exposed to 24/7 is our own. That makes it easy to lose track of what's baseline and easy to assume every time you forget something or otherwise "glitch," it's a sign you are flawed in ways others aren't. That's not true, everyone forgets things.

3. It takes time to recover emotionally - This week marks 3 years since my last big surgery, and I'm just past 2 since things started to really stabilize. Only in the last few months have I stopped walking around constantly viewing myself through the lens of a condition and with a sense of self-doubt and "othering". So be kind and patient with yourself. It takes time.

4. Reddit has some very supportive communities to help answer questions and remind you that you're not alone (including r/epilepsy). But don't get overly involved in them for too long, because then it becomes easy to define yourself and your tribe through your medical condition.

5. If epilepsy or some other condition prevents you from getting a driver's license, there's a lot to say for living in NYC or SF. Two of the only places in America where it's completely normal to live without a car and you wont stand out or feel excluded.