Smoking & Drinking

My 15 year old neice had her first seizure at the age of 4. She's been taking tegretol ever since just different kinds as she got older. But I'm afriad for her since now that she's older that she might be hanging around with the wrong crowd & start smoking & drinking. I know she won't smoke ciggerettes because my sister died from it but if she ever smoked weed or got drunk would that effect her seizures in any way? Thanks, Mikala.

HI

Being a person, that has been on Seizure meds, a lot of different ones over the years... Tegretol the longest... I must say.. YES... Alcohol does affect your medication.... I can honestly say, I get drunk from one drink....my body just cant tolerate it..

Being a person around the same age, well, i'm 19, as your niece, I understand what she's going through. She needs to understand that drinking and smoking aren't the only ways to have fun- if she wants to be healthy, then that should come first. I've never drank, partly because of my epilepsy because i don't want to know what would happen and partly because i like having fun without the use of other stimulants. As for the pot- my brother who is actually going to graduate school to become a psychology was doing some research on pot and it's affects on epilepsy. i'm not sure what he found out yet, but i can let you know! All i know is that your niece should be more worried about staying healthy then trying to be cool because it's not very cool when you have a seizure in front of an entire chemistry lab class- let me tell you! well, hope that helps! ~Jessica