Living With Epilepsy and Bipolar Disorder: What Actually Helps

If you have epilepsy and you’ve also been diagnosed with something else, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, you are not the exception. You’re part of a pattern that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough.

(This is an informational and personal experience article only — talk to your neurologist, psychiatrist, or local doctor for anything specific to your own diagnosis.)

I’m John. I was diagnosed with epilepsy at age eight, so I’ve lived this most of my life. Along the way, I was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I’m one of the people carrying both, and I want to talk honestly about what that actually looks like day to day, not the clinical version, the lived one.

The Overlap Is More Common Than You’d Think

If you have epilepsy, your odds of also having bipolar disorder are meaningfully higher than the general population’s. Estimates put it around 12–13% of people with epilepsy, and some studies land closer to one in eight. I’m not a scientist, and I’m not telling you my epilepsy caused my bipolar disorder or the other way around,. Nobody can say that with certainty for any one person.

But researchers do point to a couple of things worth knowing about:

• Overlapping brain chemistry both conditions involve some of the same underlying brain systems, even though the exact connection isn’t fully mapped out yet
• Kindling a process where the brain becomes more sensitive after repeated episodes. Which can be tied to an increase in both seizures and manic episodes

None of that is meant to alarm you. It’s meant to tell you that if you’re living with both, you’re not some rare, confusing outlier your doctor has never seen before. Bring it up with them directly. Even if they can’t draw a clean line connecting the two for you personally, they can help you manage both at once.

The Stigma That Makes It Harder

Managing epilepsy is its own daily work. But living with epilepsy is also, itself, a real risk factor for anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles and a lot of that gets made worse by how the world responds to you.

People look at you and think, you seem fine, you’re not in a wheelchair, what’s the problem? That reaction is completely wrong, and most of us who live with this have run into it. Sometimes from strangers, sometimes from people much closer to home. I’ve had a family member brush off real concerns I raised about my mental health or my seizures, acting like it was nothing to worry about. That kind of dismissal doesn’t just sting in the moment. It’s part of what feeds the anxiety and depression in the first place.

Action tip: if someone in your life keeps minimizing what you’re going through, you don’t have to convince them before you take yourself seriously. Find the people, a peer support specialist, a support group, even one trusted friend, who don’t need convincing.

What Actually Helps Me Manage Both

None of this is a substitute for professional care, and what works for me won’t be identical to what works for you. But here’s what’s actually part of my routine:

• Peer support  I talk to a peer support specialist regularly, at least once a month, even though I don’t see a therapist constantly anymore. Even with someone on call if I need them, I need consistent check-ins for my mental health, especially carrying a bipolar diagnosis on top of epilepsy.
• Grounding techniques  deep breathing is one I come back to often, especially when I feel myself starting to get unsteady.
• Music  this one’s personal to everybody. There’s no universal playlist for good mental health. What matters is that you find the songs that make you think, that pull something honest out of you, even the ones that surprise you.
• Exercise  I wrote a separate article about how the gym, walking, and aerobic exercise can help with anxiety and depression, with links to the actual research behind it ([read that article here]). Weightlifting in particular helps with strength and overall health, while walking and aerobic movement tend to help more with anxiety specifically. As always with epilepsy, what’s safe for you depends on your specific situation — that’s a conversation for your doctor, not a blog post.
• Building better routines  I’m currently reading Atomic Habits (not sponsored, just something I’m finding genuinely useful) and working on how it applies to building routines that actually stick, instead of starting over from scratch every time.

Watching for the Warning Signs

Here’s something I don’t think gets said enough: you don’t always have to be the one who catches it. My wife knows me down to the bone. If I miss a dose or take my medicine too late, she notices before I do. I get more irritable, more sensitive to things, and she calls it out. That’s not nagging. That’s someone who’s paying close attention on my behalf, and it matters.

It doesn’t have to be a spouse. It can be a sibling, a roommate, staff you see regularly, or a peer support specialist. The people around you can often spot the shift in your behavior before you can name it yourself, and that early flag is what keeps a bad day from turning into a bad month.

My bipolar disorder is considered in remission by my doctors at this point. But remission isn’t the same as gone. There’s no cure for bipolar disorder any more than there’s a cure for epilepsy. It’s something you manage, daily, for the long run. I still have a medication routine I have to stay on top of, and I still have people around me who help me notice when something’s off.

You Don’t Have to Do This Alone

If you take one thing from this, take this: no one should have to fight epilepsy, bipolar disorder, or both at once by themselves. There are people out there living exactly what you’re living. I’m active in several communities on social media where people talk openly about seizures, manic episodes, the stuff that’s hard to say out loud anywhere else.

It’s genuinely different to talk to people who already understand it, instead of explaining it from scratch every time. I’m not a doctor, and this isn’t medical advice, but from my experience doing this work: the more you connect with people who actually live this, the less alone it feels, and the more support you have when things get hard.

Common Questions About Epilepsy and Bipolar Disorder

How common is it to have both epilepsy and bipolar disorder? Research suggests somewhere around 12–13% of people with epilepsy also experience bipolar disorder — some studies put it closer to one in eight. It’s a well-documented overlap, not a rare coincidence.

Does epilepsy cause bipolar disorder, or the other way around? There’s no confirmed one-directional cause. Researchers point to shared brain chemistry and a phenomenon called kindling. where repeated episodes can increase sensitivity to both seizures and manic episodes, but the exact relationship isn’t fully understood.

What helps with managing epilepsy and a mental health condition at the same time? Consistent peer or professional support, grounding techniques like deep breathing, exercise appropriate to your specific epilepsy situation, and having people close to you who can help notice early behavior changes all play a role. What works varies person to person. Talk to your doctor about what’s safe for you specifically.

If This Helped

If you’re living with epilepsy and something else riding along with it, I hope this made you feel a little less alone in it. I’ve got more articles on the blog, from explaining epilepsy to family members, to the exercise research I mentioned above https://weirdmindwarrior.com/how-to-explain-epilepsy-and-mental-health-needs-to-loved-ones/

If you want more tools and education like this, join the You’re Not Alone newsletter https://youre-not-alone.kit.com/90a8eb69ee We cover practical wellness tools and share other resources, including talks and videos worth your time.

If you know someone else carrying epilepsy, bipolar disorder, or both, and they feel like they’re the only one send them this. That’s exactly what it’s here for.

(This is an informational and personal experience article only It’s always best to talk to your neurologist, psychiatrist, or local doctor about anything specific to your own diagnosis.)