Authors: Ndje Ndje Mireille, Teboh Ndifon Emmanuel, Tsala Tsala Jacques-Philippe.
Epilepsy is a major public health problem in Cameroon just like in many other African countries and beyond. This illness is being regarded as a taboo thus making it a cause for frustration, instability and stigmatization of persons with epilepsy. We are interested in the contribution of family life in arousing uncomfortable emotions in persons with epilepsy. The problem that is of concern to us is that of finding out the type of treatment these adolescents receive from their family members. Our objective consists of describing the family life experience of adolescents suffering from epilepsy and also to explore the meaning of rejection feelings as described by these adolescents. In order to attain our objective, we conducted a clinical study on four adolescents suffering from epileptic seizures at the Widikum Catholic Hospital. We used a semi-structured interview guide. These interviews were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Our findings were then interpreted mainly based on the interpersonal relational approach which shows that family life experiences were a contributory factor in the arousal of rejection feelings in our participant. The perception of epilepsy, type of care, mystical beliefs by family members are the factors that contribute to arousing rejection feelings in adolescents suffering from epileptic seizures. Moreover, to further question the impact of family life experiences adolescents suffering from epileptic seizures, we envisage carrying out a clinical study on psychotherapeutic care of adolescents with epilepsy.
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