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2007-06-10T15:48:00.001-07:00

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Hello everyone, I am Steven Wittenberg and my picture is above. My wife Sue Clark-Wittenberg took this picture of me today.

I am 47 years and I was born in Ottawa and continue to live in Ottawa. I am the assistant
director of the Wittenberg Center to End Electroshock which we officially opened on May 20,
2007. Our office is in our home at present and we are looking for an office. You can
contact the center by emailing Sue at: 2005.sueclark@gmail.com

I have had personal experience with pychiatry as a child while growing up in Ottawa. The school system suggested I be put on Ritalin as I was hyperactive and I did not like taking

Ritalin at all. I saw my neurologist and family physician. I have epilepsy because of a reaction to the smallpox vaccine when I was 10 months old and I got seizures as a result. At about a month old in May, 1960 the vaccine did not take, so they repeated in October 1960, I broke out in blisters all over my body. The pedatrician came in and said that a rare reaction to the vaccine and it would have to run its course. When I was 10 months old in February 1961, my
two sisters Donna and Lynn had me sitting in bed between them one Sunday morning and they said to my parents I had a really high fever. My parents took me to the Emergency at the
Ottawa Civic Hospital and they tested for mennigitis and all sorts of things.

Dr. Attack did an EEG and he said there was a scar on the brain. When the scar was irritated,
it would cause seizures, focal epilepsy meaning they can pinpoint the source of the problem.
They put me on dilatin and phenobaritol at 10 months old. They said I would be on the medications for two years. My Mother told me that two years seemed like a long time.
Two years went by quickly. The doctors tried to stop the medications and when they did
that I continued to have the seizures, so I was back on the medications for life. The doctors at the time said when I was young I would grow out of it. I never did and as a result I am on
medication for epilepsy today. I have been seizure free for sometime now. Sue makes sure
that I take my meds on time as it is important to do so. She helps me alot.

When I was a kid I lived at 34 First Ave in Ottawa, the kids on my block were mean to me
because some of the parents did not want their kids to play with me as I had epilepsy.
The parents told their children they did not want them to catch the disease the I had
was epilepsy because the parents believed that epilepsy was contagious and it was said
that epilepsy made a person mentally retarded or retardation occured in people with
epilepsy.

I had hardly any playmates except one boy who close in age to me. His name was Brian and he was nice to me and we had fun playing together until his sisters found out that I had
epilespy and then we went home and told their parents that Brian was playing with me (Steven)
who had epilepsy. Brian's parents told him not to play with me again. I met another boy
named when I was 12 years old and he was a bit younger than me and his name was Eric.
Eric and I had fun hanging around together and I met another boy called Chris.

Eric and Chris's parents all found out that I had epilepsy and their parents ended our
friendship. I had no real friends at all. I tried to make friends but they rejected because of the
epilepsy. As a child I felt rejected, humilitated, and sad.

Having no one to play with as a child hurt me emotionally. I wanted friends like everyone else.
No one should ever have to go through what I did. There is still a big stigma about
epilepsy. My wife Sue accepted my medical condition and never rejected for it.
She loves me as I am.

Steven's Insight

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