In October 1988, Stefan Rudolph was like any other teenage football player in San Diego. He played for his high school team on Friday nights and played tackle football on the playgrounds with his friends every Sunday. However, on this day, Stefan took a knee to the head mid-tackle. He’s lived with epilepsy ever since.  

“A friend took me to the hospital in his car, but I didn’t wake up for three days. He told me that I had a seizure for the full ten-minute drive to the emergency room, and I learned I almost had to have brain surgery due to the swelling, concussion, and major seizures,” he said.  

Despite this, Stefan didn’t yet have his epilepsy diagnosis. So, like many other young people, he experimented with alcohol and marijuana – but two specific factors ultimately altered his future forever.  

“I kept having petit mals but I didn’t know what they were; I just felt dizzy, anxious, and nauseous. But my alcoholism also started when I was 16 and, by the time I was 21, I was drinking every night,” he said. “I went to my college’s library one day, after drinking, and had a grand mal seizure. I woke up with the paramedics around me, and they were the ones to tell me that I had epilepsy.”

This combination of epilepsy and substance abuse continued to impact Stefan’s life. While he managed to avoid any more grand mals for some time, he continued to have petit mal seizures two or three times each week throughout his early twenties. Despite getting married and trying to have kids, Stefan’s drinking and seizures continued.  

“In 2002, I got my first DUI, I lost my job six months later, and my marriage went to crap. In two years, I was divorced. We split the house, I got a bunch of money, and my gambling started,” he said. “I then had two epileptic car accidents in 2004, in large part due to the stress of all of that.”  

Over the next few years, Stefan continued to struggle. After having another seizure while driving, he drove on a suspended license for six months because he had to work to support himself. He stopped drinking off and on, but the seizures never went away, and were ultimately exacerbated by his hangovers.

At the age of 34, Stefan moved in with his parents. He sold off all of his belongings to pay his gambling debts, went to rehab, and stopped drinking. Still, his seizures continued, leading him to a medical crossroads.  

“I’m getting ready for brain surgery and the doctor says, ‘If you ever drink again, you cannot have brain surgery. You’ll be disqualified.’ So I was sober for a year because I wanted to have the surgery,” he said. “In 2007, I had a left temporal lobe awake craniotomy.”  

Despite this surgery, like everyone who deals with substance abuse, Stefan continued to experience relapses. In 2008, he narrowly avoided prison time due to multiple DUIs; he also dealt with exercise-induced seizures when he tried to regain his strength in the gym, and ultimately spent six weeks in jail. While not ideal, this time led Stefan to get sober.  

“When I sobered up in jail, I told God thank you. I focused on meditation, on an attitude of gratitude. And the more I was thankful, the more that came into my life,” he said. “It was an eye opener, how stupid it all was: the fights, the alcohol, the drugs, the jail, the divorce. I didn’t want that insanity anymore.”  

Stefan’s last grand mal seizure happened in 2011, when he was still drinking. But once the alcohol went away, so did his seizures and auras.  

“Over about four years, I made significant lifestyle changes. I cut out caffeine and fast food because they made me feel the anxiety that used to come right before a seizure,” he said. “By 2017, I had a full-time job. I was an entrepreneur, a life coach, a motivational speaker, and working on my first book, Thank You to the 1,000th Power.”

By 2019, Stefan was off of all of his medication and was no longer experiencing seizures. In the years since, he’s published his book, recorded its audiobook, participated in numerous motivational speaking events, and is now working to start a nonprofit organization.  

Today, Stefan is 53 years old and is focused on supporting people who are actively having seizures, dealing with alcohol abuse, and learning to manage an epilepsy diagnosis.  

“I never tell people to get off of medication. I do tell people to pay closer attention to their lifestyles. That includes what you ate, what you drank, how you slept, and what stress is in your life,” he said. “I focus on supporting people holistically. I’m not here to do anything for you, but I am here to help you help yourself. Our choices can’t cure anything, but they can improve a lot. We just have to be our own caregiver first.”