I got on Facebook earlier this evening, started scrolling through my feed, and saw a bunch of stuff about epilepsy. I decided to check out some of those pages—given that this is NEAM, some have put out a high volume of images providing information (and thus creating awareness) about epilepsy. Take this one, for example:
Those are some severe-looking symptoms… and how many do I suffer from?
ZERO.
So this isn’t suffering from imposter syndrome or feeling like a fraud. I’m not claiming to be an amputee after losing a pinkie toe to frostbite. I’m not a 15-year-old kid trying to buy dirty magazines at the local gas station. I’m not a dude holding a leadership position with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
I’m legit, I have epilepsy. (I didn’t get Sparky installed in my head just for kicks and giggles.) But the symptoms I deal with are so minor that it feels like some of the things I’ve written may be minimizing the impact that epilepsy can have on some people’s lives. “Do this, it’s a piece of cake!”
I take medications three times a day and I set an alarm around 3:00 to remind me to take the midday dose. Some days, I turn off the alarm and forget to take my meds until bedtime and I don’t want to double up the dosage at that point. The consequences? Sometimes there aren’t any. Meanwhile, there are others who set multiple alarms and if they don’t take their pills at the same time every day, the inside of their head turns into a giant electrical storm.
So I want to acknowledge that I’ve been extremely fortunate during my epilepsy journey. As such, the level of awareness about epilepsy that I can provide may not be the highest or more thorough, but in my defense, it’s not like I’m trying to become a card-carrying member of MADD.