Living with epilepsy is not easy. There are limitations placed on your conscious of what environment you can be around, to the medicine you have to take every day. Seizures are terrifying to both the affected individual and their peers and it is very damaging to the brain. However, despite this heavy fear, these 7 things about us make us strong.

1. You know what it’s like to be scared of your own body.

Epileptics know the intensity behind the workings of their own bodies. We experience extremely heightened and frightening emotions often before a seizure. Like a panic attack, the onset of a seizure is one of the worst fears any person with epilepsy has. Usually, during these “auras”, we stop acting normally and we can’t help it. It’s not controllable, and it can come when you’re least expecting it.

2. It’s often unexpected.

Seizures aren’t always triggered by a constant variable. Seizures can depend on the amount of sleep and their external environments. It’s a short notice kind of condition. Most people, however, MIGHT be lucky to say that they have “auras” before the actual onset of the main seizure. However, though it is a warning, an aura is extremely unpleasant. It creates panic and anxiety, it mixes up your senses, you can’t think straight, your body starts to not respond… it’s very scary, but it buys us some time to get to a safer location.

3. We’re not all photosensitive epileptics.

Yes, flashing lights bother us, but it’s a common misconception that all epileptics have photosensitive epilepsy.

4. As much as we hate the brain, we love it.

The brain is mystifying and complex. We know from first-hand experience how amazing it is. The science and hospital visits we’ve had taught us a lot about how the brain works.

5. Medication gets annoying.

While medication differs from person to person, it is annoying to have to remember to take it as prescribed. It would be very nice to not have the panic experienced when we either forget to take our daily dose or when we realize we ran out or don’t have it with us. It’s a burden, and often medication causes side effects such as rage, depression, or even anxiety. However, at least those that take medication have a helpful method to manage their seizures.

6. We get annoyed by people that make fun of convulsions.

It’s very inconsiderate when people make jokes about people getting seizures over something ridiculous. It’s a pet peeve of mine when I see my peers unknowingly make fun of convulsions and body jerking. It’s a frustrating thing when people aren’t sensitive to medical conditions.

7. We don’t like to see seizures in movies or shows.

Recently, I watched Logan at the movie theater and realized how uncomfortable I get when I see seizures happen on screen. It’s especially frightening to see the more accurate portrayals of how intense a seizure is. We, as an audience, relate to it in a different way and often with great sympathy even if it’s fictional.

I hope this helps you relate or understand an epileptic better. We wish people could understand the difficulty of our maybe easy seeming life. It’s a heavy weight on our shoulders, so I believe that truths behind this condition should be made more aware.