Epilepsy affects over 65 million people worldwide. Yet so many misconceptions and fears still exist. As the father of an epileptic, I see and hear about it every time Cynthia has a seizure at school As a sufferer from a seizure disorder myself, I know well the confusion I see on others as I come out of a seizure. One of my best friends is also an epileptic, and she has to fight fear of a public seizure most days.
Today is Purple Day — the Day of Global Epilepsy Awareness. Enough is enough. It time to raise awareness of this condition. Did you know:
- 1 in 10 people will have at least one seizure in their life
- Over 2 million Americans live with epilepsy
- Having epilepsy does not mean someone is crazy
- Epileptics don’t have broke brains
- Epileptics are not demon possessed
- Epilepsy is not contagious
I don’t get mad that often about things, but uninformed fears about epilepsy and bigotry toward epileptics make me angry.
Won’t you join the fight against ignorance? The least it takes is wearing purple today. Maybe you can even become a Purple Ambassador in your community.
Thank you for writing this Chris! purple is a good color to wear today 🙂
You are welcome. You and I both deal regularly with the pain of misconceptions. I mean, we even talked about when to let a Bible study know that seizures were part of our lives. At least for me, I was afraid I would be ostracized from the group, based on past experiences with our people (not this group) Just not right.
Chris, the way you face fear. The way you go get life — it inspires me. Thank you for writing this. I am one of the ignorant. I don’t know much about epilepsy and have this fear of not knowing what to do if someone around me had a seizure. But you’re helping me learn. Thank you.