COME OUT

I had a seizure around some people who don’t know me very well.  Naturally, they were incredibly uncomfortable around me for the next several days; trying to say things that were supportive or interesting or whatever.

A young woman walked up to me.  She was obviously nervous.  “So,” she said, “how was your seizure?”  The minute the words sunk into her head, and before I had a chance to say anything, she turned and walked away.

People have no idea how to deal with us.  Do you know whose fault that is?  Ours.  It has been easier for us to live in secret for as long as possible rather than let people know about us.  As a result, people do not understand who and what we are.  Those people who say stupid things to us usually mean well.  But most of their knowledge about seizures comes from television. And TV does not portray us well.

It’s time for us to stop being so quiet.  It’s time to tell people we are epileptic.  It’s time to show people that we are absolutely normal.  Well, kind of  normal.  It’s true: we fall down once in a while.  But once they get used to the fact that there are so many of us out there and what we live with is nothing to freak out about, then they will stop dealing with us like we are lepers.  They will most certainly be surprised to learn how many of us they know.

More and more people are living with some life-long disease. More people than not, actually.  In 2005, half of all Americans had at least one chronic disease (http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/index.htm).  Everybody is dealing with something.  We are, in fact, more “normal” than we have allowed ourselves to believe we are and we need to start talking about it.  As long as WE continue to view ourselves as “abnormal” how can we ask the world to stop treating us differently?

Go forth.  Come out to your friends.  Talk about epilepsy to strangers at parties (I mean, some of these people have some pretty crazy notions.)  And bite your lip when they say stupid things.  Educate them and kill them with kindness.