What’s your epilepsy story?

That’s what everyone’s asking this November during National Epilepsy Awareness Month.  If you’ve been diagnosed, or know someone living with epilepsy, put on your brightest purple clothes and start raising awareness for this neurological condition.

What are three things you need to know about epilepsy? 1

  • It’s a condition that affects the nervous system and causes seizures
  • A seizure is a disruption of the electrical signals between brain cells (neurons)
  • People are diagnosed with epilepsy after they experience two or more unexplained seizures separated by at least 24 hours

Epilepsy affects about 50 million people around the world, including over 2 million in the United States alone.2 3 Although there is no cure for epilepsy, seizures can be managed and suppressed through medications, non-medication treatments such as vagus nerve stimulation, or surgery.4 5 6

To help raise awareness this month, the Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) has organized a series of short online videos that feature people from all over the U.S. sharing their experiences with epilepsy. Watch one of them below and check out the rest on the EFA’s “Story Days” campaign page.

 

Los Angeles

Don’t forget to check out Letitia’s video, too – she’s a PatientsLikeMe member who has been living seizure-free after she learned about an epileptologist through her community. And if you’ve been diagnosed, reach out to the more than 9,000 PatientsLikeMe members living with epilepsy.

Share this post on Twitter and help spread the word for psoriasis.


1 http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/about-epilepsy-basics

2 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs999/en/

3 http://www.cdc.gov/epilepsy/basics/fast_facts.htm

4 http://www.uptodate.com/contents/overview-of-the-management-of-epilepsy-in-adults?source=search_result&search=epilepsy&selectedTitle=3~150

5 http://www.uptodate.com/contents/evaluation-and-management-of-drug-resistant-epilepsy?source=see_link

6 http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1184846-treatment#aw2aab6b6b2

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