EPILEPSY OVERVIEW

(Download Epilepsy overview as a PDF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.       Do you know how you would respond if a person in your group suddenly had a seizure?

2.       Have you ever witnessed a person having a seizure?

3.       If so, how did you respond?  How did others respond?

4.       Upon witnessing that person’s seizure, did that affect the way that you perceived and interacted with that person?

5.       How would you feel if you were that person who had epilepsy, and how would you want to be treated?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.e2respect.org, Epilepsy Foundation

 

 

 

 

 

Epilepsy.com

 

Epilepsy Foundation

 

Epilepsy Youth Project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie Thurston cCYS 

Gosselin, Kim. (2002) Taking Seizure Disorders to School: A Story About Epilepsy. Jayjo Books, 32pp. Geared for grades 4-8.

cCYS

Freeman, John, et al. (2002) Seizures and Epilepsy in Childhood: A Guide. Johns Hopkins University Press, 360pp.

Blackburn, Lynn Bennett. (2003) Growing up with Epilepsy: A Practical Guide for Parents. Demos Medical Publishing, 161pp.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

An online forum for youth from around the world to discuss their lives with epilepsy. Also holds annual gatherings.

The Epilepsy Foundation will ensure that people with seizures are able to participate in all life experiences; and will prevent, control and cure epilepsy through research, education, advocacy and services.

A comprehensive website providing information and empowerment to those with epilepsy.

ORGANIZATIONS

EPILEPSY RESOURCES

For seizures that involve convulsions: don’t put anything in the person’s mouth or try to hold the them down; stay calm; move things out of the way; put something soft under the head; loosen anything tight around the neck; turn them gently to one side.  For seizures that involve blank staring, unusual blinking or chewing, or loss of awareness: stay calm and speak softly; gently guide the person away from danger or from anything hazardous; stand near them until they are fully aware of their surroundings.

Teens as well as youth workers who do not have epilepsy should be educated regarding this brain disorder.  Few too many people are unaware of what epilepsy actually is, and many have never even witnessed an individual having a seizure.  Teens with epilepsy want to be treated like any other teenager.  In order for this to occur, however, others need to know how to interact and treat those with epilepsy.  Subsequently, some of the basic precautions for treating an individual who is having a seizure are listed below.

IMPLICATIONS

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Fortunately, epilepsy can often be successfully treated with prescription medication or surgery.  Although the medication is not a cure, it can greatly reduce the number of seizures a person has as well as how often they have them.  Working together with a neurological doctor, a teen with epilepsy often can develop a treatment plan to help keep their seizures under control.

Although teens with epilepsy may have limitations similar to any other individual, many teens with epilepsy have proven that they can do just about anything that someone without seizures can do.  Furthermore, teens with epilepsy don’t want to be defined by their seizures.  They want to be treated like normal teenagers.

Epilepsy is a brain disorder that signals a malfunction in the way the brain’s electrical system works.  It is not, as some presume, a mental illness.  Seizures are symptoms of epilepsy, and they occur when there is a sudden burst of electrical energy in the brain.  Teens can experience many different kinds of seizures.  Some are hardly recognizable while others are more obvious and may include convulsions, staring spells, or brief periods of unconsciousness.  Some teens may experience frequent seizures while others may rarely ever have seizures.

Ancients saw epilepsy as a divine madness and the Greeks as a “sacred disease.” The Indian Charaka Samhita and the Greek Hippocrates broke with their traditions and believed epilepsy to be a brain disease. This was not validated and generally accepted until the 18^th and 19^th centuries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), epilepsy is a neurological disorder affecting people in every country of the world, and there are many areas in which epilepsy is still seen as the presence of evil spirits. Furthermore, WHO estimates there are 50 million people in the world with epilepsy at any given time. More than two million Americans have epilepsy, including nearly 400,000 people under the age of 18.  In addition to the everyday concerns that a teen encounters, epilepsy can be a difficult reality to accept and deal with.

Epilepsy, according to the Encarta World English Dictionary, “is a medical disorder involving episodes of abnormal electrical discharge in the brain and characterized by periodic sudden loss of impairment of consciousness often accompanied by convulsions.”

Overviews on teenage illnesses are written, not from a medical perspective, but by  someone who has had some experience with the illness and wants other youth leaders to know how to deal with it.