The Proper & Unusual Way to Tell Your Friends About Your Epilepsy
Climbing the epilepsy mountain is a 24/7, 365-day battle that not many go through. However, you will never go through this battle alone. From family to friends, you will always have someone by your side to guide you through your fight against epilepsy. While your family understands your situation from the beginning, friends may not. It’s not easy telling friends about your epilepsy, but if you do it the right way, they will be by your side your entire life. Telling your epilepsy story will open so many doors in your life!
The Proper Way
Through past experiences I’ve learned that explaining exactly what type of epilepsy you have is the proper way of opening up to your friends. When you’re ready to tell your friends, I recommend having your best friend with you for comfort and support. I’ve found out that if you have your best friend with you, it makes this process much easier.
Explaining the type of seizures you have and what may happen tends to spark questions from your friends. My friends wanted to learn as much as possible about my seizures after I told them. This way they knew what to do if something happened to me. Some friends may be scared at first and won’t know how to react. They should overcome this over time. Every friend is different and will react different when you open up. However, after you do, it will open up so many doors for you moving forward.
The Not So Proper Way
If you’re like me, you may like to do things a bit differently. During college, I spent plenty of time telling my friends about my epilepsy the proper way. However, there were a few times when I did things very unusual to bring up my epilepsy.
The most memorable story about bringing up my epilepsy was in my dorm room. I went to knock on Scott’s door, and I had a seizure. During my seizure I began walking back to my room leaving my friend confused. When I looked at my phone a few minutes later I saw a text from him that said, “What happened?” I responded back by saying “I had a seizure knocking on your door, I may be fine.” He freaked out and came running to my room. It was a great gesture by my friend! I absolutely appreciate him taking a joke like that too. I don’t recommend bringing up your epilepsy this way, but it’s always nice to make a joke here and there!
Bringing up your epilepsy to friends may seem like a daunting task. However, if you explain it well, your friends will understand. They will be there for you through the good and rough times moving forward. Now, go out and tell your friends about your amazing epilepsy story!
