Parents And Other People’s Reactions

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The reactions of others to your seizures can have more impact than the seizures themselves.

How others might react can also influence whether you choose to talk to friends and family about your epilepsy.

Parents struggle seeing their kids having seizures or being unwell because they want to prevent anything bad from happening to their child; it’s natural as a parent to feel this way. Some parents feel upset or guilty or think they’ve failed you; others may get angry about how unfair it seems. Some parents may also feel helpless as they cannot predict or prevent a seizure from happening.

This may lead to some parents being very protective, sometimes unintentionally overprotective and restrictive. It’s all very individual, and each child-parent relationship is unique. Other parents may be more encouraging in letting their children have increasing independence as they mature.

Many families will seek out support groups to help them understand and deal with the reality.

It’s a matter of finding a balance, and talking to your parents if you feel they are being too overprotective, or not being supportive enough.

Click on the play buttons to hear people with epilepsy talk about other’s reactions.

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“General ignorance about epilepsy sometimes explains why people don’t know how to behave or react – it’s mostly not because they are deliberately mean. Ignorance can cause fear and if people knew more about epilepsy, they would probably deal with it better.”

 

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“Generally, people are surprised when I say “Oh yes, I have epilepsy” “Oh really?” That sort of thing. …If you’re happy enough to tell somebody about it and you show confidence about your own epilepsy take control of it, it’s mine and any opinion you have about it isn’t any consequence to me. Then people will pick up on that.”

 

To hear Sarah’s ‘Hey World’ message click on the video.

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