Epilepsy is a disorder related to the central nervous system. In this disorder, a person gets seizures, experiences unusual sensations and behaviour and then completely loses awareness. In this disorder, the brain activity reaches a point of abnormality.
Contrary to the old wives’ tale, having this disease certainly does not mean that a devil has the possession of your body and you are completely controlled by him. People regard epilepsy as something that has happened to their children or relatives due to bad karma and they take them to priests who ‘ward off’ these evil spirits in exchange of some money. Infact Epilepsy originates from the Greek word ‘epilambanem’ which means possession and the Greeks too believed that seizures were caused due to demonic and supernatural interference.
It is truly appalling how we are all living in the 21st century, where science has made so much progression, people are using state of the art technology and almost everyone has a smart phone in their hands, yet people are so naive and blind.
It is important to understand that epilepsy can affect anyone. It is not a fruit of your bad karma but is a problem with your nervous system. It can affect both the genders and it doesn’t not affect any race in particular. Whether you’re black, white or brown, 12 years old or 30, gay or bisexual. This disease can affect anyone and there are no exceptions. Epilepsy surgery cost in india is pretty cheap for anyone wants to get their seizures under control.
Read further to know the mistaken notions people tend to hold about epilepsy and what the truth is.
- When someone is having a seizure, you must force something into their mouth: This is not a good way to protect someone from an ongoing seizure but is certainly a good way to hurt their mouth or break their jaw. Rather than indulging in this, you should roll over a person gently to the side and place a pillow underneath their head to prevent any type of injury.
- Restraining is the key to stop the seizure: Whether you restrain the person or not, the seizure will still last for as long as it has to and no amount of restraining can stop it.
- It is possible to swallow your tongue during a seizure: This is a complete myth. It is physically impossible to swallow your tongue.
- Epilepsy can be contagious: Epilepsy is as contagious as obesity. If you think it’s logical that a thin person can become obese by just touching an overweight person, then you can stick with your theory about epilepsy being contagious.
- People with epilepsy are more or less disabled and cannot go to work: Most people with epilepsy are doing better in life than people who choose to sit and make these notions about the ones diagnosed with epilepsy. People who have epilepsy have the same amount of intelligence and range of abilities as normal people. However in very rare cases, the seizures become too bad and frequent and this causes the person to not go out and work. However they can still work from home and be productive.
