Epilepsy is a common health concern. The condition is even more common than we think. The condition is quite common yet poorly understood. While many things can increase your risk of suffering from epilepsy, the onset of epilepsy is still unavoidable in many cases.
What Does It Look Like to Suffer from Epilepsy?
Well, many common signs and symptoms tell us that you are suffering from epilepsy. People who suffer from epilepsy may suffer from strange sensations, experience sudden jerks or fits and collapse anywhere.
I have seen one of my close family friends suffering from the trouble as her son was an epilepsy sufferer. Every single time she used to get a call from the school, she used to rush leaving everywhere midway. Until she took her son to the best neurosurgeon in Karachi who treated the child for epilepsy. No matter what’s the case, epilepsy is a poorly understood condition. There are many common epilepsy myths that people don’t know about.
Common Epilepsy Myths
Want to know more about the common epilepsy myths? Here are some of them to make you aware of the disease.
1- Epilepsy can be transmitted from person to person
Well, many people believe that epilepsy is a disease that can spread from human contact. However, epilepsy is not a contagious or infectious disease that you can get from touching or staying in the vicinity of an affected person. This is a neurological condition that involves many causative factors so this is no more than a myth.
2- Having a seizure means that you are suffering from epilepsy
Next in the list of common epilepsy myths comes that having seizures mean that you are suffering from epilepsy. However, there is no truth in this. Having a seizure doesn’t necessarily mean that you are suffering from epilepsy.
There could be many other causes behind a seizure so one shouldn’t always assume a seizure to be epilepsy. However, if seizures are recurrent then you should visit your physician who can take other factors into account and figure out if it’s epilepsy or not.
3- During seizures, you can swallow your tongue
If you have also believed this, you are probably mistaken. Though it is believed that people who suffer from seizures can swallow their tongue. However, this is not possible for a person to swallow his tongue during a seizure.
4- Having epilepsy means that you are not smart enough
Keeping in mind that epilepsy is a neurological condition, many people believe that epilepsy can take a toll on your ability to think smartly. However, this is not true. Suffering from epilepsy doesn’t mean that you are not able to think and behave like normal people. Epilepsy has nothing to do with your intelligence and at times other than seizures you can think and behave normally.
5- You can predict the beginning of the seizure
Another common epilepsy myth says that you can predict the onset of a seizure. However, that’s not true. Some people might know when a seizure is about to happen and this is known as the ‘aura’. However, in other cases, it is not really possible to predict the onset of a seizure.
6- Seizures are painful
Another common epilepsy myth says that seizures are generally painful. However, that’s not true. Seizures are episodes where a person gets unconscious. It is not possible for a person to feel pain while having a seizure. So this is merely a myth.
7- Women who have epilepsy shouldn’t give birth to the children
When it comes to dealing with epilepsy it is normally believed that women who are suffering from epilepsy shouldn’t give birth to children. However, that’s not true.
Epilepsy has nothing with a woman’s ability to give birth to a child or affects her fertility. However, extra pregnancy might be required in the case of the females who are already on some kind of drug treatment for epilepsy because certain drugs can increase the chances of birth defects among women.
8- Only children suffer from epilepsy
Just because epilepsy cases are more common among children this made people believe that only children can suffer from epilepsy. However, adults are no exception to this. Adults just like children can also suffer from epilepsy but the cases are not as common.
Bottom Line!
Epilepsy is a condition that is even more common than you think. However, the condition is not well-understood. If you are suffering from epilepsy, then the first to live a manageable life with epilepsy is to understand it really well. Other than this, visiting your physician can help you to understand and manage your condition accordingly.
