Tag: health

Mental Health Check

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Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the Action. You don’t have to be confident. Just do it and the confidence will follow. Carrie Fisher

I always admired Carrie Fisher’s feisty, unapologetic spirit! She empowered and inspired little girls, in the 80’s like me with her role as Princess Leia. She was superbly funny in real life and a strong advocate for mental health! ❤️

It took a long time for me to call my anxiety/panic disorder a mental health issue because of the stigmas associated with using the label “mental health”. Over the years it was implied through movies and other outlets that someone (usually women) with mental health issues were crazy, incapable, irrational, prone to mental break downs/outbursts and likely to end up in some form of institutional care. These broad stroke perceptions of mental health have denied women proper treatment, caused many to suffer in silence and some to take their own lives.

In the words of Jessie J “it’s okay not to be okay” and it’s okay to ask for help! Having a mental health issue doesn’t mean you lack intelligence or that you’re weak and it definitely doesn’t mean you’re incapable of achieving personal goals or successes! I can’t tell you how many times people have assumed I can’t do something because of my “anxiety”, I have even been told I’m lucky my husband is a good guy and has stuck around for so long, as if I possessed no other qualities or worth. Those words definitely hurt, but more so showed me there is still a huge lack of understanding and support when it come to mental health.

If you have a mental health issue please make time talk with someone you trust and get the help you need. Know your worth! Surround yourself with people who don’t see your mental health as a hindrance of your abilities, because you need people you can be candid with, who will lift you and support you without judgement. It’s not easy and I’m not naive to the struggle!

So, I’ll leave you with something I journaled that is deeply personal, unfinished, evolving, but if it helps one person know they’re not alone it’s worth it…

I am not perfect…

I struggle with anxiety and depression and feeling like I’m failing. I struggle with not being able to fix things that are out of my control. I struggle to find purpose.

I struggle!

Some days those struggles leave me with nothing to give. I’m overwhelmed! I’m exhausted! I’m bruised and broken!

I struggle!

I struggle with fear and feeling not good enough, but I know those feelings are temporary and will pass.

I struggle, but…

there are also days I feel like super woman! I get things done! I crush it! I give one hundred and ten percent of myself to my family and others! I am faithful, loyal, trustworthy, loving, empathetic, creative and worthy!

I am enough!

Epilepsy The Thief

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seizure

Epilepsy is a thief! It steals my daughter for minutes that seem like hours and renders me helpless.  It brings fear!  Fear of losing her, fear she’ll be bullied, fear of letting go, fear she’ll be treated as less, but…

epilepsy has taught me we are fighters, we are stronger than we thought and we will NEVER give up or lose hope!  We are determined to keep educating and searching until a cure is found and epilepsy is locked away for good.

Epilepsy is heartbreak, but it is also happiness in the people we’ve met who we might never have known without it!  Epilepsy is seizures, fears, tests, surgeries, medications, statistics, stigmas, tears, but it will not… it can not break me!

Let’s Talk About It…

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It’s November! You know what that means… It’s time to talk about it!

Talk about what? 

Talk about Epilepsy of course!

Our daughter Meghan has Epilepsy so it’s important to us to spread the word about Epilepsy! 

We want to educate YOU! 

Did you know there are 65 million people worldwide that suffer from epilepsy or a seizure disorder of some kind?

Over 3 million of those people live in the United States and 300,000 of them are children under the age of 15!

Those are pretty astonishing numbers! 

Let me put it another way:

The number of people living with epilepsy or a seizure disorder is GREATER than the number of people living with Multiple Sclerosis, cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, and Parkinson’s Disease combined!

You know what else is crazy…

One third of those 3 million people  live with uncontrolled seizures, because right now there isn’t a treatment available to them that works and for 6 out of 1o of those people the cause of their seizures is unknown.

So what do I want you to know about epilepsy?

I want you to know:

  • Epilepsy is a medical condition that is not contagious, but talking about it should be!
  • A person having seizures is not possessed by the devil!  A seizure is an electrical misfiring in the brain and can cause many symptoms, from convulsions and loss of consciousness to some that are not always recognized as seizures by the person experiencing them or by health care professionals: blank staring, lip smacking, or jerking movements of arms and legs. ~Epilepsy Foundation~
  • NEVER put something in a person’s mouth when they are having a seizure! Contrary to popular belief a person can’t swallow their tongue.  You are more likely to get hurt or hurt the person having the seizure, by trying to force their mouth open.

*Video courtesy of The Talk About It Foundation

  • Treat a person who has seizures no differently than how you’d treat any other friend or family member!
  • If you ever have a seizure find yourself an epileptologist you feel comfortable with and talk about your options.  You may only need a small amount of medicine to control your seizures! However there are other treatments available like VNS and even surgery.

Most important TALK ABOUT IT!  Don’t be afraid to ask questions or go online, there are lots of really great places to get information:

So are you gonna help me get the word out?

Cool!

Here are some tweetable facts courtesy of Ken Lowenberg of The Talk About It Foundation.  Use the hashtags #EpilepsyAwareness

#Epilepsy  #TalkAboutIt

If someone is having a seizure, NEVER put anything in their mouth! #Epilepsyawareness

If someone is having a seizure, NEVER hold them down or restrain them in any way! #epilepsyawareness

#Epilepsy is NOT Contagious but talking about it should be. #epilepsyawareness

#Epilepsy is NOT a mental illness. #epilepsyawareness

65 MILLION people around the world live with #epilepsy.#epilepsyawareness

NEARLY 3 MILLION people in the United States have #epilepsy. #epilepsyawareness

BETWEEN 4 AND 10 OUT OF 1,000 people on earth live with active seizures at any one time.#epilepsyawareness

There are 200,000 new cases of #epilepsy in the United States. #epilepsyawareness

ONE-THIRD of people with #epilepsy live with uncontrollable seizures because no available treatment works for them. #epilepsyawareness

For 6 OUT OF 10 people living with #epilepsy, the cause of their seizures is unknown. #epilepsyawareness

50,000 people die from epilepsy-related causes in the United States every year. #epilepsyawareness

90 PERCENT of people with #epilepsy live in developing nations. #epilepsyawareness

9 OUT OF 10 people with #epilepsy living in Africa do not receive proper treatment. #epilepsyawareness

Be Safe And Seizure Smart On Halloween!

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We love Halloween!

Dressing up, going door to door, seeing all the different costumes people come up with and walking up to the spooky decorated houses is so much fun!

However, we also have rules to keep us safe and seizure smart while we’re Trick or Treating!

Here are a few things to remember to keep your kids safe and seizure safe:

  • Make sure you don’t skip your seizure medication.
  • Have a cell phone and emergency meds on hand if you are walking long distances.
  • Trick or treat with a friend of family member familiar with your seizures.
  • If you are photosensitive avoid houses with strobe lights.
  •  It’s a good rule of thumb to check all your candy before eating it, but definitely don’t eat it if you’re on a restrictive (Ketogenic or modified Atkins) diet.

A great suggestion I got from my sister-in-law Denise over at RunDMT for kids who are unable to eat their candy due to dietary restrictions:

  • Check out the Halloween Candy Buy Back Program!  Some dentists will buy back your kids candy and then ship it overseas to the troops!  So not only will your kid be making money… they’ll be helping out our military overseas! It’s a win win!
  • Wear reflectors or glow necklaces so cars can see you.
  • Always walk on the sidewalks when possible.
  • Always look both ways before crossing the street.
  • NEVER enter a home for candy!

It’s important to be safe and seizure smart, but it’s also important to make sure you have FUN!

Here are a few fun facts about Halloween I found over at the Epilepsy Therapy Project:

  • The celebration of Halloween started in the United States as an autumn harvest festival. In pioneer days, some Americans celebrated Halloween with com-popping parties, taffy pulls and hayrides.
  • In the late nineteenth century, with the large influx of Irish immigrants into the U.S., Halloween became associated with ghosts, goblins and witches.
  • Jack-o-lanterns are an Irish tradition. In Ireland, oversized rutabagas, turnips and potatoes were hollowed-out, carved into faces and illuminated with candles to be used as lanterns during Halloween celebrations.
  • The pumpkin originated in Mexico about 9,000 years ago. It is one of America’s oldest known vegetables. Pumpkins generally weigh from 15 to 30 pounds, although some weigh as much as 200 pounds. The majority of pumpkins are orange, but they also can be white or yellow. They are rich in vitamin A, beta-carotene and potassium, and their seeds provide protein and iron.

Facts taken from Candy USA: http://www.candyusa.org/Classroom/Facts/default.asp?Fact=Halloween