I remember back when we first brought our baby home and she started moving her head rapidly from side to side. I was terrified that she might have epilepsy and called the children’s hospital hotline immediately. They scheduled some testing for her—which terrified me even further—only to produce negative results. Thankfully, it turned out to be yet another sensory symptom of my daughter’s prematurity.

For patients who truly have epilepsy, the disease presents the terrifying possibility of seizures at any given time. Though most seizures only last for a single minute or two, many patients can be confused for much longer after the seizure. Patients can have their communication, awareness, and even their movement changed by the condition. I have a friend with epilepsy whose speech pattern is also severely affected by her condition. Different patients have different epilepsy syndromes, depending on the type of seizures they have and when in their lifetime the seizures began to develop.

November is Epilepsy Awareness Month. To raise awareness about epilepsy, as well as to help victims themselves, here are a few things you can do.

• Learn the facts. Remember how, when in school, a classmate would have seizures and the rest of the class would either make fun or simply not understand? It’s important to dispel any myths (the child is just like the rest of the students; it’s not contagious; etc.) and to educate. If you can, try giving a talk at school, or even donating a few epilepsy resources to the school library.
• Give to the Epilepsy Foundation. You can do so here. The website also explains how every donation is used.
• Volunteer for the local Epilepsy Foundation in your area. Many could use help with education and patient programs, as well as general office help, such as mailing donation forms.
• Hose a “Talk About It At Dinner” event in your home. Throughout November many chapters of the Epilepsy Foundation will be holding these outreach events to help explain how epilepsy has affected a community member’s life and how to help. You could have literature from the website available, as well as a donation box to collect funds to submit after the event. Get creative—make a poster with statistics, show photos from the website, etc.
• Offer to help a person with epilepsy. Many people with epilepsy depend on others, especially for transportation. See if you can be a volunteer driver for someone you know, or offer to do so through your local chapter.