What happens when a young girl suddenly has to deal with Epilepsy and Cerebral Palsy? Well, I am that girl. At a young age, I always felt different growing up. I always wanted to achieve everything at a fast pace. Lessons had to be great in school for me so that I felt better. I thought being positive would help me a lot. Things did change a lot though as I got older.
‘Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. The best is yet to come.'Zig Ziglar
School and College
In school, I constantly felt like the pupil who had to have extra help. I always remember meeting new learning support teachers and just thinking ‘I don’t need help. I can do things on my own.’ I really wanted to just be independent. Having support at a young age really bothered me as I didn’t really understand how much Epilepsy would affect me. Attending doctor and hospital appointments felt normal for me as they became more regular. As I became older, the positivity did decrease. This new personality took over. It frightened me. Because other people didn’t really understand what I was going through, my behavior became the opposite. So, I knew that I had to change for my peace of mind. I took steps to change my mindset. I started to use positive affirmations. I let myself smile more. Accepting things that I couldn’t change really helped me as well. Writing things down for me is a massive help. This method helped me a lot because looking back at lists and notes would keep me on track with tasks. I would start to write things down one day at a time just to remind myself of things. I would write every day really as it helped me in college a lot. Checking that I had completed daily things would make me feel calmer. My tips to improve your mindset would be:
- Tell yourself that you're doing a good job at handling your epilepsy and tell yourself that it’s ok to have a bad day.
- Take time out to do something that you enjoy. It could be singing, watching a movie, playing a sport or just doing something else.
- Talk to close friends or family members if you are not really feeling yourself. I decided to do that when my mental health took a bit of a turn and it really helped.
'You will embrace everything about yourself eventually.
Staying Positive
Staying positive is now really important to me as I like to inspire others. Helping others be positive is good too as young people who are in the same position as me. I also thought about what I was blessed with. I’m very lucky to have close friends and amazing family members. Just even reaching a milestone in my epilepsy journey made me smile. Even just having my medication makes me feel better as I used to become anxious mainly at night time before I fell asleep. I try to look for the good in having epilepsy. The more I stay calm, focused and optimistic, the happier I feel about accepting epilepsy. I look at epilepsy as a quirk more than an insecurity now as I am learning to embrace it. Learning to embrace something is very hard as you think that something as big as Epilepsy could possibly be temporary. Embracing something can really change your life. You become more open and happier. People will understand. It just takes time.
