Why I Don't Think Epilepsy Should be Classified as a Disease

Think for a minute about the word disease. What do you think of?

I think of viruses, and infections off the bat. A little bit more thought, and I think "Oh yeah, I have Crohn's Disease. Alzheimer's Disease isn't communicable either." The point is, most people think of disease as something you can catch, and don't always draw that conclusion. I have spent the past six years of my life saying "Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that I was born with, you can't catch it. Promise." I feel as though calling it a disease is counterproductive for many.

Language is such an interesting thing in that way, and it is something that I both despise and have a deep love for, often in the same moment. Like now, I feel like I have so many words inside me, and none of them want to string together to form the appropriate sentence. But even still- something inside of me deeply opposes this word.

 So many times people have described my seizures as a "fit", and honestly, even as an American, the word does not bother me, unless the intent is cruel or careless. To me, language is nothing without intent. But this word, "disease", is another beast. The intent is harmless. It is only a team of medical professionals innocently trying to describe something they only vaguely understand. This time though, it is the effect of language, rather than the intent, that I am most concerned about.

Here is a scenario: You are on the bus to work. You have a seizure. The medical community has classified epilepsy as a disease, and everybody on this bus knows it. Who is going to help you? People already are afraid of things they don't understand, and now it's a disease. What a daunting word. What a cursing word. You may hit your head, repeatedly. These things happen, we all know. But now, you're on a bus with 10 strangers who don't want to catch your disease. So nobody moves anything out of your way, nobody puts their jacket under your head. Nobody times your seizure or calls 911 if it's been too long. Everybody stares at you in fear. 

I do realize that this is a bit of a stretch. That enough people are educated enough to know better. But you never know. People already don't want to help. The ones who don't know better are going to be even less inclined now to help. This scares me.