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Chris Gautier, Volunteer Mentor avatar

What are your Positive Experiences and Gains through Epilepsy?

Epilepsy & Seizures | Last Active: May 16 9:35pm | Replies (22)
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I often joked previously - when I was first diagnosed approx 10 years ago, I was on a wheelchair wherever I traveled, including air travel. My family took a short 45min flight to Kuala Lumpur once for a brief holiday after me lying on the hospital bed for so long. At airport immigration, there’s normally a lane for passengers with needs. That lane is mostly empty when there’s a line for the rest. My caregiver wheeled me straight to that empty line and my family followed. When boarding starts for any flight, it will normally start with the business class pax, those with elite frequent flyer status and then passengers ‘needing special assistance’. Yeah so we boarded ahead of most then, without queue.

I will call that a “privilege “?

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Replies to "I often joked previously - when I was first diagnosed approx 10 years ago, I was..."
Chris Gautier, Volunteer Mentor | @santosha | May 16 3:47pm

@louissc
Hi Louis!
I would absolutely call it a privilege too! I had this same experience on my last trip to Uruguay, and I have genuinely appreciated that kind of care.
And yet, when I pause and reflect on everything epilepsy has brought into my life, that airport privilege feels like just the tip of the iceberg. The gains that have moved me most deeply are the ones that came from the inside out: those we earn, quietly, through living with this condition.
Epilepsy set me on a profound journey of self-discovery — one I am not sure I would have embarked on otherwise: a deeper appreciation for the ordinary moments in life that I used to take for granted; a greater respect for myself, my limits, my needs, my rhythm; more patience, both with myself and with others; the capacity to be more flexible and to sit with the unexpected, rather than fighting it; a gradual, hard-won ability to release the need to control everything; more resilience than I ever thought I had; and a steady, grounded sense of contentment — what in yoga we call santosha — that I now carry as a daily practice.
I wonder, Louis — and I ask this with genuine curiosity — have you noticed any of these kinds of gains in your own journey?
Chris

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