08/20/2026
I forgot I even wrote this. 💜
And today it was published on Social Health Network — one of the largest chronic illness communities in the world.
Sometimes the universe has better timing than we do.
I have lived with epilepsy since I was five years old. Nearly fifty years of seizures, limitations, lost independence, and the particular loneliness that comes from living with something most people do not understand.
For a long time I kept it quiet. I thought speaking openly would define me in ways I could not control — less capable, less professional, less whole. So I built walls around the hardest parts and tried to outrun them with achievements instead.
Then I told the truth. About the fifteen years I could not drive. About the seizure at work that got me terminated thirty minutes later. About the night at sixteen when my father kicked down a bathroom door and pulled me out of the water.
And people found me.
A stranger wrote to say they found my book at a Barnes and Noble and it saved their life. A parent wrote to say my story helped them recognize their child was having a seizure.
That is what happens when you stop performing the polished version.
Somewhere right now someone is sitting alone with the same diagnosis and the same fear, certain nobody could possibly understand. Your honest story gives them something medicine cannot.
It tells them they are not alone. 💜
Full piece is live on Social Health Network — https://bit.ly/4xcLJDq
👇 What is the part of your story you have been keeping quiet?
