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According to Ana Millán, president of the Aragonese Epilepsy Association (ASADE), it is a disease marked by ignorance.
“The biggest problem with this disease, even above suffering from it, is knowing that you have it,” says Ana Millán, current president of the Aragonese Epilepsy Association (ASADE). Because she, she says, is marked by stigma and ignorance. Currently, as explained by the association, there are more than 9.000 epileptic people in Aragon and every year 20.000 new cases are added in Spain.
In the words of Millán, this ailment has traditionally been punished by history and cinema, something that still today has enormous consequences for those who suffer from it. “It is a chronic neurological disease characterized by the presence of recurrent seizures that can produce, among other manifestations, loss of consciousness and seizures. However, this only happens in 30% of cases,” he says.
Although these episodes are the best known among citizens, Millán affirms that there are up to 40 types of crises, many of them practically imperceptible: “In certain cases the person escapes for a few seconds and only seems absorbed. This is what we call absences,” he says.
However, he insists, the best known is the one that involves loss of consciousness and subsequent fall combined with seizures. “Many will know her from movies like The Exorcist, how can she not be scary?” she jokes. In the case of these crises, although it has been shown that in 70% of cases they are controlled with drugs, they usually last less than 5 minutes.
Furthermore, epileptic seizures affect people of all ages but are more prevalent in children, adolescents and the elderly. “The latter is undoubtedly due to the greater longevity that we currently have,” says Millán.
Currently, the association, founded in 2004, has 65 members, and many of them, says its president, have suffered the consequences of this disorder being stigmatized. “Although you can live completely normally with appropriate mediation, there is great ignorance about epilepsy,” she highlights. In her case, this 54-year-old resident of Zaragoza has lived with epilepsy since she was 16. “I have had a good life, although the worst has been the side effects of the medication,” she admits.
