Epilepsy and allergies affect many, including some of the students here at the high school. Awareness is a big key in saving the lives of those of us with these conditions including myself. Epilepsy is having reoccurring seizures. The seizures occur because of a sudden surge of electrical activity in the brain, which causes an overload of electrical activity in the brain. This results in convulsions that occur when someone has a seizure. As for allergies, they can be triggered by anything from the outdoors, to animals, to food. Try not being able to have your favorite food, or your pet, or even not being able to go outside for too long. Welcome to the world of someone who suffers with allergies.

November is epilepsy awareness month, and many people are spreading the awareness by painting their pumpkins purple for epilepsy. If you see a house with a purple pumpkin this shows that those houses support the fight against this life-threatening condition. This helps those children so they don’t feel so alone. Having epilepsy is a huge battle because almost anything could trigger a seizure. Some people take medication to help keep from having seizures, but the medication has major side effects that include depression, drowsiness, headaches, light-headedness, and insomnia. That’s why most of the kids with epilepsy don’t take their medications. According to the American Epilepsy Foundation, 1 in 26 Americans will develop epilepsy in their lifetime. That’s about 1 person in every class you have who will probably get epilepsy in their life.

Painting your pumpkins teal would show your support for people who suffer with allergies. As an allergy-friendly house, you can hand out bottles of water or apples, which are treats almost every kid could have. Things like that would make anyone with allergies feel included on Halloween when all their friends get candy and they can’t eat anything. My little sister suffers from major allergies, so to make her feel better my mom takes all the candy she is given and hands it back out. When my little sister gets home, she has a “Halloween Fairy” that visits before she gets back that brings her small toys and gifts. How would you feel if your little brother or sister couldn’t eat any of the candy they walked all over town for? By giving them a variety of fruit or water bottles this gives them a chance to feel normal with their friends when they all eat their treats together.

Painting your pumpkins to show you care is a great way to make children and adults feel better knowing that they are not the only ones battling against this fight. This Halloween, make all the children feel welcomed and happy with colorful pumpkins to show your awareness and treats that are great for every kid to enjoy.