20-year-old program has been presented worldwide
OXFORD, Miss. – Mention the word “epilepsy,” and the mind almost
automatically jumps to images of someone quaking uncontrollably, caught
in the throes of a seizure.
But as people with epilepsy and their families know, there’s much more
to living with the condition than seizures. To help illuminate this
issue for Mid-South families dealing with this disorder and its
complications, the University of Mississippi is co-sponsoring a free,
public seminar March 6-7, hosted at the North Mississippi Regional
Center in Oxford.
The two-day “Seizures and Epilepsy Education Program,” or S.E.E., focuses not just on the health issues of epilepsy but also on the often-overlooked mental and emotional challenges facing patients and their families. Pre-registration is required by visiting http://www.theseeprogram.com or by calling Ann Weber at 662-915-1757 or Betsy Dean at 662-513-7752.
“It is not just the seizures, it is our emotional response to the seizures that can make life with epilepsy so miserable,” said Robert Mittan, the neuropsychologist who developed S.E.E. after researching epilepsy’s impact on families. “Seizures last minutes or less, but worry about the next seizure can last a lifetime.”
Those worries were enough to drive Ann Davis Weber to organize the seminar locally. Weber’s young daughter Helen once had a seizure in her pediatrician’s office, but the symptoms were so subtle that even the pediatrician was mystified.
“She wasn’t having convulsions,” said Weber, who works in University Development. “It took three months to figure it out, but we finally got Helen’s seizures under control. But I realized I don’t know much about epilepsy at all. I don’t know what a seizure looks like.”
A friend gave Weber an article written by Mittan to help the Weber family cope.
“It was a voice of sanity in a really crazy time,” Weber said. “My husband and I realized we can’t be the only ones in this area having this problem, so we reached out to Dr. Mittan about doing this conference.”
Mittan received an NIH grant to study epilepsy in the 1980s. During the study, he found that fear and worries about seizures were more damaging to a patient’s emotional health, family adjustment and social success than the seizures themselves.
“Therapy for the emotional toll of epilepsy is rare in medical care,” he said. “People living with epilepsy know this all too well.”
That’s how S.E.E. was born more than 20 years ago. The program has helped more than 30,000 patients and their families in four countries. The seminar features video, testimonials and a touch of humor targeted at two main goals: providing medical information about epilepsy to help prevent seizures and medical side-effects; and showing families strategies for reducing the worry, fear and stress associated with the condition.
Weber also encourages teachers to attend because their jobs often involve dealing with students with epilepsy. Approval for continuing education credits is still pending, Weber said.
“Whether you’re a person with epilepsy, a family member or parent of a child with epilepsy, S.E.E. was designed to give you your life back,” Mittan said. “It’s an uplifting investment that will pay you and your family dividends for years to come.”
Other sponsors for the event include the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, Baptist Memorial Hospital – North Mississippi and the Epilepsy Foundation of Mississippi.