I know what you’re thinking. “What the fuck does this have to do with epilepsy?” My answer: EVERYTHING. Just keep reading. At the end I will show you something amazing that happened to me personally.

1. You’ve just found out your distant family/friends are actually terrible people. This is a big one, and I learned a hard lesson after this happened to me. Even if you use all of the unfollow buttons and blocking options their terrible posts will somehow find their way to your magical feed of puppies and inspirational quotes or whatever. The disappointment and anger and other feelings will stick with you. That stress alone can trigger seizures.
2. It’s overwhelming. The amount of crap it piles on in a day is amazing. You can’t escape it! It’s on your computer, your phone along with the not optional messenger where anyone can find you. They send you those ridiculous game requests, and don’t actually talk to you. Not only that, they have the option to CALL you. If you are introverted like me, you know that there is nothing worse than talking on the phone with someone you barely know or care to know. 
3. It is a distraction from what is truly important. I re joined Facebook recently (and deleted it after about two months) and every hour or so there would be someone who wanted to chat, or someone tagging me in something or sending me requests. I was constantly checking my iPhone, iPad and computer. I live with the most amazing man who I can talk to whenever I want, I have a sister who I Facetime regularly and a best friend(that I miss so much) I should have been talking to over the phone with more often. It happened less and less. Over Christmas when I was back at my parents, Facebook was there. A distraction from my family. It’s like a frickin’ bag filled with useless crap you are just dragging around.
4. You will never win an argument, and your IQ will drop. I am a very opinionated woman, I was raised that way. And I swear, the moment I voiced an opinion I was met with the dumbest of the dumb arguments. To stoop to their level and argue back was a terrible decision. It stayed with me and the stress alone from it triggered more than a few seizures. I had my parents telling me to apologize, people I didn’t even know writing giant pieces of shit in the comments, and to top it all off I lost respect for so many people. I’m sure they feel the same about me. I felt dumb for even trying. They weren’t worth my time, and especially my health. The seizures were terrible, nauseating and the myoclonic jerking was at an all time high. 
5. You don’t need it. Whatever you’re seeking, it’s not there. Facebook is just a platform in the end. It physically doesn’t exist! Yet when you delete it, somehow there is an actual weight lifted. There are other ways to reach out to people, get involved in things, the internet is actually a vast place full of amazing people and shit. You don’t need Facebook for anything. After all, that link you click on is leading you away from Facebook.

   

So here is the amazing thing I want to share. I have an Empatica Embrace Watch . It tracks my seizures for me and gives me monthly reports. I am going to show you my seizures when I was on Facebook and after I quit it(sounds like a drug). My medications have not changed at all in this time, the only thing that changed was that I joined facebook.

If you want to try it here is a link to permanently delete your facebook. Read this here. I dare you. It will be the best thing for you and your health in the long run.

The link will help you take the steps to permanently delete your account, not deactivate it, delete it. You can save your pictures and whatever else, but I highly recommend it getting rid of it for good. Just call your grandma now, you don’t need facebook to reach her.

This is one part of your life you have control over and it comes with it’s very own delete button.  

Let me know on twitter or tag me on instagram (two great platforms to meet other people in the epilepsy community) screen shot it and send it to me. My links to social media are in the bar at the top right of this page.

Tag me in it @epilpetea #DELETED .