The Epilepsy Shield Project

My name is Chris Arceneaux, I was born with Epilepsy having Absence seizures which I “out grew” by age 12 then I was able to work for 30 years including 8 years in the U.S. Navy then at 37 I had a Tonic/Clonic seizure in my sleep and luckily my wife was home at the time or I would have woken up on the floor not knowing what happened. In my 40s I started having Complex Partial seizures which kept getting worse.

Over 14 years I went to 3 different neurologists with no luck of getting my seizures under control then I found an epileptologist in Indianapolis who within one year found my focal point and I had surgery in 2014 since the surgery I have been seizure free except for two rebound seizures I had in 2015 when we tried to lower my Lamictal dosage too much too fast, since I have been able to slowly back down on the dosages of my meds and hope to be able to get off of them completely someday.

I started The Epilepsy Shield Project is 2015 after a Facebook friend I had for years who does not have epilepsy suggested that I should try to combine my artwork and epilepsy advocacy. After thinking about it for awhile I came up with the design idea for the “Shield of an Epilepsy Warrior” painting which spawned the name of the project. Now 3 ½ years later I have done over 100 paintings to help spread awareness and help teach people the truth about because pictures are much easier to remember than words are. I have received request from epilepsy organizations in other countries including India, Nigeria, and Congo to do paintings for them to help them teach people in their countries about epilepsy also T-shirts and other items featuring the paintings have gone to many different states and a few other countries helping spread awareness for us offline as well. All my paintings can be seen on the project’s Facebook page which can be reached through www.TheEpilepsyShieldProject.com.