I have learned from the experience of parenting a child who has epilepsy that it is not a disease. It is not something that is contagious. It is not in one's blood stream. It is not brain damage. It is not merely the appearance of a seizure.
Epilepsy is the name given to a series of symptoms that include seizure.
I have also learned that the brain uses electrical impulses to process information. This information may be telling your hand to pick up an item, for instance. This is a mild illustration of a seizure. However, a seizure alone is not epilepsy. In fact, as we will see when exploring diagnosis, there are many other causes for seizure.