Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Welcome to Narcolypso!


Hello friends. I'm creating a photo blog to bring attention to the severity and the hilarity of my narcolepsy.





For those who don't know, narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that causes sufferers to feel extreme drowsiness and fatigue during the day, often so severe that we HAVE to sleep and/or cannot fight off sleep. It also messes up sleep cycles at night.

Many of you are probably familiar with this youtube gem (if not, it's worth watching): http://youtu.be/-zVCYdrw-1o

Rusty the dog actually has what's called narcolepsy with cataplexy, which I do not have. Cataplexy causes a person to lose muscle tone when feeling extreme emotions. The terrible catch-22 of it all is: you hear a funny joke and laugh, causing you to fall down (since you have cataplexy); subsequently, you hear Carrie's mom in your head screaming, "They're all gonna laugh at you!" the extreme shame of which causes you to fall again; the cycle continues.

Sometimes the cycles ends more quickly though. Say you are being chased by a bear. That scares you. You lose muscle tone. You fall. Bear eats you.

Bear - 1 : Narcoleptics with Cataplexy - 0


Luckily, I do not have that...


Anyway, I hope this proves mostly educational, but also kind of silly. No, my narcolepsy will never go away, but it won't kill me either. It won't even cause physical pain per se. It sucks a whole lot and it is certainly inconvenient, but hopefully sharing my narcolepsy experiences with you will help me deal the stress of this disorder and will help readers understand how narcolepsy affects a person's daily life.


Feel free to post any questions you have about narcolepsy or bear attacks.








































1 comment:

  1. I have had many encounters with bears... one which perhaps had narcolepsy, though I doubt it. I tried to find this photo for you but my work has blocked my access. Stay tuned.

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