One woman writes for Healthline about the struggle to get diagnosed with narcolepsy and how medications prescribed for her condition led to worse symptoms. Part of her journey in managing her illness was learning to let go of having a tidy house.
In high school, I started having strange symptoms. I was tired all the time, but I couldn’t sleep at night. In college, I passed out in the middle of the day — literally fell onto my dorm room floor and had to drag myself into bed.
At age 27, more than a decade after I first started having symptoms, I was finally diagnosed with narcolepsy. I thought that once my illness had a name, medicine would help me overcome the weakness, fatigue, and sleeplessness that comes with the condition. Instead, the medications that doctors prescribed me have either only had a limited effect or they’ve made me feel worse.
Fear and stress are the triggers that cause my narcolepsy symptoms. You know what stresses me out? The perpetual task of cleaning. It’s never done. Even when you feel like you’re done, you have to start right over again if you want to keep your place tidy.
