Parkdale junior Nate Forschner felt like “a ball of despair” until he found out he had narcolepsy and cataplexy and got the treatment he needed, reports The Washington Post.

When a future of managing the disease is daunting, it’s easy to surrender to a sedentary lifestyle.

During the summer leading into his freshman year of high school, that’s what Forschner did. He put on 70 pounds and added six inches to his waist size, expanding from a 32 to 38.

When Forschner wasn’t sleeping, he was eating. He loved Big Macs. He stuffed himself with Swiss Rolls. He routinely made three packs of Ramen Noodles in a single day. The anxiety of his condition was too much. He found solace in food.

Unwilling to risk embarrassing himself by exposing his cataplexy, Forschner quit leaving the house for pick-up games of basketball. He was not cleared by doctors in time to join the football team, but by December of his freshman year, he began to stabilize his condition with medicine.

Get the full story at washingtonpost.com