How Narcolepsy Terrorizes People's Minds and Body

“Terrorism is a psychological warfare. Terrorists try to manipulate us and change our behavior by creating fear, uncertainty, and division in society. ” (Patrick J Kennedy)

Narcolepsy shares several characteristics with terrorism. For example, some narcoleptic people have fear and uncertainty if they can make it through the day. They worry if they could survive everyday situations. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and erratic episodes of sleep. People with narcolepsy could fall asleep at any time, including at embarrassing or at inconvenient times.

Narcolepsy has an irregular cause with few possible treatments, horrid symptoms, and is overcome by an inspiring member of the United States Senate. Several cases of Narcolepsy are thought to be caused by a lack of the brain chemical hypocretin (also known as orexin), which regulates sleep. The lack of hypocretin is a result of the immune system mistakenly attacking parts of the brain that produce hypocretin. Diagnosis is usually done by observing how someone sleeps and by eliminating the possibilities of other conditions. Some methods of performing a sleep analysis include Epworth sleepiness scale, polysomnography, multiple sleep latency tests, or just measuring levels of hypocretin in the brain.

Potential treatments include amphetamines and antidepressants. Amphetamines control nervous system stimulants, while antidepressants control symptoms. As can be seen, Narcolepsy is a brain disorder that could be helped by amphetamines and antidepressants. Narcolepsy symptoms are difficult to handle because they include cataplexy, sleep paralysis, sleep episodes, and excessive daytime sleepiness.

Cataplexy is a sudden muscular weakness without loss of consciousness. Cataplexy attacks are usually triggered because of emotion and can last from a few seconds to a few minutes. Sleep paralysis is a sudden inability of movement and speech, which happens upon falling or awakening from sleep. Although no harm can be done, the attacks of sleep paralysis could be awfully frightening. Unpredictable sleep attacks vary in length, depending on the user, and could occur at almost any time in the day. Severe cases could have several episodes per day. Excessive daytime sleepiness is usually the first sign of narcolepsy. This symptom includes feeling drowsy throughout the day and having the constant challenge of trying to survive difficult activities. To sum up, symptoms such as cataplexy, sleep paralysis, sleep attacks, and excessive daytime sleepiness could make a victim extensively uncomfortable.

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was a narcoleptic man born in Canada. Although he possessed one of the hardest to overcome illnesses, he still managed to be successful. He was a member of the United States Senate, a respected scholar, college administrator, and author. Hayakawa had died from a stroke on February 27, 1992, yet until his death, he had remained active in politics and in writing of books and articles. His most famous book was named “Language in Action”, and was based on the ideas of the founder of general semantics, Alfred Korzybski. Hayakawa’s condition with narcolepsy was not commonly known to the public. Hayakawa was known as the excessively colorful senator, yet he had still a habit of falling asleep during briefings. To summarize, Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was a highly achieved narcoleptic man who mentally overcome narcolepsy.

All in all, narcolepsy has a strange origin with scarce possible treatments, bizarre symptoms, and is proved to be mentally overcome by Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa. Narcolepsy controls about two-hundred thousand Americans as of 2018. Numbers of victims are rising and awareness needs to spread. Some annual events worth a try include a bed race, the Dream Big walk, Annual Conference, and the Suddenly Sleepy Saturday. Imagine being trapped inside your own body and is constantly fighting to keep your eyes open. Narcoleptic people deal with these effects every day. As has been noted, narcolepsy invades similar war ground as terrorism, our minds.