I found out after 8 years I've had this
when I became a freshman in college and started to drive
I was working as an assistance at a clinique
one day I was driving home after work around 5pm
I got sleepy again as usual, but I was soooo close to home, (right on the corner)
I thought I could make it...
but ...when I wake up, my car is crashed and the other car, which was just parked on the left side of the street was crashed too,about 100 meters away from where it supposed to be...
I started to cry when I saw that car...was only thinking my mom will get so pissed...so I just sat there and cry=_=, like a baby...yeah
untill some people came by and asked me what happend, I told then I fall asleep..and then one person came to me I said" you better keep that to yourself!"...later, they called the police, and I didn't tell them the truth, I just said I don't know what happend...so now my record shows the cause of that accident was, I had a bad driving skill...=_=
after that, my doctor suggest me to see a sleep doctor, even though I always knew I had a problem, but nobody ever tells me what it is. I went to see different doctors, they just tell me because I didn't have enough sleep at night( which was about 9 hours) or I didn't eat well...
so I asked my new doctor (who's not a sleep specialist) why those doctors didn't know anything about this,
he said, because they don't read!
now when I think back, I was sooo lucky that I didn't hurt anyone because of this...even myself didn't get a big injure, only some side affect like neck pain...I'm so glad
how did you find out you have this?
Started by
kinosyk
, Dec 17 2007 06:32 PM
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This topic is locked
2 replies to this topic
#2
greatbig47
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- Members
- 553 posts
www.newrolemodels.com
- Gender:Male
- Location:Greenville, Michigan
Posted 21 February 2008 - 10:25 PM
kinosyk!
Welcome to the board! I was diagnosed about 3 years ago after being mis-diagnosed as bi-polar. I can relate to your experience!
Sorry it took so long to reply to your post!
Stay in touch, man!
-Stu
Welcome to the board! I was diagnosed about 3 years ago after being mis-diagnosed as bi-polar. I can relate to your experience!
Sorry it took so long to reply to your post!
Stay in touch, man!
-Stu
#3
BIGSNOOOZ
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- Members
- 1 posts
Member
- Location:MARINA DEL REY, CA
- Interests:REVERSING MY "PROBLEM"
Posted 24 February 2008 - 06:08 AM
[list]Hello fellow sleepers!
Newbie here to the boards too and Isee a lot of "home hitters" for me..
Since were sharing, I found out the hard way (37 yrs too late and Im 42..)
I was hit by a car at age 5 walking home from school, light turned yellow and instead of continuing accross I ran back and was struck stepping onto the curb (the driver hit her brakes but was still doing 50+ when she slid into me but I didnt take the full brunt although I got launced 30ft out of my shoes!..yes I was lucky..or was I? afterwards I always had problems staying awake and my folks always said it was because I stay up at night..umm yeah..
as I got older things began getting worse to the point at age 35 I too began to nod off uncontrollably on a regular basis as if I had just went on a 3 day sleepless binge..at the time I was a bodybuilder and was writing a diet book in which one of the chapters discussed making your own fat burners.. one of the ingredients was ephedrine hcl and since I dont tell people to do something I hadnt done, I did my trials and discovered that on the ephredrine I was normal! not euphoric or even mildly high but functioning normal! only thing was after the book was finised I kinda kept taking them! until david "Dr Mengele" Kessler got them banned.. so panic ensued and fear of going to the dark side came next so I did the next best thing head to the psychiatrist for find out whats wrong that these magic beans I take seem to fix and can I get a 'scrip' for em or something similar..
first diagnosis ADD although I couldnt stay awake long enough to ever finish a tova test! (I'd doze within 5 min each time..) okay so it got me some ritalin that helped but it marginally fixed the sleepiness problem! it wasnt until I went to an ADD conference and met Dr Daniel Amen (he was lecturing there..) and went to the Amen clinic in Marin Ca, and got a "scan" (worth every penny to get one!) which showed me in 3D the dark spot on the left frontal lobe depicting where I landed on the concrete..also found out Im right-brained and right handed and it should be the opposite..
I was then put on dexydrine 15mg@ 90mg/day which is what it takes to keep the attacks to just a minimum and allow me to keep my drivers license..and just in case youre curious..NO HIGH, NO EUPHORIA either.. just normality on a grander scale and I know 15mg would keep a normal person up for 2-3 days solid...
I usually wake at 4am and take them and go back to sleep and they kick in at about the time Im supposed to wake so when I do wake up theres no morning hangover feeling and I can just get up and go (that though is euphoric...normally its a *BEEP* for me to get up and feeling like youve been drinking all night when you havent doesnt help either...)
The only problem now is that after 7 yrs on it, as a side effect my BP is now in the 180's and to even cut the dosage in half is useless as I can actually sleep on what I currently take! soooo what else have I done? Red Bull and the like? No effect at all...not even a spark of awakeness.. two years ago I got a company buyout from my job and took a couple months to try neurofeedback.. my clinician told me it would take up to 2+ years of treatments to possibly reverse the problems but I couldnt be out of work that long so I took what I could afford (40 bucks a day, 3days a week for 12 weeks..ching ching!) anyway the time I did actually saw some benefit as I discovered all this time I was not staying in REM long enough to dream! so to have that restored was like whoa!
..currently Im not working as Ive also discovered recently that Ive also developed a sensitivity to CRT's set to 60mhz refresh rates and flourescent lights...it seems when the screen refresh is that low or lower I can actually SEE the screen refresh and my eyes will try to sync with it causing me to become nauseous, cognitively impaired and it aggravates the narcolepsy symptoms even on meds within 5 min of sitting and the only way to cope with it was to work until it happened and then take a 5 min break to do something else.. the with the lights if they had old ballasts they would flicker so combined with the monitor it was like working in a rave club..(now I know why I hated raves..) I did ask to change the monitor settings but the cubicles were all set to the same configs and my boss got mad that I had the techs out there trying to change things.. so I asked for a LCD.. I got one but only because someone got fired and I got their desk.. but I too was next as I was taking too many excessive 5 min breaks..
could I sue? nope.. temporary agency.. its like being on parole.. no rights.. and plus I didnt tell them before I got hired.. so should you tell? I say NO unless you know you can force the issue.. narcolepsy, natural or injury induced isnt something 'normal' people can see so they arent sympathetic to something thats actually 'in your head'.. and the irony is my field is IT (I have a computer science degree) and this condition gets worse as I get older and may cause me to have to avoid computers as a career altogether.. right now I dont have a medical plan and medi-cal WILL NOT cover dexydrine.. try planning a job change when you have to make sure you coordinate your job switch and 3mo supply with the day your new bennies kick in with no lapse! I cant go a day without meds and function... that happened at my job before the last one and the 2nd day on the job I had to work med-less and ended up having to go home sick because my symptoms were 10x worse without them..things were downhill from there..
Ive been lucky because even though I lost my job there, they never took me off the medical until recently so YES I took full advantage...worse thing thats happened, I got "arrested" one time for being a smartass and was denied my meds in lockup because theyre schedule-III's and I slept the entire time I was there only getting up to eat but the guards had to constantly wake me..(4 days..)
so I TRULY feel for EVERYONE here who has to deal with this.. I wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy unless I really hated him..
eventually I do want to complete the full neurofeedback treatment and Im contemplating buying my own unit (brainmaster is the one I used..$1600) but my clinician will have to purchase it for me..
I really want to get off the dexydrine completely if possible because of 1)BP problems and 2) constantly worrying about keeping an intact medical plan just for these meds is too big a monkey to have on my back! (non-plan prices are $1700 for 3mo supp..street prices are cheaper!) Ive looked into a LOT of things in trying to cope and move forward with this condition and although you CAN live with it, you shouldnt have to.. so feel free to email me and I'll be glad to share what Ive found and hopefully learn some new things!!
[/size][list]
BiggSnoooz
Newbie here to the boards too and Isee a lot of "home hitters" for me..
Since were sharing, I found out the hard way (37 yrs too late and Im 42..)
I was hit by a car at age 5 walking home from school, light turned yellow and instead of continuing accross I ran back and was struck stepping onto the curb (the driver hit her brakes but was still doing 50+ when she slid into me but I didnt take the full brunt although I got launced 30ft out of my shoes!..yes I was lucky..or was I? afterwards I always had problems staying awake and my folks always said it was because I stay up at night..umm yeah..
as I got older things began getting worse to the point at age 35 I too began to nod off uncontrollably on a regular basis as if I had just went on a 3 day sleepless binge..at the time I was a bodybuilder and was writing a diet book in which one of the chapters discussed making your own fat burners.. one of the ingredients was ephedrine hcl and since I dont tell people to do something I hadnt done, I did my trials and discovered that on the ephredrine I was normal! not euphoric or even mildly high but functioning normal! only thing was after the book was finised I kinda kept taking them! until david "Dr Mengele" Kessler got them banned.. so panic ensued and fear of going to the dark side came next so I did the next best thing head to the psychiatrist for find out whats wrong that these magic beans I take seem to fix and can I get a 'scrip' for em or something similar..
first diagnosis ADD although I couldnt stay awake long enough to ever finish a tova test! (I'd doze within 5 min each time..) okay so it got me some ritalin that helped but it marginally fixed the sleepiness problem! it wasnt until I went to an ADD conference and met Dr Daniel Amen (he was lecturing there..) and went to the Amen clinic in Marin Ca, and got a "scan" (worth every penny to get one!) which showed me in 3D the dark spot on the left frontal lobe depicting where I landed on the concrete..also found out Im right-brained and right handed and it should be the opposite..
I was then put on dexydrine 15mg@ 90mg/day which is what it takes to keep the attacks to just a minimum and allow me to keep my drivers license..and just in case youre curious..NO HIGH, NO EUPHORIA either.. just normality on a grander scale and I know 15mg would keep a normal person up for 2-3 days solid...
I usually wake at 4am and take them and go back to sleep and they kick in at about the time Im supposed to wake so when I do wake up theres no morning hangover feeling and I can just get up and go (that though is euphoric...normally its a *BEEP* for me to get up and feeling like youve been drinking all night when you havent doesnt help either...)
The only problem now is that after 7 yrs on it, as a side effect my BP is now in the 180's and to even cut the dosage in half is useless as I can actually sleep on what I currently take! soooo what else have I done? Red Bull and the like? No effect at all...not even a spark of awakeness.. two years ago I got a company buyout from my job and took a couple months to try neurofeedback.. my clinician told me it would take up to 2+ years of treatments to possibly reverse the problems but I couldnt be out of work that long so I took what I could afford (40 bucks a day, 3days a week for 12 weeks..ching ching!) anyway the time I did actually saw some benefit as I discovered all this time I was not staying in REM long enough to dream! so to have that restored was like whoa!
..currently Im not working as Ive also discovered recently that Ive also developed a sensitivity to CRT's set to 60mhz refresh rates and flourescent lights...it seems when the screen refresh is that low or lower I can actually SEE the screen refresh and my eyes will try to sync with it causing me to become nauseous, cognitively impaired and it aggravates the narcolepsy symptoms even on meds within 5 min of sitting and the only way to cope with it was to work until it happened and then take a 5 min break to do something else.. the with the lights if they had old ballasts they would flicker so combined with the monitor it was like working in a rave club..(now I know why I hated raves..) I did ask to change the monitor settings but the cubicles were all set to the same configs and my boss got mad that I had the techs out there trying to change things.. so I asked for a LCD.. I got one but only because someone got fired and I got their desk.. but I too was next as I was taking too many excessive 5 min breaks..
could I sue? nope.. temporary agency.. its like being on parole.. no rights.. and plus I didnt tell them before I got hired.. so should you tell? I say NO unless you know you can force the issue.. narcolepsy, natural or injury induced isnt something 'normal' people can see so they arent sympathetic to something thats actually 'in your head'.. and the irony is my field is IT (I have a computer science degree) and this condition gets worse as I get older and may cause me to have to avoid computers as a career altogether.. right now I dont have a medical plan and medi-cal WILL NOT cover dexydrine.. try planning a job change when you have to make sure you coordinate your job switch and 3mo supply with the day your new bennies kick in with no lapse! I cant go a day without meds and function... that happened at my job before the last one and the 2nd day on the job I had to work med-less and ended up having to go home sick because my symptoms were 10x worse without them..things were downhill from there..
Ive been lucky because even though I lost my job there, they never took me off the medical until recently so YES I took full advantage...worse thing thats happened, I got "arrested" one time for being a smartass and was denied my meds in lockup because theyre schedule-III's and I slept the entire time I was there only getting up to eat but the guards had to constantly wake me..(4 days..)
so I TRULY feel for EVERYONE here who has to deal with this.. I wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy unless I really hated him..
eventually I do want to complete the full neurofeedback treatment and Im contemplating buying my own unit (brainmaster is the one I used..$1600) but my clinician will have to purchase it for me.. I really want to get off the dexydrine completely if possible because of 1)BP problems and 2) constantly worrying about keeping an intact medical plan just for these meds is too big a monkey to have on my back! (non-plan prices are $1700 for 3mo supp..street prices are cheaper!) Ive looked into a LOT of things in trying to cope and move forward with this condition and although you CAN live with it, you shouldnt have to.. so feel free to email me and I'll be glad to share what Ive found and hopefully learn some new things!!
[/size][list]
BiggSnoooz
