In February 2019, I was diagnosed with narcolepsy which is a sleep disorder that affects the R.E.M. stage of the sleep cycle leaving me constantly drowsy. The most common way of treating narcolepsy is ADHD medication. I have tried different forms of ADHD medications. I decided to do my senior piece on how the medication has affected my mind and body. The first medication I was put on was specially designed for narcolepsy. It caused my eyes to widen and dilate. For weeks it worked but then it caused me to feel dizzy and spaced out. I had a panic attack while on it which caused me to go to the cardiologist.

I was put on another medication, Focalin, which caused me to be depressed and have mood swings. I would be fine for one moment and then the next I would be crying over nothing. I quickly changed the medication to the one my brother was taking for ADHD. Metadate had the least severe side effects compared to what I was on before. My hair started to fall out at the beginning of senior year which caused me to become obsessed with hair. I started to collect snippets of hair from friends and teachers that I put in my sketchbook. It curbed my appetite which caused me to lose twenty pounds in a month. I was concerned with my weight loss and would drink pediasure to help keep from losing any more weight. It caused me to be anxious and stressed out with people commenting on my weight loss. I began to mention it before anyone could, so people would not get the wrong message. I did not want to be labeled as anorexic, which is not the case. I have a healthy body image and the weightloss was causing me to second guess how I looked.

I have learned to deal with these side effects because I know I would rather be awake and alert in my history class than falling asleep in my classes. I also want the freedom of driving. I have a 9 o'clock curfew that my neurologist gave me at the end of last year. The curfew affects my social life and ability to hang out with my friends in the evenings.