Society sucks sometimes

So I am reading this book, mostly cause Abby recommend when i ask for book recommends.   This book just make me mad at society and the way we treat people who think differently or act differently. 

As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with dude that wrote the book other than people told him something was wrong with him.  It is irritating to me that if you reason differently or act differently or anything like that, then some who you are labeled inferior.  WTF is that all about.

Then I read an article in Newsweek about a lady that was dealing with a child that has some for autism.  The same thing game across. 

Not that i am making light of the people with disabilities, and need help, but lumping those who are different with those that are disabled is doing nobody any good.

Not that I am comparing my life experience to dude that wrote the book, I mean my life has been rainbows and fluffy bunnies compared to what he had to go through in school.  But I am a narcoleptic fellow.   Which means among other things that I have 2 symptoms I think i would like to discuss.

Cataplexy (sudden and temporary loss of muscle tone often triggered by emotions such as laughter)


Hallucinations (vivid dreamlike experiences that occur while falling asleep or upon awakening)

I have had the hallucinations as long as i can remember, I used to think that is what day dreaming meant.  I remember being in the third grade and Mr. Ball reading us James and the Giant peach, I loved that time of the class, cause I could put my head on the desk listen to the words and watch them come literally alive in font of me.  This always happens, and is reason number 1 I do not watch horror movies or crime shows very often,  imagine if you watched say law and order special victims unit, and fell asleep only as soon as you fell asleep you were in the dream with the worst kind of demented sadist.  That is no bed of roses.

I remember cataplexy happening the first time in 8th grade at a stupid gym class dance we used to have to participate in.  I always asked then same girl to dance, a. because she was hot, b. cause she was my friend from like kindergarten and it was safe.  Anyway, I had a huge crush on this girl probably from 6th grade to my senior year.  Anyway, in this stupid dance in gym glass of all the stupid places, she says to me, i can't wait till high school, then the boys will be taller than me.  (side note and only a slightly unrelated, she is now 6'2") Anyway, I lost all the tone in my muscles and nearly fell.  It says it is often triggered by laughter, but for me at least it is triggered by embarrassment, sometimes laughter but mostly embarrassment.

Anyway, I now know that most people do not have these things.  I really truly think the night hallucinations are a great deal of why I am me.  I mean, they taught me to love to read.  I would read stories, even horror stories and live them.  I could get into books and movies, but more so with books in ways other people can't and I like it.  On the down side is sometimes, I can't separate them from reality with out a little thought.  but that is neither her nor there.

The cataplexy just plain sucks, but if it wasn't for that and my over all level of geekiness, I likely wouldn't have been where i was when i met my wife, as such, I like that it brought me here.

Another side note and only a little more unrelated another symptom of narcolepsy is sleep paralysis.  Imagine waking from a nightmare, and not being able to move at all for a few minutes (usually seconds).  Sometimes it happens without the nightmare, and i can deal with that it sucks but it goes away and isn't all that problematic, but when you wake from a nightmare and can't move.  sheesh, I remember one particular instance of this, where, We had watched nightmare on elm street, and then i had the nightmare, and when i woke from it, i couldn't move, I was sweating and terrified and unable to even talk.  I didn't care for that.

This is one of the last comments on webmd, which is kind of what got me thinking about this while reading a book on LD.

Narcolepsy may lead to impairment of social and academic performance in otherwise intellectually normal children.

Since it didn't lead to the impairment of my academic performance, and i am choosing to ignore the may part, i am going to take this to mean, i am exceptionally intelligent.

Or maybe slightly off, but never mind that.

The point of this was, kids and adults, mostly people would do a lot better if everyone accepted everyone else for who they were rather than who we wanted them to be.