| Ben Folds Five – Narcolepsy Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I have narcolepsy, so I'm a bit of an expert and feel I should set the record straight. ALL narcolepsy is physiological, it is NOT caused by emotions or depression as some posters have been writing (please do the research BEFORE you equate a disabled person with a crazy person) One symptom of narcolepsy- cataplexy, partial or complete loss of muscle tone (which is tiresome, but isn't the same as falling asleep)- is TRIGGERED by high emotion such as pleasure, laughing, anger, etc. Like all of the primary symptoms of narcolepsy, this is due to a lack of a neurotransmitter used to regulate sleep and (apparently) pleasure. Narcolepsy can obviously cause emotional problems (like depression or detachment) but there is no such thing as emotional narcolepsy, period. There's nothing in the song that suggests this person doesn't really have narcolepsy, though we won't fall asleep when we get "upset or happy". If I get too upset or happy, I'll just get really weak (though I may collapse like a rag doll). That being said, there's no reason that narcolepsy in this song could not be used as a metaphor to describe emotional detachment. |
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| Third Eye Blind – Narcolepsy Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I have narcolepsy, so I was surprised to hear people describe this song in terms of drug addictions or alcoholism. There is nothing symbolic about the imagery in this song, narcoleptic people really do have experiences like those described, though it's not really fair to call the song "narcolepsy" since it is actually describing only one symptom of the disease: sleep paralysis. While the paralysis is not an unusual experience, most adults will go through it once or twice in a lifetime, narcoleptic people will experience this sleeping death on a daily basis, complete with hallucinations, in addition to all the other things that come with narcolepsy- excessive sleepiness at night, severe insomnia at night, cataplexy, depression, as well as lucid dreams, nightmares and (as I experienced just last night) night terrors. It's a little weird though... I also read a lot of Russian novelists. Dostoevsy had epilepsy, a disease similar to narcolespy. As a result, many of his characters suffer from (and are effected by) that disease. |
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