If you have narcolepsy can you drive?
Friday, July 24th, 2009 at
4:08 pm
California ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! asked:
I think this is a serious question…Many people suffer from narcolepsy and I am wondering if you can actually get a driver’s license? And No i don’t Have narcolepsy
I think this is a serious question…Many people suffer from narcolepsy and I am wondering if you can actually get a driver’s license? And No i don’t Have narcolepsy
Tagged with: Many People • Narcolepsy
Filed under: Narcolepsy
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I don’t think so. Look on a drivers ed website. Maybe they have something about it.
Each state has different rules on it. I think the standard though is that if your doctor thinks your symptoms are bad enough (even with your medications being taken regularly), that he’s required to tell the state if he thinks you can’t drive.
No they are not allowed to drive. I just had to do a project on this illness.
I would not recommend it. You could fall asleep and cause a horrible accident. I regret I had to tell you this, but it is for everyone’s safety.
lmao, i’m guessing the previous peeps have no real experience with this disorder. narcolepsy does NOT automatically prohibit you from driving…even if the state asks for proof of it not compromising our ability to drive, most narcoleptics can easily get dr’s note okaying it.
i have narcolepsy. my father does too, as does my brother, a nephew & potentially a niece. we ALL have driver’s licenses, as well as every other narcoleptic (with one exception) that i know…and i know plenty, since i’ve been part of a narcolepsy support group for years.
it’s a greatly misunderstood disorder. the main symptom of it isn’t uncontrolled sleep attacks – those are actually not very common. main issue is Excessive Daytime Sleepiness…which means exactly what it says: we get extra sleepy for no real reason, despite how much sleep we get at night. we don’t suddenly fall down sleeping like in deuce bigalow. we generally have plenty of warning if we need to nap. you know how you feel when you get tired…it’s the same for us, we just also know that we cannot fight it so we go lie down for a nap rather than fight it.
not to mention, there are some excellent medications to help deal with this.
does that mean there are never any issues for us? no. but it’s in our best interest to know our limitations. after all, we don’t want to die in a fiery car crash anymore than the next person. if anything, narcoleptics are hyper-vigilant about their driving, & pay very close attention to both our wakefulness-status & our surroundings. we’re used to it – we know what we can & can’t do. for example, i don’t drive more than 2 hrs at a time because i don’t want to push my limit. if i need to drive further, i pull over & take a 15-min refresher nap. works like a charm & i’m good for another 2 hrs.
frankly, the general public puts everyone at risk far more than the narcoleptics out there do. you know the ones: the truck drivers who’ve been on the road for 15 hrs & weave all over the road, the teen who has 6 friends in his car with radio blasting who doesn’t pay attention to the red light, the man with major road rage who has to drive aggressively so no one passes him, the woman putting on make-up because she’s running behind, the driver who is talking or texting on their cell phone & is oblivious to everything around him.
i’ll take being on the road with a narcoleptic any day. those other people scare the hell out of me.