It is not a mental illness. However, its symptoms sometimes produce psychological and emotional problems that require counseling. Nothing has a more profound effect on a person with narcolepsy than the support provided by significant others such as family, close friends and co-workers. Whether this effect is positive or negative depends upon the understanding, acceptance and cooperation of these people. However, it is not hopeless.
Drug treatment is helpful to a degree, but overall it can be rated as only moderately effective.
Therefore, we narcoleptics must learn to live as best we can with this monster that threatens to gobble up our most productive waking hours. In large part, our success or failure depends on us. This book provides the help they need. It is about as prevalent as multiple sclerosis but not as well known. Although sleep medicine was recently recognized by the AMA as a specialty practice, many medical schools present little or no material on sleep disorders.