Narcolepsy

The morning I stopped hiding

— Maya R. · @mayawalks

September 20, 2026 Austin, TX

For seven years I slept through my own life. Narcolepsy took my twenties — the jobs, the friendships, the mornings. Every doctor told me it was depression, or stress, or just laziness dressed up in medical language. I believed them. When you hear something enough times, it stops being a diagnosis and starts being who you are. Then one neurologist listened. Really listened. And suddenly there was a name for the thing that had been running my life from the shadows. The first LiveSeen Walk is my first walk as someone who knows what she has. I'm not cured. I still nap. I still fight the pull of sleep in the middle of the afternoon. But I'm walking out in the open now. From hidden to here.

From Hidden to Here

"I finally have a name for it — and I'm walking in the open."

Community Support

1 comment

PkathybIdiopathic HypersomniaSep 10, 2026
I am 69½ years old and am just finding out about hypersomnia due a dear friend's diligent research. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2020 at the University of Utah after family members highly suggested it. I simply knew I snored but wasn't aware of how much I woke up. But I also knew that I had trouble with often sleeping 20 or so hours approximately 4 days a week ever since my teens. I was ashamed of it, so I worked really hard to cover it up. I knew I didn't have narcolepsy, so I just never discussed it with anyone due to my shame. Since I didn't talk about it, I thought it was just a failure in me. I didn't know there was this disease. It made it hard for me to hold down permanent jobs and have much of a social life. I am now learning there is a glitch between the part of the brain that handles sleep and the circadian-rhythm-connection and to the part that handles the awake times. I am learning how to retrain my brain to get used to an artificial circadian rhythm