Marilynliz's Journal

I attened Dr. Naiman's workshop Dreamcircle and Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Narcolepsy. 

In the touchy feely world of psychology, everything is looked at in the positive. Everything is "reframed" as possibilities for human growth and potential.  Well, Dr. Naiman looks at cataplexies just that way. Dr. Naiman doesn't have cataplexies....however many of the PWN at the conference were at least curious and at most energized by the idea of looking at cataplexy as having the potential to provide something positive in their life.  In other cultures if you were an individual that felt things so strongly that it knocked you to the ground...you would be considered gifted.  One chosen perhaps to get these strong messages from the god(s).  You would have been told that and believed it.  Cataplexies were special messages, communications from the "spirit world"  You were selected, therefore you must be especially receptive to spiritual messages and very wise to be given the responsibilty to inturprete them. I know you are all saying," Well of course I knew that". Now of course the potential for injury is real and of course they can be embarrassing when they occur in this time and culture...however discussion did include acknowlegdement that fighting off a cataplexy and/or getting anxious and upset because one is occuring can make them "worse" and last longer. Dr. Naiman in is idealistic way proposes though that we pay attention to when they occur and what inside of us has been touched so deeply.  Ok I got my last one when my son told me he and his wife were trying to get pregnant...Ok, why I literally got "weak kneed" at that seems obvious....but what does it mean that I get them when I feel very embarrassed? If I think I look like a fool? The last one I got like that was when a shelf fell and I was fumbling to get the phone and the credit card machine untangled. here were customers there waiting to check out. If it had happened when I was alone it would have been frustrating but not embarrassing.  He mentions in his essay about Superman and Krytonite... That what drains Superman of his powers is something from his home planet...from his his place of origin...hmmmmm  One of his suggestions was to keep a journal of when they occur, what was going on at the time, what were you thinking etc. , not to control them...but to understand what they reveal about you.

Here is a link to an article he wrote about N.

http://www.drnaiman.com/articles/another-view-of-narcolepsy