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problems with partners?

Posted by Texan_sleepy on March 06, 2003 at 13:20:25:

I've been diagnosed with N for 3 yrs but have been a sleepy person my entire life. I'm currently in my 3rd yr of a 4 yr graduate program. I take meds and as seems so commonly said on this site, I have my good and bad days but I'm happy as long as the good out weigh the bad.
I've always been a very driven and get myself into the most trouble when I've pushed myself way beyond what my body can do w/out dropping over from exghaustion. I'm extremely thankful and lucky that my symptoms in general aren't too bad and with proper planning on my behalf I (me plus meds) can almost keep up with those nonN's out there.
My current delemia is with my boyfriend of 3 1/2 yrs. He's read and discussed N w/ me. You would think the info and living w/ me for over a yr now would lead him to some kind of understanding of N, however, it doesn't seem to be that way at all.
The longer we live together the more trouble 'we' are having with my N. By that I mean, if I have a bad day and fall asleep more often than usual, the next few days he'll make sure to 'need some extra naps' . (If I have a bad day, I realize that things will have to change and I'll get those things done another time.) Here's the thing, his increased 'need for sleep' isn't b/c he's actually tired, he'll tell you that himself, its b/c he doesn't seem to understand that the meds doesn't make the N go away. He thinks that I have bad days just to get out of doing things I don't want to do b/c he says that he's seen me so many times run myself until I literally feel asleep on my feet when things were urgent and couldn't wait that he doesn't believe I really need to sleep on my bad days. He, as well as my family, have told me directly, no matter how many times I try to explain otherwise, that the meds will make me some kind of super human who doesn't need sleep b/c 'I take meds to stay alert and awake'. He thinks that if I have a bad day where I have more sleep attacks then for the next several days I should being pushing myself overtime to make up for the lost time sleeping. He doesn't understand that it doesn't work that way. I'm not sure that this relationship is going to workout in the long run but I don't want to walk away from it either, at least not for this reason. If its not now, I figure I'll have to confront these same issues to some degree with almost anyone I settle down with in the future so I would like to start doing what ever I can to do my part in making those around me understand my situation now, besides my family will always be around and they seem to view things the same way as he does. Has anyone delt with this and found things that help them understand your situation better or at least helped you not to get so frustrated with them for having so much information yet just not getting it?

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