to the editor: I didn't expect to open the Los Angeles Times and find my disability being used as a punchline. But there it was, in his review of “Stumble”: Davis faints in a funny way” (“'Stumble,' NBC's cheerleading mockumentary, gives you something to root for,” November 7).
As a comedy writer and person living with narcolepsy, I can tell you there's nothing funny about it.
Narcolepsy is not a peculiar habit. It is a chronic neurological disorder that impairs the brain's ability to regulate sleep-wake cycles. It causes an intense need to sleep, muscle weakness caused by emotion, hallucinations, and terrifying sleep paralysis. It doesn't make people fall backwards, unconscious, mid-sentence, as shown in “Stumble.”
I spent 19 years blaming myself for a burnout I couldn't explain. When I was finally diagnosed, I told my doctor, “That can't be right, I've never fallen asleep in a bowl of soup.” Because that's what the media taught me narcolepsy was. The Times review didn't challenge that stereotype; reinforced it.
Lindsay Scola, Marina del Rey
