Comedian Sarah Albritton was 15 when she learned she had narcolepsy. One day in geometry class, she was headed to the front of the room to grab her Texas Instruments calculator when a classmate said something that surprised her (she can’t remember the exact words now) and she collapsed into a cataplexy—a narcoleptic state during which patients lose control of their muscles for a few minutes.
Sarah, what kind of pressure do you feel to share with others the fact that you have narcolepsy? SA: I’m very open about it now. It’s very much a part of who I am. There are a lot of misunderstandings about [narcolepsy], and I think the more people spend time with me, the more they understand it. There’s way more to narcolepsy than just sleeping. There’s forgetfulness, there’s a bunch of different things. [Povs] can tell when I’m getting tired or when my medicine’s kicked in. People don’t think about invisible disabilities as much. It’s not represented in media very often. The only example I can think of is Maria Bamford’s show Lady Dynamite, and she’s bipolar.
How do you see comedy as it relates to dealing with a serious issue—in this case narcolepsy? SA: I’ve always been a believer that comedy is a great way to create social change. TV shows like Modern Family helped contribute to acceptance and understanding [of gay marriage]. Narcolepsy isn’t the butt of every joke in our series; most of the jokes don’t have anything to do with narcolepsy. On a lot of shows, narcoleptic characters have been used as a prop to add comedy to something. On Modern Family there’s an episode where Phil had narcolepsy, then it doesn’t get brought up again. Even though [Super Narcoleptic Girl] is a comedy, we made sure that everything in the series is as realistic as we could.
