I don't know what to do...

I'm in tears right now, and I don't know what to do. Sometimes I feel like my dad just doesn't care about me at all.

So, for about two years now, I've been having problems with staying awake. No matter how much sleep I get, I always feel really tired and I always fall asleep. It happens while I'm driving, it happened when I played sports in Gym class, it happens when I'm trying to be stimulated. It usually happens when I'm not doing too much, though.

I don't know what it is. I mean, it could honestly be nothing. It really could be. Maybe I am just not entering REM or something. I don't know.

But anytime I try to bring up a problem I'm having, my dad always goes "well, anytime we take you to the doctor, they can never find anything wrong with you."

So now he never wants to take me to get checked out.

Well, I'm really scared right now. Because this happens all the time I'm driving and I can't begin to tell you how many times I've nearly gotten into car accidents. It's dangerous and I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe there isn't anything wrong. But there are things the doctors can do to help with drowsiness.

My doctor at one point said it sounded like it could be seizures.

But I finally brought it up to my mom again, and told her I tried to tell her before, but she brushed it off as nothing. And I finally told her everything again, and she was finally accepting it.

Well, I was just down stairs a few moments ago, and my mom was talking to me about it, and my dad, being the asshole that he is, started to talk to me.

He basically said "Well, here is my problem, anytime we take you and get all these tests done, nothing is wrong." and mind you, he wasn't being nice AT ALL. He was acting like I was making this up and he wasn't talking nicely at all.

So me being unable to handle him and his behavior, I wasn't entirely mature and I said "Apparently you don't care about me"

And he started yelling at me like "Yeah, so this is how a f***** nineteen year old acts. Acting like a f****** five year old. Act like a f***** adult and get back in here and talk to me." Because I was going to walk away. He's impossible to talk to when he gets like this.

So I told him to leave me alone until I could calm down again, but really, he's the one that needs to calm down. But I'm crying right now and I don't know what to do.

I hope that I get into a car accident and get hurt and then he'll finally realize the point I've been trying to get across every time I need to see a doctor or think I should see one.

I hope I go to the doctor and something is seriously wrong (and treatable) so he can finally see that I'm not making any of this up.

It is better to eliminate possibilities than to let something go on only to find out it kills you in the end, because you never did anything about it.

And honestly, I have only gone to the doctor ONCE and had it turn out nothing was wrong. I had stomach issues, and it turned out to be nothing. But otherwise, I just went for my arm injury and they were able to tell me a way to fix it that we didn't know about.

I feel like he really doesn't care about me. I know money's tight but what's more important? Your daughter or your income?

I am just so lost right now, I don't know what to do. This is why I never tell them if something is wrong until it's really bad. Because I know he gets like this and it's impossible to try and tell him otherwise. My mom is onboard about going to a doctor, but he's just unreasonable.

I guess I'm going to have to put my money towards a doctor's appointment. I shouldn't have to pay for it myself, but if my dad isnt' going to help me, I have to do it some how... It might mean waiting awhile, but... I guess I have to. Or I'll just take out of my savings. It's meant for school, but I can't go to school if I die in a car accident.

Hang in there Hydro. I know all about this sort of thing. I had horrid migraines in my teen years. When I asked my mother to take me to the doc about them she said, "They're just what my mother called sick headaches. You'll be fine."

So I suffered with them. Then Imitrex came out and I begged her to take me to the doc to see if this drug would help. After this she let me take Excedrine Migraine, which did nothing because I couldn't hold spit in my stomach let alone pills.

It took having one while in the p-ER and begging the staff to give me something for it. They injected me with 2 rounds of Imitrex and it killed the migraine in 2 hours and I felt fine when I woke up the next morning, when untreated it would have been 12 hours of misery and 2 days with lingering head pain.

I made sure the staff informed my mother of what they informed me: I have full blown neurological migraines, that if left untreated, are potentially life threatening and I should have gone to the emergency room for each and every one.

I hope your father realizes the error in his thinking before something terrible happens. My mother was upset with herself when I told her that this was the only fault she had in my whole mental health issues, but just think of how devasted she would have been if I had a stroke and died during one of my "sick headaches".

Best wishes and good luck. You aren't alone out there Hydro

See! That is not good! This is EXACTLY what I'm trying to avoid. I mean, I highly doubt it's life threatening (other than it happening while driving) but it could be! I know brain issues can cause this kind of thing. I just want to get checked out, to eliminate possibilities. But that apparently doesn't fly with him.

But thank you for the support. I don't know what I"m going to do...

Im sorry your dad is being so unreasonable. It sounds to me he puts money ahead of you. Im sorry thats just how I view it and thats messed up. Maybe just talk to your mom about it, because if you fall asleep easy like that could be dangerous for you as well as other people.

I really hope you dad calms down and starts to think clearer. Best of luck I wish I could do something about it, but as you know I cant. I can just send you good thoughts and best of luck.

It seems like it. I mean, he probably does care about me, but... Still. It shouldn't happen like this. I knew he'd get like it to, which is why I texted my mom about it while he wasn't there. But she still brought it up to him.

I'm hoping to figure it out soon. I don't know what to do anymore.

Well just hang in there as best you can, and avoid him if you have to. I used to have to do that to my dad cause he was like that and for the longest time I thought he hated me, but now that Im older we are good friends. Just hang in there.

My mom is trying to get me to come tell him how I'm feeling but I don't want to. I'm tired of trying. Anytime I try, he acts just like I do. He doesn't like hearing what he doesn't want to hear. I seriously do not have the energy to do this. I am exhausted. I just... I don't want anything to do with it. I really don't. I'm done. I'm seriously done. I give up.

I feel ya but dont give up. YOu deserve to be taken care of.

I'll talk with my mom about it later. I'm just done trying to talk to my dad. It gets me nowhere.

Have you had a sleep study to rule out sleep apnea? That can make you that tired!

With the problems with my dad, I have had nothing done. However, I did have sleep apnea as a child, due to my tonsils, but after getting them removed, I am just fine. I don't wake up, I don't snore, and no one's ever seen a problem with me before.

But I wake up feeling refreshed and totally fine. I'll be fine for a good few hours, before anything comes in. Then the tired feeling lasts for about 20 to 35 minutes then goes away completely.

It's sounding like I'll get to go see a neurologist, but I'm not sure.

My mom is crying now. Well, she was, but I take no blame this time. It's my dad's fault for being so unreasonable that I have to choose not to talk to him about this.

Wow sounds like your dads a real ***, no offense. And it could be thyroid problems.

Well, he can be... Dx

But I know for a fact it's not thyroid. I used to be on lithium and so I'd get it checked out. I JUST got a blood test to monitor the levels and make sure I don't need to be on this other medication for it, and everything was normal.

So that's one thing that's knocked out.

Well thats good I just know when my thyroid went wonky i was tired as hell most of the time.

Yeah. I never had a problem with it before, thankfully. But it would be nice if that was what it was, then I would know.

And... Apparently taking naps doesn't help. It just makes me more tired...

Since you are 19 you can just go to the doctor on your own ,, are you covered on your parents health insurance? If so, do you have a copay? If its feasible for you to pay for a the copay then just go on your own , see your primary doctor and go from there. If you have no insurance then things get tougher. Do you have a health clinic at the college you attend ? If so start there. Or contact your local health dept and make an appointment there.

Sorry about your dad acting this way.

It sounds like narcolepsy to me.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001805/

If you take naps they should only be an hour. If its longer you tend to get into your sleep cycle so you'll wake up even more drowsy.

More, thank you. I cannot drive, though, so I don't know how to get there myself... I am not good at driving. its' sounding like I get to go, though. So we will see.

Confused, that is what I was thinking, but I didn't know if it could be, because it's not exactly random. Does it have to be random? It doesn't always happen at the exact same time, but it's usually around the same time it happens. Sometimes it happens in the afternoon, but it happens no matter what I'm doing.

Lexapro had me "napping" a couple times a day usually at the same time. Neurologist seems to be the best bet.