The Unmanageable Trauma: Conversion Disorder (Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder)

Shaking from fear, trembling with anger, or paralyzing anxiety. I think we all agree that extreme emotions can have a remarkable effect on our bodies. But what if I tell you that stressors can have a lasting effect on the body. Like people not being able to walk, talk or see anymore. Sometimes even years after they experienced something extremely stressful. Crazy right? The consequences and effects of trauma on the body and brain are astonishing.

When you experience conversion disorder/functional neurologic disorder something is going wrong with the signals from the brain to parts of the body. Stress, for example caused by a traumatic event, is subconsciously converted into physical problems on a motor and sensory level. These problems can differ from issues with swallowing to abnormal movements of certain body parts. It is also called functional neurological symptom disorder and is classified in the DSM-V under somatoform disorders. The treatment involves trauma therapy like for example EMDR.

#conversiondisorder #physicaltrauma #psychologyeducation

References:
Aybek, S., Nicholson, T. R., Zelaya, F., O’Daly, O. G., Craig, T. J., David, A. S., & Kanaan, R. A. (2014). Neural correlates of recall of life events in conversion disorder. JAMA psychiatry, 71(1), 52-60.

Hallett, M., Lang, A. E., Jankovic, J., Fahn, S., Halligan, P., Voon, V., & Cloninger, C. R. (2011). Psychogenic movement disorders and other conversion disorders. Cambridge University Press.

Verhaeghe, P. (2018). Intimiteit. Amsterdam: Bezige Bij.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.

Ludwig, L., Pasman, J. A., Nicholson, T., Aybek, S., David, A. S., Tuck, S., ... & Stone, J. (2018). Stressful life events and maltreatment in conversion (functional neurological) disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(4), 307-320.

[Sharks.you]

I was diagnosed with conversion disorder, my limbs shake and move like crazy, I can confirm that I went through something traumatic, one day I had another argument with my mother, suddenly my leg started shaking, uncontrollably, I was sent to the hospital and stayed there for 2 hours,