Ms

[Biglad22]

Is fnd a mental illness

[patti86]

no it is a neurological finding that occurs sometimes because of stress but also sometimes because of a illness or autoimmune influence on the motor cortex in the brain. Many have both organic and functional issues at the same time. which is what I am dealing with....However, some doctors will consider it as one, especially when it is listed as a conversion disorder.

Im new to all of this. and so far I am not having a positive experience. Hope things are better for you.

[malalatete]

Not in the sense of schizophrenia or clinical depression - in that it has a dramatic effect on the way that your mind works and that is the main way it has an impact, no. It is though a physical manifestation of changes in the brain - which can also be said much mental illness- so brain changes in chemical transmitters and receptors in the brain have been shown in both the above. Some recent research has shown changes in the brain in those with FND, although this research is as yet very limited and not really well understood.

FND has many symptoms which overlap with mental health conditions e.g. brain fog, confusion, lack of concentration - but these happen equally in systemic brain and autoimmune conditions such as MS and Lupus, so that's not to say it is down to mental health either.

People with FND may be diagnosed as depressed sometimes, or may benefit from counselling, but that is to do with the impact of the condition on their lives, not a symptom of the condition itself. So living with it may in fact cause a degree of what is strictly speaking considered to be mental illness.

However the labels of 'mental illness' and 'physical illness' are not really very helpful. Most illnesses stem from some disease - or some dis-ease - and this can be in mind, body or spirit or across the 3. Doctors in the west like to think they are pretty clued up but are slowly learning to admit that they know less than they think, especially about the connection across the first two. Very few people understand the impact of the third these days - we lost that link in the Middle Ages (but we lost bloodletting as a cure for everything, so it's not all bad...)

The key thing to hold onto is that you have a condition which has affected the way your brain is functioning - that is the functional and the neurological bit. It is causing the messages between your brain and the various systems in your body to get mixed up or not quite get throuh correctly. That is the disorder bit.

I always think of mine (which fluctuates wildy, being on and off for weeks at a time, then suddenly disappearing for months, then coming back with a vengeance - all for no obvious reason) as being a bit like a simple circuit to a light switch but in which the inner core of the wiring has been made with some material that isn't quite up to spec - but all the tools available to us are a visual inspection and screwdriver.

My neuros have taken the lid off the switch and all the wires are connected in the right places. There is nothing structurally wrong. They have checked the wire all the way from the switch to the light bulb- and it is in perfect condition, the plastic coating is lovely. They don't have the kit to check the temperature the wire inside gets to when the switch goes on, and they haven't been able to break it open to test what material it is made of, or use any high tech scans to do analysis, and so they don't understand yet why sometimes the wire doesn't conduct as well as it should. But it is clear from what happens to me when my legs go from normal to robotic in 3 steps that it is a conduction problem. It looks just the same as the conduction problem people have when their coating is frayed and causing short-circuiting. But it's not that, it is different. But they don't know why - yet...

Sorry for the ramble...

Blessings

[VivienneWaterworth in reply to malalatete]

I love your very clear description of trying to find the cause of a wiring problem using primitive tools. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Stores like that really help people to understand what's going on, especially when someone has not come along with a pair of scissors and cut the wires, and there's no damage from rodents or other wildlife, and there's no visible damage.

[malalatete in reply to VivienneWaterworth]

I think because I became suddenly and severely ill with something that the doctors have only ever been able to give me guesswork labels for (ME then FND), because I continue 7 years later to be similarly severely affected, but only sporadically, with (sometimes quite extended) periods of wellness in between, I have had to devise ways of explaining to people what FND is, because otherwise it makes no sense to them that I can be racing around doing just about anything in the morning - but then a cripple unable to walk more than 25 yards a minute the same afternoon.

You can't seek a diagnosis you don't have - a number of my friends have MS, a number of them are more consistently well than I am, and many of them tell me I 'must have MS'. But my neurologists disagree - and I have spent more than 3 days worth of my life in MRI scanners because of one thing or another over the last 7 years so I am inclined to think they may be right.

I have FND - a neurological condition they can't understand yet. Suffering with two badly understood conditions, I have found that it doesn't really matter what the label is, the thing to focus on is how to best live with it. After all, as it keeps sporadically reminding me, however much I would like it to, it isn't going to simply disappear, at least, not on a permanent basis. And life in the slow lane has its advantages...you get the chance to admire the view.

[Hidden]

Hi, it is definitely not a mental illness, my last dr thought this and would only give me anti depressants and keep sending me to phsychatrists, after seeing the 3rd one who was a senior, she was extremely angry 😡 that my dr ignored everything her colleagues had wrote and put her views to him very strongly that he was ignoring all evidence of organic nature and just going with mental issues. We had to pay private to see nuerologist who said my dr had left me in pain for so long it had formed its own entity, he apologised on behalf of the NHS and how badly I had been let down. He gave me a greater occipital nerve block in the brain which helped immediately with the agony in my head that just dropped me to the floor. Since then I changed Drs and have been diagnosed with FND by professor Edwards in London, the lovely nuero physios ladies I have seen although unable to help me as too severe and complex now, they gave me a leaflet to take with me explaining that I have FND and it is not in my mind it is a physical pain, stroke like symptoms, breathing stops, seizures, this helps me too as for so long to be told it was mentally stress and anxiety depression, I know and have in writing it's not imagined, ITS BEEN REAL and I was just left in pain for too long for my brain to cope with so it shut down. I hope this helps you as eventually it took so long to get my diagnosis but at least I have proof it's real. Best wishes Lisa-anne 😊