Image from Discovery Education
This week’s research proved to be interesting. It turns out that as my husband started seeing
his first symptoms that sixteen high scholars in Le Roy, New York were showing
signs as well. According to the article “Conversion Disorder: An Epidemic Spread by Sight” that was published in The Week on March 23 2012 it was not the
first time there has been an outbreak. There have been outbreaks in 2007 in Florida
and Mexico, and in 2010 there was an episode in a school in Brunei. They go as
far back as 1789 when a woman who was working in a textile factory started
convulsing.
That last one made me wonder what happened to her. Did
someone decide that woman was possessed by the devil? Did they put her through
an exorcism? I know that sounds crazy if
you have never seen an episode, but I found a video of an episode for you. My husband
did resemble something like this on a bad day. Her name is Leah and she is
trying to set up a foundation for people with Conversion disorder. After watching you should be able to understand how someone could think she was possessed by an evil spirit.
Image captured by Youtube.
PschiatryOnline presented a well laid out description of Conversion Disorder. After presenting a case of “Mrs. A: who is a
fifty-three year old woman who suffered through four months of non epileptic
seizures. After tests were run she was diagnosed with Conversion Disorder and
put on medications for depression and anxiety, as well as taught self-hypnosis.
The article then explains that patients with non epileptic
seizures tend to suffer from depression, anxiety, and other dissociative disorders.
Patients also commonly had suffered through childhood abuse.
Treatment is typically therapy, hypnosis, medications,
and/or trans cranial magnetic stimulation. Fifty to ninety percent of patients
have short term recovery, but twenty-five percent have a relapse.
It was scary how much my husband’s case reflected Mrs. A’s
case. With the help of our psychologist he is meditating and they are
connecting that to self-hypnosis. He is on anti-anxiety, depression, and
bipolar disorder medication. Once these measures were put into place my husband was able
to return to work. He has not recovered fully, but he is able to function.
I still haven't found any answers on why it effects people differently. I am finding myself more curious about the history of the disorder. I find my atheist self drawn to wonder if people were put through unnecessary exorcisms because they suffered with Conversion disorder.
There is large school of thought that diet is related to degenerative disorders. With all of the garbage that gets put in our food, dyes, preservatives, pesticides, etc. it's no surprise we have so many illnesses doctors can't diagnose today. A big proponent of organic diet as the key to healing our 21st century bodies is Dr. Gerson, of the Gerson Therapy. It makes big claims, but the results are there. It has been a great help to me in my fight with Fibromyalgia, another exclusion type disease.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree that the typical American diet is full of junk. I can assure you Conversion disorder is not because of our diets. Yes we did have bad diets at one point, but changed that some time ago. I looked into the Gerson diet/therapy at one point. Are we vegetarians? No. I believe everything in moderation. We do eat 2-3 vegetarian meals a week and we do not have processed food in the house. My family snacks on vegetables and fruit.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do not think that we can blame every disease or disorder on bad diets. Conversion disorder has been around for longer than our poor diets. Before being called Conversion disorder Freud called it hysteria. It is a mental health issue so it has not received much research funding. Our psychologist said that everyone has a breaking point. You can only hold stuff in for so long before it takes a toll on your body. In my husband's case he had a traumatic childhood and internalized his bipolar symptoms. Eventually his body had enough and had to express it in some way. As with most mental illnesses there is no test for it. You do have to rule everything out so you can be sure that it is exactly that.
I appreciate your suggestions and I agree that healthy food is the first step to a healthy life. I feel that one needs to understand that Conversion disorder is a mental illness, and is brought on by stress, other mental illnesses, or a traumatic event.
Okay, but also consider, that stress is creating a physical reaction, and how your body can react to the stress is determined by chemical balance/imbalance. You may eat the right things, but it has to balance for each individual according to their own body chemistry. Another research thread you may want to follow is body ph balance. Stress creates an acidic reaction, you may need to adjust the food/mineral intake to combat that. I'd be interested in how the ph affects brain function also, if you decide to go there.
ReplyDeleteJust throwing bread crumbs out there...
Oops. I guess I commented on your 3rd post (which was posted early) before your 2nd one. I'm curious about these two sources. What kind of publication is The Week, and how credible do you think PschiatryOnline is after viewing/reading articles on the site? Are the people writing these articles experts, such as doctors? That can matter a lot when it comes to a topic like this.
ReplyDeleteThe Weekly is a weekly news magazine. The facts in the article were presented the same in several other articles.
DeletePschiartyOnline is the online version of the American Journal of Pyschology. I first learned of this website from my Human Growth and Development class. Everything on it is peer reviewed.