It's All in Your Head: Stories from the Frontline of Psychosomatic Illness by Suzanne O'Sullivan

Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) are hard to understand, both for people affected by FND and doctors involved in their care.  Functional Neurological Disorders are essentially real neurological symptoms which exist when damage to the nervous system cannot be detected with tests or on clinical examination.  The symptoms are real and disabling but the function of the nervous system is intact.  Many of these symptoms may be due to stress or psychological symptoms, some can be due to other non-neurological diseases or an exaggerated response to a neurological disease process and at times no cause is found.

Often, a person affected by FND can make a good recovery, especially if they engage with the diagnosis.  Others can be stuck with the symptoms forever.  The symptoms are extremely upsetting for those affected by them.

Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist with an interest in functional neurological disorders and epilepsy who works in specialist neurological disorders in London.  In her book she tackles dissociative seizures, psychosomatic illness and functional neurological disorders.  Many doctors struggle to deal with patients affected by these illnesses, thinking that the patients are faking symptoms, attention seeking or trying to fool doctors.  This is not the case.  People with FND are distressed and often lead difficult lives.  Dr O'Sullivan puts a human face on these stories and tackles the issues surrounding this complicated diagnosis.  She highlights some of the mistakes she has made and the communication breakdowns she has encountered.  FND is a difficult diagnosis for both doctor and patient.

This book is a good one for neurologists to read and a good book for anyone affected by FND.  A good patient resource is the Neurosymptoms website, developed by neurologists from Edinburgh which can be used to help understand strange symptoms.  This book also helps make sense of odd symptoms and is worth some of your time.