One of the most common brain disorders is one of the most misunderstood – how functional neurological disorder is both ‘all in your head’ and beyond it

Functional neurological disorder produces real, disabling symptoms — seizures, paralysis, tremors — despite normal brain scans, leaving patients doubting themselves after being told repeatedly that nothing is wrong. Researchers now attribute it to disrupted communication between brain networks, particularly a breakdown in how the brain updates predictions against new bodily signals.

An estimated 5 million Americans live with the condition, with mortality rates more than double the general population, yet specialized clinics remain scarce and most clinicians receive little training on it.

The disorder was long dismissed as 'hysteria' or 'conversion disorder,' with symptoms in women especially attributed to psychology rather than biology — a historical bias the piece says contributed to decades of stigma.

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