FiNDing Hope

FiNDing Hope is the story of a seven-year struggle against a rare but growing, and largely undiagnosed, mental health condition known as functional neurological disorder (FND) that left the author with daily epileptic-like seizures, thunderous headaches, and the inability to work, drive, or care properly for herself or her family. Numerous hospital admissions concluded without a clear diagnosis, and a palpable fear of death prevailed as she experienced severe cognitive and physical...
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FiNDing Hope is the story of a seven-year struggle against a rare but growing, and largely undiagnosed, mental health condition known as functional neurological disorder (FND) that left the author with daily epileptic-like seizures, thunderous headaches, and the inability to work, drive, or care properly for herself or her family. Numerous hospital admissions concluded without a clear diagnosis, and a palpable fear of death prevailed as she experienced severe cognitive and physical decline. Despite doctors' best efforts, and in a world where, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine in 2022, "an estimated 26 percent of Americans ages eighteen and older-one in four adults-suffers from a diagnosable mental health disorder in any given year," millions of people worldwide may be struggling with undiagnosed FND. In The Myth of Normal, leading trauma expert Dr. Gabor Mate observes that the current medical paradigm "reduces complex events to their biology, and it separates mind from body, concerning itself almost exclusively with one or the other without appreciating their essential unity." FiNDing Hope highlights this critical need for "essential unity" as the author navigates a medical system focused on biology rather than the essential mind-body connection.