Recently, a large number of girls in Upstate New York have been treated by doctor’s for symptoms that resemble Tourette’s-like tics. Apparently, the hypothesis of multiple doctors is that the girls are victims of mass hysteria, or conversion disorder, according to Gothamist.
Currently, the doctors believe that the symptoms may be rooted in stress — and because girls see other girls being treated for something they can’t figure out, they then begin to experience symptoms themselves. That’s a simple way of explaining conversion disorder. It’s like when someone mentions fleas or a wool sweater and you start feeling itchy. After the girls’ parents were told the diagnosis of possible conversion disorder, they did the sane thing and went on the Today Show to express their outrage.
The one important point that a psychologist points out is that a doctor saying the symptoms are caused by mass hysteria, is not calling the girls “fakers” or saying that their symptoms aren’t real. They are real, but there is no disease for them. They need therapy to treat them, not medication. Doctors haven’t found any other reason for why over ten girls would develop the same symptoms — from water to disease to everything in between. Stress has been known to cause weird problems before and doctors are being honest by saying, something weird is going on here, we don’t know, but we think it’s conversion disorder.
The problem I see is that people are demanding a “cure” and they want to be instant. Ladies, we don’t even have a cure for the common cold, do you really think one is just going to fall out of the sky for you? With all “weird” issues that arise in life — from symptoms like these to something equally random, like a bump on your leg — there might never be a sure answer. Doctors are still human beings. They aren’t magic and they don’t always have all the answers. What’s happening is clearly something weird, but the victims, and their parents, need to realize that just because they aren’t getting the answers they want, doesn’t mean that people don’t care. I’m sure their doctors are just as worried about it as they are!
Lovelies, what do you think? Were the doctors in the right… or do you think they should be doing more to “cure” the girls?
guest
When are people ever going to learn the portions of New York? They’re from WESTERN New York. Upstate New York is a total different region. It’s sort of embarrassing to someone who lives in Western New York i.e. me.
guest
Suffering, sorrow, crying. Life before the “life” cycle.
…Never been pregnant.
guest
I could write more about this, but it’s something family-dynamic-specific.
guest
Stress can turn you into a total nutcase sometimes. Not clinically insane but stress can make you believe in some of the strangest things that become real to YOU but not necessarily to reality. So yes they do need therapy.
peony / 1 posts
tulip / 13 posts
@ohhmademoiselle@xanga - it’s annoying how people group New York as either NYC or upstate NY, like there’s nothing else. i’m from western NY too.
these girls are from the town next to where i live and everyones freaking out questioning the water system and anything else … hysteria does drive others to be so paranoid.
tulip / 17 posts
I think what these girls have is M.U.S.D. or I.S.D. Which stand for Made-up Syndrome Disorder and Imaginary Syndrome Disorder.
sunflower / 396 posts
i have GAD… and used to get frequent panic attacks. So i can see/ understand with the therapy sugestion.
guest
I actually kind of had an episode like what these girls had back in
July. I was hysterical over the ending of my long-term relationship with
whom I thought was my soulmate (we’d been together for 8 years) so I
was crying. When I finally decided to go to sleep, I couldn’t because my
head kept jerking upwards like I was still hiccuping from the crying.
Well, that went on for a good long while after I stopped and just wanted
to sleep already. No such luck there. I went to the mirror and lo and
behold, I can see something in my neck just pulsing like I was some kind
of frog… I ended up checking into the local ER an hour later because
it wouldn’t stop and I needed to get some sleep since I had work the
next day. It turns out that I was really stressed and my body was
reacting to it very badly. The nurse talked to me about trying to manage
that stress and prescribed some really strong sedatives so that I could
sleep. They did some blood work and everything came back normal (I’m quite healthy on a day-to-day basis). I ended up still having those Tourette’s-like tics for the next
couple of days (but they were not nearly as severe as those girls, thank goodness) but
as I started to feel better, they’ve stopped.
guest
What annoys me is the outrage by the girls and their parents, insisting it was the school and that it couldn’t be stressed induced. I’ve experienced what she is going through a couple of times, though not for more than a day. I understand how much it sucks, and couldn’t imagine having it not go away for so long. If they would just be willing to accept the therapy with a better attitude, they might get better.
sunflower / 264 posts
This reminds me of the Crucible.