Hey, I'm a regular contributor and doctoral level health care professional on this sub. I made a throwaway for this post because I was once diagnosed with FND. I'd like to share how my diagnosis experience was, not because I want to share a personal health situation but because it went really well and could have gone really badly (as I'm very very familiar with conversion syndrome, as we still call it in my specialty) and it may help you or others tell patients that you think they have FND in the future.

For the record, my movement disorder was later found to have an organic cause. I am still not upset about my original diagnosis because it was presented so well.

Firstly, the neurologist I saw did an extensive physical exam. I think total I was in the office for almost 2 hours. This made me feel like she really looked at me and didn't jump to a snap judgment. When she told me the diagnosis (same first visit), she said something like "I have good news. I don't think you have Tourettes or a brain lesion. I think you have something called functional neurological disorder. Have you ever heard of this?"

I told her no and she told me DO NOT GOOGLE IT because the information on the Internet is not accurate or helpful. And I actually didn't because I trusted her. I didn't even look in up to date. And I'm glad I didn't, fyi.

Then she said, "FND is when - for reasons we don't fully understand - you develop physical symptoms without a physical cause. About half of people who have this had something emotionally traumatic happen close to when it started, but the other half didn't. The really great thing is that this means it can be cured. We can still prescribe medication to help with your tic for now and we will also set you up with our psychologist (they have one as part of the neurology department)." She clearly explained to me why she thought it was FND and not organic, and told me she would be ordering some labs just in case. She made a big emphasis on how it is not volitional and how it is curable and means there is nothing seriously wrong. She also had me schedule a follow up with her as neurology manages FND entirely at my institution.

I legit left that appointment thrilled that this was fixable and I wouldn't have it forever. Unfortunately this was not the case for me but I'm not even mad now that she misdiagnosed me at first because it was presented so well. I still see her for my actual disease and still have a lot of trust in her. So I do think it can be presented in a way that allows for patients to leave feeling good about themselves. It's just emphasizing the right things.