Symptom Library

FND presentations Limb weakness When an arm or leg will not take orders Limb weakness in FND is real and involuntary. A limb can feel heavy, give way, or refuse to move even though scans may look normal. Strength often fluctuates through the day. Open guide → FND presentations Functional seizures Episodes that can look like epilepsy — and still be real Functional seizures are involuntary episodes of altered movement, awareness or responsiveness caused by a functional nervous-system pattern rather than the electrical mechanism of epilepsy. They can be frightening, exhausting and life-changing. Open guide → FND presentations Functional tremor Shaking you cannot switch off Functional tremor is rhythmical shaking of a body part that is involuntary. It may vary in speed and severity, come and go, and become more obvious when attention or stress load rises. Open guide → FND presentations Functional movement disorders When movement programmes fire the wrong way Functional movement disorders cover involuntary movement symptoms — tremor, dystonia-type postures, jerks, gait changes and more — driven by functional nervous-system patterns rather than the classic degenerative movement-disease pathways. Open guide → FND presentations Functional dystonia When muscles pull into postures you did not choose Functional dystonia involves sustained muscle contractions that pull a body part into an abnormal posture. It can be painful, frightening and highly visible — and still be a functional neurological pattern. Open guide → FND presentations Jerks and twitches Sudden movements that startle you as much as everyone else Functional jerks and twitches are sudden, brief involuntary movements. They can be infrequent or almost constant, and they often worsen when the nervous system is wound up or exhausted. Open guide → FND presentations Functional tics Movements or sounds that keep returning Functional tics are repetitive movements or vocalisations that are involuntary in the moment. They can appear quite suddenly, change over time, and sit alongside other FND symptoms. Open guide → FND presentations Gait disorder When walking becomes unreliable Functional gait problems change how you walk — dragging, buckling, tiny cautious steps, veering, or a pattern that looks dramatic and still has a functional mechanism. Falls risk is real. Open guide → FND presentations Drop attacks Sudden falls with little or no warning Drop attacks are sudden falls to the ground while standing or walking. In a functional pattern, people often cannot recall the fall itself but are aware of hitting the ground, and may get up fairly quickly compared with some other attack types. Open guide → FND presentations Sensory symptoms Numbness, tingling, odd sensations and altered touch Functional sensory symptoms include numbness, pins and needles, burning, tightness, or patches of altered sensation. They can be patchy, fluctuating and deeply unsettling — especially when scans are clear. Open guide → FND presentations Speech and swallowing symptoms When words stick, voice changes, or swallowing feels unsafe Functional speech and swallowing symptoms can include slurred or effortful speech, whispering, word-finding freezes, stuttering-like patterns, and a sense that swallowing is unsafe. They often flare with fatigue and overload. Open guide → FND presentations Cognitive symptoms Brain fog, memory gaps and concentration that will not hold Cognitive symptoms in and around FND include fog, slowed thinking, attention crashes and memory that feels full of holes. Some people also describe severe temporary memory loss after a convulsive seizure — terrifying in the moment, and often short-lived. These symptoms are common, invisible, and can limit work, study and confidence. Open guide → FND presentations Dizziness and persistent imbalance When the world will not sit still — or you will not Functional dizziness can feel like rocking, swaying, foggy head, or constant unsteadiness that is worse in busy visual environments. It often lasts months and steals confidence even when brief spins are not the main story. Open guide → FND presentations Visual symptoms Blur, tunnel vision, light sensitivity and visual “glitches” Functional visual symptoms can include blurred vision, intermittent loss of vision, double vision sensations, light sensitivity, and visual disturbances that fluctuate. Eye checks still matter — then a functional explanation may fit. Open guide → FND presentations Facial symptoms Spasm, pulling, weakness feelings or odd facial movements Functional facial symptoms include spasms around an eye or lower face, pulling sensations, or episodes of facial movement that are involuntary. They are more common than many people realise and can travel with limb symptoms. Open guide → FND presentations Bladder symptoms Urgency, frequency, retention and loss of control Bladder symptoms can appear alongside FND — urgency, frequency, incontinence, difficulty starting, or retention. They always need proper urological assessment; functional patterns can still play a role once other causes are addressed. Open guide →

Often with FND Fatigue Exhaustion that does not match how little you “did” Fatigue is one of the most limiting companions of FND. People often describe being wiped out after small activity — sometimes the next day — even when visible symptoms are quieter. Open guide → Often with FND Pain When the volume knob on pain sticks high Pain frequently travels with FND — headaches, limb pain, neck and back pain, widespread aches. Pain is not “less real” because FND is present. It deserves its own plan. Open guide → Often with FND Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) Intense pain, colour and temperature changes after injury CRPS is a pain condition that can follow injury. Some people also have functional motor symptoms such as weakness, dystonia or tremor in the same limb. Both need careful, specialist-informed care. Open guide → Often with FND Sleep problems Nights that do not restore you Sleep problems are extremely common with FND: trouble getting off to sleep, staying asleep, waking unrefreshed, or sleeping long hours and still exhausted. Poor sleep often lowers the threshold for other symptoms. Open guide → Often with FND Headache Migraine, tension-type pain and the daily head load Headache is common in people living with FND. Migraine and tension-type patterns both occur. Headache can drag fatigue, light sensitivity and cognitive symptoms along with it. Open guide → Often with FND Dissociative symptoms Feeling detached, unreal, or far from your body Dissociation can feel like watching life from behind glass, being unreal, or not fully inhabiting your body. It commonly appears around functional seizures and high nervous-system threat — and it is frightening if nobody names it. Open guide → Often with FND Worry and panic When the alarm system will not stand down Worry and panic are common when living with unpredictable neurological symptoms. They can also amplify symptoms. Treating anxiety seriously is not the same as saying FND is “just anxiety”. Open guide → Often with FND Health anxiety When every sensation feels like a warning light Health anxiety means living on high alert about symptoms and serious disease. With FND — where symptoms are real and tests are often normal — that alert system can become exhausting. Open guide → Often with FND Low mood When FND weighs on more than the body Low mood and depression are common when life shrinks around symptoms. Treating mood is part of whole-person care. It does not rewrite FND into a “purely psychiatric” story. Open guide → Often with FND Gut, chest and other body symptoms When the whole body joins the nervous-system story People with FND more often also meet functional gut symptoms, breathing pattern problems, chest tightness without cardiac disease, jaw pain and related patterns. Each still needs appropriate checks. Open guide → Often with FND Post-concussion symptoms When recovery after a head injury drags on After a concussion, some people have prolonged headache, fog, dizziness, mood change and sensory sensitivity. These can overlap with functional symptom patterns and need careful, staged rehab — not endless rest or reckless push. Open guide →