I Am Not An Attention-Seeker

    Hey everyone! My name is Felicity and I’m so excited that Abby reached out to me! I can’t wait to share my story with y’all and I hope that it can break the cycle of stereotyping people. In my ninth grade year I was struggling with my health. I was experiencing the inability to walk, talk, double and blurry vision; those were just a few of my symptoms. After many doctors visits (and a couple hospital stays) I was finally diagnosed with conversion disorder. I am doing better now, but I was temporarily incapacitated for six months in a wheelchair. It was a dark time for me because the doctors can’t just give you a pill and make it go away. I had to take it upon myself to change my stress reduction habits and to put in effort to get better. Since then I have experienced stereotyping with my doctors and unfortunately with friends. While most people were willing to help me and encourage me through it, it was difficult to explain to friends (and sometimes doctors) because to someone who has always seen you healthy it can look like you are trying to get attention. But the fact is is that it’s a real disease and very few people are diagnosed with it. I had to learn to let some people go because they weren’t willing to accept the situation I was in; that was really hard. It was hard because some of them were friends I had since we moved to Oxford. So the stereotype I was put in by some of my “friends” was attention seeker. Now with my doctors, it can be hard to explain what conversion disorder is if they don’t (Because not all of them know!) know what it is. After I told my doctors about it all of them were supportive of me, but I felt that only a few truly believed me. Soon after I regained the ability to walk, talk, and see properly I was so exhausted all the time. That makes sense I hadn’t walked in six months! (I got better somewhere around March of 2018.) But it kept persisting and getting worse; I thought surely something else is causing this. This horrible fatigue lasted from April 2018 to July 2018. I had blood tests done and everything came back normal. I talked with several doctors and most said it was just the conversion disorder, but only two of my doctors disagreed. Finally one of my doctors agreed that it couldn’t be the conversion disorder and ordered an extensive blood test. Everything came back normal, but the doctor who ordered the test called. He said that my glucose was low (not abnormal, just on the low range of normal glucose levels) and that I had or been exposed to Mono. It was the best day ever to know that something else was causing my extreme fatigue. I felt like I was getting a step closer to breaking the stereotype that many people may experience. I’m still on a journey of breaking the “attention seeker” stereotype with a doctor, but I feel and hope that this inspires other people to always speak up and question everything. Just because doctors are super smart these people can still make mistakes; it’s better to question rather than to accept. That way doctors and others can see you are an advocate for your health. Thanks again to Abby reaching out and letting me share my story. I hope you will be able to understand at least some part of what I went through; I would love to answer any questions that any of y’all have. Also if you feel like you’re experiencing some super weird symptoms, go to your doctor and ask about conversion disorder. It is rare, but it may provide you and your family some answers to what could be causing the symptoms you’re experiencing. Also if you’ve been diagnosed with it Mayo Clinic is a great source of information to better understand conversion disorder! 

Felicity O’Rielly

@fro_2014