u/Sea_Comparison5556

I see on here a lot (and have also been told in person by doctors and therapists) that FND is caused or triggered by psychological conditions and trauma.

I have some mental health conditions, but I also have a lot of physical health conditions, and my FND symptoms seem far more tied to my physical rather than mental state.

(I have tourettes, POTS, and a traumatic brain injury. I also have diagnosed OCD and ADHD and suspected autism.)

My most common symptom is what I call "body shutdowns" where I lose tone in my body, am unable to move, will stare off into the distance with nystagmus, and I will have a hard time thinking or processing what people are saying or what's going on around me.

They almost always happen after a long day of either suppressing my tics, walking around and being too hot, not eating enough, or a significant amount of cognitive or sensory stimulation (commonly a big trigger for brain injuries). I also pop back up pretty quickly with electrolytes and sugar.

It has never been (at least in recent memory) tied to anxiety or my OCD. It hasn't gotten consistently better or worse with stress (sometimes higher stress increases the duration and frequency, sometimes it decreases it).

Has anyone else had this experience of FND almost exclusively caused by physical health triggers?

I have been professionally diagnosed with tourettes when I was 13, I had a classic presentation (simple motor and vocal tics starting around age 6, progressing to severe tics when I started going through puberty), and now as a late 20s adult I still have moderate - severe tics depending on the dat

So my question here isn't "do I have Tourettes?" I know I do.

My question is, how do you tell the difference between complex tics and FND? Where do you draw the line?

I have atonic tics (essentially cataplexy like reactions where I lose muscle tone, flop to the floor, and I'm unresponsive for a few minutes to a few hours. I also get severe brain fog before during and after these, they take extended time to come out of, and I am a lot more clumsy for a few hours after).

I have dystonic tics (twisting and getting stuck in awkward positions).

And then when I was a teenager I used to have "tic attacks"/"seizure tics" (I would convulse on the ground). I don't have these anymore, but I do sometimes have full body jerks while I'm chilling or in an atonic tic.

I also have tic storms (?) where I just have a bunch of self injurious/destructive tics, yelling, coprolalia, etc.

I am sick of people saying that these are FND (or at least exclusively FND) when I have diagnosed Tourettes.

Does anyone have similar experiences with these kinds of tics?