16 February 2025

“My daughter was diagnosed with FND a year ago. She is aged 12 and went from [being] an incredibly active, engaged, and happy girl, to losing the ability to walk overnight. The next seven months were a complete nightmare as we navigated a very wide and terrifying range of FND symptoms including constant seizures and inability to swallow for days. We spent months living in
the hospital with no real idea of whether she would ever recover.”

People with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) experience severe and disabling neurological symptoms that impact on all aspects of their life (Gill, 2019).  Many people with FND are disabled by frequent seizures, tremors, tics, paralysis, gait disorder and severe sensory sensitivity.  Yet when routine medical testing fails to identify clear disease processes, many people with potentially treatable symptoms become permanently disabled due to lack of targeted care and support.

Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) is the second most common reason, after headache, people present to a Neurologist (Stone et al., 2009).  Despite the prevalence of the condition, awareness of FND remains low across the health professions and community (Stone, Reuber, & Carson, 2013).  Many professionals report having little education and knowledge in FND, and many specialists report having a negative attitude to people with FND (Lehn, Bullock-Saxton, Newcombe, Carson, & Stone, 2019).

FND is a brain disorder arising from problems of connectivity between different parts of the brain and between the brain and the body (Aybek & Perez, 2022).  The brain disorder has wide ranging impacts on the body, with symptoms often being variable and sometimes changing over time.

Systemic health care gaps for FND patients are common as the disorder is misunderstood.  An early diagnosis and access to FND specific therapies is predictive of a better prognosis (Gelauff, Carson, Ludwig, Tijssen, & Stone, 2019), yet access to FND services, clinical pathways and support in the community remains inaccessible to many.  People with FND continue to struggle to access treatment and disability supports, and experience severe financial hardship when the impact of the condition leads to them being unable to maintain their careers and study (Gill, 2019).

FND Australia Support Services is the only charity representing FND in the country.  The charity offers peer support and raises funds to support the training of health professionals, FND programs and services, awareness and educational material.  FND Australia Support Services has released the first

Australian co-designed app that is free to download and provides information and strategies to help people learn to understand and self-manage their condition.

On this awareness day, we encourage people to support conversations about FND, share their stores and to create awareness among their communities.  If you would like to donate to support the work of  the charity,  please        donate here.

For further information about FND or the charity please see www.fndaus.org.au

For any media requests, please contact our President and Director on kate@fndaus.org.au