I am very aware there is very little info around about this condition, and as i have been living with this dx since 2008 I am open to answer any questions about it that i can either from a personal level or a factual one from my research.

to start things off....

what is it called? Dissociative motor disorder (DMD), in the US it is classed with conversion disorder (CD), i have heard of it being classed as functual neurological disorder (FND) too. I have DMD as my dx.

where is it classified DMD is classified by the World health authority number F44.4

What causes it? it was explained to me as being 'emotions from my past that i was unable or not allowed to process in the right way now surfacing in a physical way'

my background I was emotionally and sexually abused for over 10 years as a child/teen, mum decided to let the man stay in the family home because she did not want to grow old alone even though she knew what he was doing to me (she blocked it out and denied it). I moved 200 miles away at 19 to start a life without family ties but every week mother would still phone to tell me her life including what my abuser was up to! a few years later i met my partner, and gained the confidence to cut all ties with the family. my partner died of fibrosing alveoilitis and heart disease after a 10 year struggle with only me as his carer, at the same time i was working as a childrens nanny and was running and working in my own 36 place pre-school nursery and caring for an elderly friend, so was physically and emotionally exhausted.

how it started for years i blamed arthritis for my hurting legs as i had been dxd with it in my knee years earlier and it runs through the family. but gradually i began getting very tired, put it down to all the work i was doing and the stress of caring for a dying man- the love of my life.my doc said 'what do you expect' I picked up a bit after his death, but was a bit depressed, not to the point of being unable to function, but to the point i cried very easily and for hours at night, my patience was being tested by the childern at nursery..not me at all as i was the most patient person ever! gradually my hands started hurting and eventually the children could manipulate the toys easier than me! my doc just laughted and shrugged it off. then my asthma quadrupled in severity, my sphincter control got worse, and my legs were still getting worse to the point i could not stand still for the pain. i began struggling to function at all after lunch, needing to stay seated and eventually needing to lie down/sleep for 1.5 hours after a light lunch. i closed nursery and took a break from work hoping to rest up and get better, but things deteriorated even more to the point i was housebound, struggling to walk at all, my brain and legs/arms/hands began to not talk to each other, so i would go to pick something up and my hand would not move or i'd stand but one leg or both would not straighten, doc refused to come out to see me. 18 months later i took an overdose of rat poison as i could see no way out of this. i was relying on one friend to come every 6-8 weeks to go shopping for me, she came picked up the list, went came back put the shopping in the hallway and went. that was the sum total of my human contact for the whole 18 months! i was taken to a mental health unit and that is where they dxd me. funny thing is i felt far better having taken the poison than i had in months even before they took me in!

how is it diagnosed there is no real test or examination that proves it, I was diagnosed through observation in hospital, i since had MRI and CT scans to rule out other physical dx's. although it presents the problems associated with MS/Stroke etc, the scans don't they come back ok!

what is the usual course of it usually it comes suddenly and goes within a few months if treated correctly, though some cases can last over a year, in these instances it never fully goes and some experience the full effect for life.

what is the recognised treatment
it is recommended that long term inpatient care is required where OT, physio, psychological therapies and nursing care can be given intensively, if this is provided there is a greater chance of full recovery.
it is recognised that a person with DMD will in most cases be unable to recover fully by remaining in the community care system.(not inpatient)
the above listed treatments/therapies must be given at the same time to be effective, giving them one after another will not help recovery.

How it progresses without the correct treatment
This will be dependent on what parts of the body are affected,
for me personally i gradually lost the ability to walk, needing to hold/lean on the walls to get around the house, falling more often, until my legs unable to bear my weight and i fell as soon as i stood up. they still have full flexibility if moved manually by hand but are begining to get stiff now. my hands get very achy, there is presently a second or two delay in wanting to grip/release my fingers and it happening, my fingers feel stiff though they still have full if slow movement. my grip is weak, my arms are unable to wheel my wheelchair over even tiny cracks in the pavement. i found it painful to sit upright for long for a few years before dx, till now where i can only sit up with support of a five point body harness. Without it I have to sit in the yoga position where the soles of my feet are together and my knees are out to the sides and then use both hands to stop me flopping forward or to the side.(ability of a 3-6 month old). my hand/eye co-ordination varies from minute to minute, sometimes with full concentration i can pick a cup up first time , but more often i miss the cup completely and have to readjust my aim to get it!(past pointing). My internal muscles are deteriorating too, i am fully and perminently incontinent of urine, i can sometimes hold feaces for about a minute but definitely no longer and often not at all, so it won't be long before this becomes full and perminent too. I have a lot of trouble with digesting food, constant acid reflux (even with antacids) my lung capacity is quater of what a healthy persons my age should be. my heartbeat is high, blood pressure ok.
mentally i am far less patient than i used to be, i get frustrated easily, i go through phases of being stressed out&exhausted&crying lots, ok with everything&happy to help anyone and phases of just wanting to curl up and hibernate away from everyone unable to do anything except eat and lay in bed. my arms and body spasm for a good hour on waking up and when tired, during this time i am unable to focus or form words though my brain still want's to communicate and is thinking clearly throughout.this severely impacts on my sleep because being unable to turn myself over in my sleep means i wake up two or three times a night, spasm for an hour turn over then go back to sleep!(i take temazapam once a month so i get a full night of undisturbed sleep when i am really exhausted!) I am still very sharp intellectually though reading and writing is now very difficult, i was very good before, but now I struggle with simple words and give up after a sentence because my brain and eyes hurt big time! (i am using read and write gold to type this from my speach) my math is still very sharp and i can out do my PA when calculating her pay, and she uses a calculator! i think i have covered how i am in full, but may have missed something. i am too tired now to check so will do tomorrow.

please feel free to ask any questions you want about this dx and i will do my best to answer them x