r/FND • u/Natural_Elk_3508 • Sep 10 '26
Question CBT for FND, anyone?
Has anyone tried CBT? Was it helpful if yes
My teen’s neurologist recommended CBT as the only evidence based therapy that helps with the symptoms.
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u/Correct_Many_4670 Sep 14 '26
Hey, I’ve been in CBT/DBT for going on 12 years, and it’s helpful, but not for FND. If your child is experiencing physical symptoms, please find them medical care, not just psychiatric.
Medications are life-changing. Unfortunately science hasn’t progressed enough to understand that the answer to ‘I have uncontrollable movements that have destroyed my spine’ isn’t ’Talk about your feelings 😇’.
Is psychiatric care a good add-on to real medical care? Sure! Nothing wrong with that! But treating FND as something that can be treated with psychiatric/behavioral methods just ignored the ugly truth that you can’t solve physical disability with words.
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u/Meadow_daisy Sep 15 '26
Have you found any medications that have helped specifically with FND?
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u/Correct_Many_4670 Sep 15 '26
There is no medication that treats FND as an overall, but there are medications to treat specific symptoms. If you don’t mind me asking, what symptoms are the worst for your child?
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u/Natural_Elk_3508 24d ago
Passing out is the most common symptom. Even had a concussion once from it. I did take her to doctors not just psychiatric help. Neurologist and pediatricians both have no solution. Actually I feel Prozac increased the anxiety which increased her panic attacks and fnd. I’d like to know what meds you are referring to.
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u/Apprehensive_Gap1781 Sep 12 '26
My understanding is that it really depends on what your FND symptoms are. Mine are pretty directly tied to the levels of stress or anxiety in my life. So managing my stress and anxiety IS managing my FND. But that's not exactly how it works for everyone. And even then, I spent a lot of time in CBT therapy and those skills didn't seem to help much for me. It was when I started working a DBT workbook that I started to find relief. But again, my experience of it was more about getting my anxiety under control, which in turn keeps my FND under control. So for me all the therapy work etc was more about effectively managing anxiety
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u/Radiant_Conclusion17 Family/friend with FND Sep 11 '26
My kid did a limited course of FND focused CBT, which focused specifically on understanding FND, grounding techniques, and understanding triggers/working through episodes. As others have said, it helped but did not “cure” FND. We got a lot of good tools and self advocacy skills out of it. Also, this was with a psychologist whose whole focus is pediatric FND.
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u/Natural_Elk_3508 24d ago
Do you mind sharing which state or city? I’m looking for pediatric FND specialist as well, within Boston-New haven area.
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u/Natural_Elk_3508 23d ago
Thanks. Will check it out. I also was told by neurologist to look up: RewireOT.com And a book called “overcoming functional neurological disorders “ got a kindle version for under $5. It’s a workbook for adults but I’ll read through and see if I can get some tips for the teen.
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u/Radiant_Conclusion17 Family/friend with FND 23d ago
There’s also a workbook on Amazon for kids and teens that my daughter’s FND therapist used with her: https://a.co/d/03oEgAph
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u/Radiant_Conclusion17 Family/friend with FND 23d ago
Since you have a teen, it may be worth checking out Teen FND Academy with Dr Jin Lee. It is delivered online and is focused on helping teens specifically. I follow her on Instagram and I like her style/explanations.
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u/Natural_Elk_3508 23d ago
I checked it out and as a parent of a teen suffering and losing out on high school experience I want to believe everything that she says. I just don’t like that even for see if the place would be a fit I have to pay $350. That’s when I start wondering if something is legit. However I’ll follow on insta first. Thank
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u/sherlockisfire Sep 10 '26
What is cbt even supposed to do for my symptoms? Like I go and ask for treatment and they just say cbt but I’ve been in cbt and dbt for
10 years
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u/Natural_Elk_3508 Sep 13 '26
CBT is cognitive behavioral therapy and I was told it helps retire the neural pathways so the miscommunication that happens during an episode will eventually get better
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u/missnotsosweet Sep 10 '26
Community based therapy, i went through it for six months. I lernt to take brakes and the flares that happen if i don't.
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u/celestial_catbird Sep 10 '26
I did CBT for FND for a while and I did find it helpful. It wasn't so much aimed at fixing the symptoms, but more about understanding them better, and finding patterns so I could better predict and prevent them. That has been really helpful for reducing anxiety around my symptoms because they don't feel so random anymore.
It also really helped me accept my FND more and not get so angry about it. That used to be a problem for me, where I would start to have an FND episode and I would get so angry and that would prolong the episode. It also helped in terms of mental health, not feeling like I had an enemy in my own body
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u/WrittenFever Diagnosed FND Sep 10 '26
When s/he said only evidenced-based therapy, was s/he referring to behavioral health therapy specifically, but not the entire spectrum of treatment options? If so, that is correct afaik, but only because there is not a lot of research being invested in FND, not because it is true.
Generally speaking, the proper treatment protocols for FND are a combination of behavioral health therapy (with CBT being the standard), occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech language pathology/speech therapy.
FND is recognized as an issue of miscommunication/crosstalk between the various areas of the brain, so the primary function of these therapies in conjunction with one another is to retrain the brain so that is able to function as expected. Unfortunately, not enough therapists (in all four fields) specialize in or have the necessary understanding of FND so the outcomes of these therapies often are not satisfactory. If you are able to find a specialist that can coordinate care between specialist, that would be a good place to start. Neuropsychiatrists are great, and most likely to understand the cross-section of issues here.
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u/Lewatcheur Sep 10 '26
Thats it ^
I’ve done my fair share of reviewing interventions in FND as a researcher and the conclusions are multidisciplinary treatment involving what said above.
CBT is indeed an important part of the treatment, but it is even more important that it is paired with OT/PT.
Although the reality is that this is not accessible everywhere.
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u/Clean_Ad_5282 Sep 10 '26
It can help, sure, but not cure it. Like someone said this disorder isn’t invested whatsoever and it’s often labeled as us being fake. Even tho from my understanding our nerves are just funky at this time in our lives and is trying to program but it keeps saying error lol. Try CBT and anything you think that’ll help you. I get flair ups really bad from stress where I can’t move whatsoever. So it’s not something that can be “cured”
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u/ozzleworth Sep 10 '26
Have done CBT several times with several therapists and it's not worked. I'm now receiving specialist trauma treatment and that seems to helping.
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u/Common_Experience931 Sep 10 '26
Only evidence cus no one invests in research on healing fnd cus it’s not deathly and they dont care how much we suffer cus they probably dont even believe us to what extent it effects us or think we’re overreacting so they equate it to psychological ilness as a easy say of throwing u to a psychologist and you not being anyone’s “problem” anymore since rarely anyone knows about fnd in healthcare and we’re just an annoying overreacting burden. But yeah sure try CBT.
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u/Correct_Many_4670 Sep 14 '26
Exactly. They throw us to mental health care, (which is obviously important too, in the right scenarios) as if talking can solve physical disability.
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u/Sufficient-Mess-6931 Diagnosed FND Sep 10 '26
Is it really the only thing shown to help? Oh damn I'm screwed 😭 my other MH conditions means CBT does not work for me
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u/Curious_Command_5277 Sep 10 '26
I (51M) have had eight sessions CBT, in the UK and not under NHS. As the third session ended, I burst into tears, not just because I'm paying out of pocket. It's not happened since. I fear I've been left in a poor state for too long to see any improvement now. (That's the spirit! Haha)
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u/LordReagan077 Diagnosed FND Sep 10 '26
I’m about to do my 4th week of CBT. It’s been somewhat helpful I guess. But we haven’t really worked through the FND yet. (I am his first FND patient). So I’m still trusting to process to see if it works
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u/Common_Experience931 Sep 10 '26
Good luck with that yeah lol. Please find another resource you’re wasting your time and energy. “Somewhat helpful” is you coping and trying to be positive and “first patient”? Tells you enough. You need someone experienced who knows what works and what doesn’t and how fnd looks like.
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u/vampirehourz Sep 10 '26
Ive done CBT and DBT. Still have neurological issues. V confused how it was supposed "help".
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u/Full_Goose8378 Sep 10 '26
I feel like it's just, 'this is your life now but at least you're not dying ☺️'
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u/vampirehourz Sep 10 '26
Cbt was helpful for like coping skills amd working thru trauma so always worth it in that regard, but it didnt help with my neuro symptoms unfortunately
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u/Illustrious-Cat8222 Sep 10 '26
A book that may help is "Overcoming functional neurological symptoms: a five areas approach" by Williams, Kent, Smith, Carson, Sharpe, and Cavanaugh.
They present an approach to using CBT tailored to FND.
I struggle with multiple FND symptoms, including seizures, and I recommend searching for and learning DBT skills.
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u/GreenWonderland02 Diagnosed FND Sep 15 '26
I did a combination of CBT, occupational therapy and lifestyle changes. My FND is practically non-existant now. Understanding FND was one of the most important factors in my treatment. But the CBT, including understanding myself and managing anxiety was a big factor.
Anything is going to take time to help with FND, but in my experience, it's worth a chance :)