Today, I've asked my niece B to tell you a little about Conversion Disorder. We're grateful to finally have a name for this horrible group of symptoms that have been so painful for her and all who love her........
I'm B, Sharon's niece, and I live with something called Conversion Disorder. It's a debilitating mental illness. There are different symptoms depending on the person. For me, it's seizures and black out episodes. They started out of nowhere, and I've been told that I will have this for the rest of my life. I did recently find out something that I never knew before about this illness, and that is that people who suffer from Conversion often have a close family member who also suffers from a chronic illness. For me, that family member is my mother, who lives with Scoliosis. And because of that, I didn't develop any coping skills as a little girl, and I don't quite know how to handle life all the time. So, now I'm sick. I've been sick for a year now, and it doesn't get any easier. I now have chronic pain from all the seizures, and being a 20 year old in an 80 year old body is really hard. I can hardly get out and do things with my friends. But it hasn't kept me from trying to stay as positive as I can. I'm currently working on a memoir about living with Conversion. All I want is for the word to be out.
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