Compelling, insightful, inspiring, and educational.
Have you heard of Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)? Maybe, maybe not. But certainly not because sufferers are few in number or unconcerned about their health. Rather, this devastating disorder is often mistaken for another illness, masked by other health problems, or underdiagnosed by practitioners unfamiliar with FND. Jocelyn Bystrom had never heard of FND by the time she began experiencing debilitating seizures, headaches, and other symptoms. FiNDing Hope: The Mind-Body Connection and the Importance of Being Seen and Heard is a biographical account of the everyday struggles, fears, frustrations, and anxieties felt as one woman searches for answers to an illness decades in the making.
If a child falls out of a tree and breaks a leg, the plan for their care is fairly clear-cut. The bone is reset and the child gets a cast, a set of crutches, and a stern warning about tree climbing. At school, other kids might carry their books, offer for them to go to the head of the lunch line, show intense interest in how the injury occurred, and even clamor to sign their cast. Not so for less ostentatious illnesses, particularly in the mental health family. For Jocelyn, the unrelenting stress of declining health is only compounded as she becomes a caregiver to her aging mother, faces a career disaster, and searches for a diagnosis that continues to elude her. And those are just some of her external troubles. Her friends and family care, but don’t quite know how to help. The strain on her supportive husband weighs on her. And the interminable wait for answers becomes a vicious and damaging cycle. Even her faith begins to waver in the face of an uncertain but certainly unhealthy future.
Jocelyn Bystrom writes with a clear, concise voice that facilitates compassion and understanding of a disorder with far-reaching consequences. Vivid scenes, like a seizure in a crowded gift shop or the terror of a lumbar puncture, give heartbreaking insights into extraordinarily challenging moments that become part of the day-to-day routine for the author. As Jocelyn navigates her declining physical, emotional, and spiritual health, readers are granted clues as to what precipitated the disorder. Years of catastrophizing events, living as a perfectionist, being a people-pleaser, and constantly wondering if it’s ‘all in your head’ take a toll and eventually catch up to her, culminating in an FND diagnosis. A story about advocating for yourself, Jocelyn’s experiences point toward hope and healing and always come back to finding strength in her faith, her family, and herself. Compelling, insightful, inspiring, and educational, FiNDing Hope offers a way forward and can benefit anyone suffering from similar unexplained illnesses, mental health issues, traumas, and stresses.
