If you want a more politically correct definition, I would strongly suggest visiting FNDHope.org. This is from personal experience and personal opinion.
My own definition of Functional Neurological Disorder is that it's a brain and nervous system disorder where the brain and body do not talk to each other properly. It is unpredictable and varies in severity from day to day. The nervous system does everything for us, and when it doesn't work correctly, gives a wide of symptoms such as non-epileptic seizures, paralysis, migraines, non-psychiatric related visual disturbances, pain, chronic fatigue, tics, and so many other issues. If the nervous system can control it, automatically or voluntarily, FND can cause it to not work properly. So, basically the whole body is on the table for FND.
I would describe non-epileptic seizures or NES as the brain trying to protect itself and get proper blood flow through any means necessary. The easiest way to get blood flow back up there is to force the body to fall down quickly (usually in the most inopportune time) and force the muscles flex/twitch/flail, which looks incredibly scary and feels incredibly scary. Before an episode, it feels like pressure in the head with a doom feeling as if something very bad is about to happen. My own symptoms will then start up, my speech sounds like I'm having a stroke and loose my fine motor skills. During the seizure, it feels like a dream. I'm still awake and listening but not really retaining any memory. Just waiting for the shaking to stop and while trying not to forget to breath. Afterwards, it feels like I ran up a mountain with a vest filled with bricks and my mind is scattered. Lastly, the "hangover" portion lasts for days or longer, depending how bad it was. All while feeling sluggish, tired, and with major brain fog.
I am not a fan of comparing our brains to computers. It takes humanity out of what we are going through and doesn't encompass just how horrible this disorder is. It also gives the notion that it can just be "turned off", as if it's a choice to be going through it. I feel it's wrong to try to make the explanation of FND that simple or bite size because we don't understand it enough to do that. It is complicated, misunderstood and needs addressed like that. Any doctor that downplays the explanation as "it's a software problem, not a hardware" is doing our community a huge disservice. I'll die on that hill. As long as it's misunderstood by most, don't attempt to minimize the suffering with such severe lack of empathy.
Lastly, I firmly believe that FND has nothing to do with emotions. Although talk therapy can be wonderful for mental health, it will never be the source of healing from this. Our seizures are not "psychogenic", there is nothing "pseudo" or hysterical or fake about it. Sometimes when I read articles about NES, it makes me want to scream because for as long as humans have been practicing medicine, we have been saying "it's just stress" to anything we don't understand.
Pictured is the Snake River, Idaho at 5am.
-Higson, L. (2026). Functional/dissociative seizures as a neuroenergetic deficit syndrome: a brain economy failure hypothesis. Frontiers in Neurology, 17, 1865708. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2026.1865708
-FND Hope - FND Hope International. (2026, July 14). FND Hope International. https://fndhope.org/
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