Anxiety Symptoms: Fight or Flight - a range of evolutionarily advantageous physical changes common to mammals - helpful for dealing with acute threat (e.g. car screeching toward us) - brain struggles to differentiate between imagined threat and ‘objective’ threat.

Medically Unexplained Symptoms (Functional Symptoms) Umbrella term for several diagnoses with a neurological basis (e.g. non-epileptic attach disorder, chronic pain, dissociative symptoms) Because there is no ‘damage’ to the nervous system, routine medical investigations (e.g. scans, blood tests) produce no definitive indications. Not “all in the mind” but as yet poorly understood by medical science. Evidence suggests problems in brain sending and receiving neuronal information – i.e. a problem with the function of the nervous system. Like having software problem on a computer, rather than a hardware problem. Can often be treated and/or managed effectively with multi-disciplinary approaches (usually Med/Psych/Physio/OT) but require a concerted effort from everyone (patient themselves, family, school, work etc). Biopsychosocial approach to make sense of predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating factors. Understanding is key.

Understanding symptoms Biological Psychological Social Predisposing Genetic factors / Structural Disease Personality Traits Depression / Anxiety Adverse experiences Precipitating Physical injury / illness Acute dissociation Concern / attention about bodily symptoms Stressful life events Perpetuating Changes in nervous system function Subtle neuroendocrine changes Worry about cause Avoidance of symptom provocation Anger Frustration Depression Not being believed / Stigma of an ‘undiagnosed’ illness / Loss of job/independent income www.neurosymptoms.org

Cognitive-Behavioural Understandings