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Our brains will make the worst jokes to us. They always try to explain and classify stimuli from the outside world. Sometimes they perceive threats from the weakest information collected by the body and the environment. Occasionally, they are overactive and cause the most serious diseases, such as hallucinations, epilepsy, paralysis, and coma, even if the body does not have any physical problems.<\/p>\n

This is the area that Irish neurologist Suzanne O\u2019Sullivan<\/a> has been studying for many years. She lives in London and specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of intractable diseases, such as patients with epileptic seizures, but they do not necessarily suffer from epilepsy. Her task is to expose the public’s misunderstanding of psychosomatic illnesses<\/strong> (note: psychosomatic illnesses<\/a> refer to diseases that are caused by psychosocial factors but mainly manifested by physical symptoms).<\/p>\n

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For example, people will think that the psychosomatic disease is not serious, or not at all, or even pretending to be. O’Sullivan will use some creepy stories to lead us to explore those dissociative disorders (dissociative disorders<\/a>, Note: Dissociative disorders refer to the disintegration of memory, self-awareness, or cognitive functions. The cause is usually extreme People who cannot live on their own due to high stress or extreme trauma).<\/p>\n

O’Sullivan and Oliver Sacks are both extremely talented writers. From her research cases, we can easily appreciate her sympathy for patients. In her new book \u00abThe Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness<\/a>\u00ab, O’Sullivan travelled around the world to investigate a series of strange and interesting diseases, and more importantly, they are all highly contagious.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Sweden, a girl became listless, and hundreds of other children fell into a similar coma. A teenager in Nicaragua saw a scary little man wearing a hat, and dozens of other children in the school began to see the same ghost. Dozens of American diplomats in embassies around the world claimed that they all suffered from similar illnesses, such as headaches, fatigue, and memory loss, but there was no evidence that they had physical problems.<\/p>\n

O’Sullivan said that psychosomatic diseases are far more common than we thought, but few people admit that they have this disease. She explained that, in fact, \u201cnot accepting the diagnosis will worsen the condition, and then seek medical advice and keep doing tests, hoping to get another diagnosis, even if it\u2019s not their true cause at all. The result is that you His life has become a mess.\u00bb<\/p>\n

I interviewed O’Sullivan at her home in London to discuss these mysterious diseases and medical diagnoses.<\/p>\n