Conversion disorder: 'My physical pain was linked to my mental health'

Jasmine was injured in a trampoline incident when she was seven but then experienced further health issues

A 15-year-old girl whose family spent years trying to work out why she was suffering from severe pains says she now lives a normal life after doctors linked the issue to her mental health.

Jasmine was aged seven when she was injured while on a trampoline.

Initial pain in her knee spread to her legs and she started to eat less, but doctors could not determine the cause.

She was eventually diagnosed with a condition where physical symptoms occur in response to psychological distress.

Jasmine, who lives in Peterborough, had undergone various tests for three years before she was seen at a mental health centre in Cambridge, and diagnosed with somatoform disorder, or conversion disorder.

"The anxiety over not eating was linked to my pain," Jasmine says.

Jasmine was unable to attend school following the trampoline accident

Jasmine had to wear a leg brace following the trampoline accident, and the pain in her leg escalated to a point where she was no longer able to attend school.

She used a wheelchair and crutches to get around.

"I was really scared," she said. "I wasn't able to go to school, play with my friends.

"I couldn't do all the typical things a young person could do. I was in and out of a wheelchair."

After years of seeing doctors, Jasmine's family said she was not getting any answers to the cause of her severe pain.

"I didn't know how long it would last and if it would affect my whole life," Jasmine said. "I just wanted to know why it was happening."

Jasmine said she was seen by "loads of doctors" at two different hospitals, "where I had CT scans, but they couldn't find what was wrong, which made me really angry".

'Convinced someone had poisoned my grapes'

The not knowing, slowly led to Jasmine refusing to eat any food.

"I was convinced someone had poisoned my grapes and then it moved to breakfast cereals like cornflakes," she said.

"I would only be eating bread and then it got to the extent where I wasn't eating bread, so I wasn't eating anything."

Shortly after, Jasmine went to The Croft Child and Family Unit, an in-patient centre for children with mental health conditions and their families.

It was there through play therapy and traditional therapy sessions that they found Jasmine's symptoms and food anxiety were linked to her physical pain, and she was diagnosed with conversion disorder.

Nancy Bostock, consultant paediatrician at The Croft, said: "We know about 75% of all mental health disorders start in childhood and adolescence, so it's super important that we understand the importance of the lifelong impact that mental health difficulties have on children.

"You can't have physical health without mental health, and you can't have mental health without physical health, they are absolutely interlinked."

Nancy Bostock, from the Croft Child and Family Unit, says the physical and mental health of children are "absolutely interlinked"

Jasmine left The Croft on her 11th birthday and says she now has a normal life.

"I've been so active. I dance, I do gymnastics, I do theatre," she said.

"I love acting. It's just been really good."

A dedicated hospital for children is planned at Cambridge Biomedical Campus

It is hoped a new children's hospital in Cambridge, the first for the East of England, will provide a joined up approach to mental and physical health.

Dr Isobel Hyman is the clinical co-lead for mental health for Cambridge Children's Hospital, which is planned for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Dr Isobel Heyman hopes Cambridge Children's Hospital will improve the care for young people in the area

She said the hospital would aim to bring together the mental and physical treatment of children.

"That hasn't been done in a complete way before," she said.

"We've reached a stage in medicine where we shouldn't be separating mind and body, we need to be working on both together."

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