Frequently Asked Questions.

  • This website explains how we understand and treat functional somatic (bodily) symptoms from a mind-body perspective.

    However, bodysymptoms can be used by anyone who has persistent symptoms. Whatever the underlying cause of the symptoms, the information on bodysymptoms can help you broaden your understanding of your body, and your choices for healing.

  • This website is based on research, clinical and lived expertise of functional symptoms. Functional symptoms is an umbrella term, when you have functional symptoms you may be given one, or several, different diagnoses.

    Some of the most common diagnoses characterised by functional symptoms include: Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain disorders, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Bodily Distress, Autonomic Dysfunction, Somatic Symptom Disorder, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Dissociative disorders, Post-viral conditions, and Functional Neurological Disorders.

    Note: The diagnostic systems in this area are far from perfect. Diagnoses are often based on the way the medical system is split up into specialties. But in reality, the diagnoses overlap. They share many symptoms, and similar mechanisms are thought to underlie them.

    There are other good websites that focus more specifically on a single diagnosis. You can find some recommended links on the resource page.

  • Functional: ‘Functional’ is not a perfect term. But it describes something important.

    The body has a physical structure, that can get damaged. However the body also has particular ways of functioning. Symptoms may be explained by either damage (structural problem) or disorder (functional problem).

    A typical structural problem might be a broken bone. Typical functional problems include problems with communication or timing, problems with overload, or problems with how the body gets back into balance.

  • Functional symptoms are common enough to be thought of as a normal part of life.

    Based on a large recent study carried out in the Netherlands, 49/100 people will go to their doctor with symptoms that do not lead to a diagnosis of a structural disease every year. For most of them, the symptom resolves quickly. 8/100 have the symptom 1 year later [1].

    Figure: Based on data representing 100 people in the general population. Orange bodies: people who will see their GP about a symptom each year (not attributed to disease). Filled-in bodies: people for whom the symptom remains 1 year later.

    For some people, symptoms develop in a way that it becomes difficult to function in daily life. When this happens, we call it a functional disorder.

    A large study of the Danish population suggests that up to 10% of the population suffers from a mild to moderate form of a functional somatic syndrome (a cluster of functional symptoms that mainly effects one organ system).

    Approximately 1-2% of the population has a multi-system functional disorder, where one has many different symptoms and is very burdened by them in daily life [2].

     

    [1] Chaabouni A, et al. Patients’ Characteristics and General Practitioners’ Management of Patients with Symptom Diagnoses. J Am Board Fam Med. 2023. 
    [2] Petersen, M. W., Schröder, A., Jørgensen, T., Ørnbøl, E., Dantoft, T. M., Eliasen, M., … & Fink, P. (2020). Prevalence of functional somatic syndromes and bodily distress syndrome in the Danish population: the DanFunD study. Scandinavian journal of public health, 48(5), 567-576.

     

  • bodysymptoms can:

    • help you to understand the connections between your symptoms,
    • help you explore what mechanisms are most likely to be underlying your unique set of symptoms
    • save you time by explaining helpful approaches that support healing of these mechanisms

    There are many ways we can look at the body. Bodysymptoms can be thought of as a collection of helpful ways to understand what is going on in the body when we have functional symptoms.

    It is very common that people with functional symptoms get multiple diagnoses without understanding how they are all connected. The good news is, because they are connected, they also have overlapping treatment approaches. This means, if you have multiple diagnoses, what you do for one problem, will usually help the other problems.

  • There are many tried and tested ways to get well or, at least, feel significantly better.

    Having said this, the treatment approach in functional symptoms is a bit different from that of symptoms that come from structural disease or damage. Recovery usually involves some trial and error.

    In functional disorders, a customizable and active rehabilitation approach works best. Interventions that are passively ‘done to’ the body, such as medication or surgeries, are often not helpful, and can sometimes push the body even further out of balance. However certain centrally-acting medications are often tried, and help some people with symptoms. Most commonly these are types of antidepressants that have pain relieving or calming effects on the nervous system.

    To find the right focus of rehabilitation or treatment, it is helpful to understand your body’s unique condition, and the mechanisms which are likely to be maintaining your symptoms. It usually takes time to get the brain and body back on track.

  • Modern medicine has become focussed on finding cures for disease or damage that are easy to study with laboratory science, by being simpler to categorize and explain. This has lead to a situation where functional symptoms often fall between the gaps in the medical system, despite being very common.

    Treatment protocols and guidelines for functional somatic symptoms and syndromes exist in some countries, but not all. In reality there is a lack of consistency in how healthcare professionals are trained to think about functional somatic symptoms, and in the quality of treatment available.

    For mild symptoms, it is usually possible to get support from your GP. In many cases mild functional symptoms will improve without specific treatments. If your symptoms have been going on for longer, have not responded to simple measures, or are more severe, specific treatments are recommended.

    High quality treatment for moderate to severe functional disorders happens best within a multi-disciplinary team. This means a team made up of health professionals with different types of approaches (e.g. physiotherapist, doctor, psychologist, different types of therapists, dietician, social worker). There is current progress being made in this area, but clinics like this are not yet found everywhere. Because FSS are very common, this means there are not enough MDT based services to provide treatment for everyone with symptoms. You might want to consider writing to your local healthcare providers to make them aware of the problem, or joining with a patient organisation who is locally active in trying to work towards better treatment options for patients with these difficulties.

    You can always ask your GP about what services are available within your area that might have the appropriate expertise to help you. Even if a specialist MDT is not available, or has a long waiting list, it is often possible to get started with therapy. Physiotherapy, psycho-motor therapy, or psychology are all good options, depending on the nature and patterns of your symptoms. It is usually better to start with the support that is available to you than to delay treatment waiting for the perfect team.

     

     

     

  • This is a common worry for people with functional symptoms.

    Common symptoms can have different causes, so it is important that you discuss new or worrying symptoms with your healthcare team.

    Having said this, it is quite rare that people diagnosed with a functional syndrome end up having a serious disease that has not been discovered. Across diagnostic follow-up studies, only 1/200 diagnoses of functional somatic syndromes were later changed*.

    If you are still working with your GP waiting for investigations to check for disease, it is fine to get started with this website. Whether triggered by damage in the body or not, persistent symptoms are impacted by many of the same factors, so working with the tools from bodysymptoms will not do any harm.

    Symptoms often move about in functional disorders, and recovery can be up and down. Therefore it is helpful to keep a good relationship with your GP, so that you can report new symptoms to them. They can then keep an eye on whether new tests need to be done.

    It is also important to be reassured when no disease is found. Worry can in and of itself make symptoms worse.

     

    *Eikelboom, E. M., Tak, L. M., Roest, A. M., & Rosmalen, J. G. M. (2016). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the percentage of revised diagnoses in functional somatic symptoms. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 88, 60-67.
  • People with functional symptoms often find it takes a long time to understand their illness and what can help. Depending on the length of time the symptoms go on, a healthcare professional or even a team of professionals can be key to helping you manage your symptoms and get your health back. But, we know in many countries the right treatment is not easily available, or it can be difficult knowing what sort of help to ask for.

    We put together this website as a guide and toolbox to help you stabilise symptoms and begin to work with your illness. Learning and practicing these techniques will set you on a good track to recovery, and will improve your health regardless of what the cause is of your symptoms.

  • This website is a collaboration between healthcare professionals, researchers in psychosomatic (mind-body) or integrative medicine, and people with lived experience of functional symptoms, from across Europe.

    All the information contained within is based on up-to-date research and has been peer reviewed. However our knowledge about the body is incomplete, and everyone is a little bit different. It is always worth learning how to listen to your own body so you can make sure that what you are reading seems right for you.

    We will not profit from you using this website, and we are not trying to sell anything. The health advice contained here will always be free, or involve low cost activities. We are aware that not everyone has access to good healthcare, community support or neighbourhoods with the same opportunities for recovery. This inequality needs to be tackled if we want to prevent the burden of symptoms falling on marginalized groups.

    However we do believe that there is wriggle room for anyone to start to make small changes and improve their health. We hope this guide will inspire you to find that space and start out on a new journey with your health.

  • There is a lot of advice on this website. No one body condition is the same. We invite you to explore the site depending on what seems relevant to your unique situation.

    Not all the information will be relevant to every person. It is fine to ignore information that doesn’t seem to fit with your experience of what’s going on in your body.

    But try to keep an open mind! The body is a complex whole, all the systems exist and interact in all of us. Any of the perspectives could bring a new and helpful understanding of what might be going on in and around your body when you have symptoms, even if you haven’t considered them before. Reading about the explanations interact may help bring it all together.

    Although this website has been written and reviewed by healthcare professionals, this website is not a replacement for working with your own healthcare team. The website is not intended to be used as a replacement for a face-to-face diagnostic assessment.

    We recommend you use the website alongside normal healthcare where you can access in-person assessment, investigations and personalized advice on management or treatment where appropriate. The bodysymptoms team are unable to take any responsibility for consequences associated with following the advice or suggestions contained within.

     

     

  • It takes courage and energy to work with functional symptoms.

    It is good to begin by getting curious about the nature of your symptoms. You can use the symptoms page to start exploring explanations that might fit with your experience, or search your symptoms in the search bar.

    If you have not already, make an appointment to discuss worrying symptoms with your GP.

    For practical advice on moving forward with recovery, you can download the bodysymptoms planning recovery guide.

     

     

Read more about the bodysymptoms project