A 15-year-old girl whose family spent years attempting to figure out why she was experiencing severe aches says she now leads a normal life after physicians linked the problem to her mental health.
Jasmine was seven years old when she was hurt on a trampoline.
Her knee pain extended to her legs, and she began to eat less, but specialists were unable to discover the cause.
She was finally diagnosed with a syndrome in which physical symptoms manifest as a result of psychological discomfort.
Jasmine, who resides in Peterborough, had been subjected to a battery of tests for three years before being diagnosed with somatoform disorder, sometimes known as conversion disorder, at a mental health facility in Cambridge.
“My discomfort was tied to my concern over not eating,” Jasmine adds.
Following the trampoline accident, Jasmine was forced to wear a leg brace, and the pain in her leg became so severe that she was unable to attend school.
She moved around using a wheelchair and crutches.
“I was terrified,” she said. “I couldn’t go to school or play with my pals.
“I couldn’t do all the things that a regular young person could. I had to get in and out of a wheelchair.”
Jasmine’s family said that despite years of consulting physicians, she was still unable to find out what was causing her terrible agony.
“I didn’t sure how long it would persist or if it would influence the rest of my life,” Jasmine explained. “I simply wanted to know what was going on.”
Jasmine said she was examined by “plenty of physicians” at two separate hospitals, “where I got CT scans, but they couldn’t determine what was wrong, which made me extremely upset”.
‘I was convinced that someone had poisoned my grapes.’
Jasmine eventually refused to eat anything since she didn’t know.
“I thought someone had poisoned my grapes, and then it spread to morning cereals like cornflakes,” she explained.
“I used to only eat bread, and then it got to the point where I wasn’t eating bread, therefore I wasn’t eating anything.”
Jasmine was soon admitted to The Croft Child and Family Unit, an in-patient facility for children with mental illnesses and their families.
Jasmine’s symptoms and food anxiety were related to her physical suffering during play therapy and standard treatment sessions, and she was diagnosed with conversion disorder.
According to Nancy Bostock, consultant paediatrician at The Croft: “We know that 75% of all mental health illnesses begin in childhood and adolescence, therefore it’s critical that we recognise the long-term impact that mental health issues have on children.
“You can’t have physical health without mental health, and mental health without physical health; they’re inextricably intertwined.”
Jasmine fled The Croft on her 11th birthday and claims to be living a regular life now.
“I’ve been quite active. I do gymnastics, dancing, and theatre “She stated.
“I enjoy acting. It’s simply been fantastic.”
A new children’s hospital in Cambridge, the first in the East of England, is expected to provide a unified approach to mental and physical health.
Dr. Isobel Hyman is the clinical co-lead for mental health at the Cambridge Children’s Hospital, which is being built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
She stated that the hospital’s goal will be to combine mental and physical care for children.
“That hasn’t been done completely before,” she explained.
“In medicine, we’ve reached a point where we shouldn’t be segregating mind and body; we should be focusing on both simultaneously.”
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