Short Wave This medical condition stumped doctors for years
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May 5, 2026 
Dr. David Perez, a neurologist and psychiatrist at Mass General and Harvard, unpacks functional neurological disorder through one patient’s long search for answers. They explore why it is so often mistaken for anxiety, how outdated ideas in medicine shaped that confusion, and how new diagnostic signs and brain retraining approaches are changing care.
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Kyla Spent Two Years Misdiagnosed As Anxious
- Kyla Madonna-Kenney woke up with one-sided shaking, vertigo, and a crushing migraine, then spent two years being told she was just anxious.
- She endured antibiotics, unnecessary surgeries, and a 911 call before David Perez stopped her tremor in clinic and named FND.
FND Breaks The Brain Versus Mind Divide
- David Perez says FND is simultaneously neurologic, psychiatric, and psychological, so single-specialty labels miss the condition.
- He frames it as healthy hardware with crashing software, exposing how medicine's brain-versus-mind split fails patients.
Many Different Paths Can Lead To FND
- FND is a final common pathway of a glitchy brain, but the route into that state differs widely across patients.
- David Perez says risk spans biological, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual factors, and childhood trauma is not required.