Mystery Teen Illness:

As if our teens don’t have enough to deal with!

http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10242751-mystery-teen-illness-brokovich-team-meets-resistance

And yes, I note that it is “MSNBC” that has brought this to national attention and is going about to sensationalize it in any way they can.

These are my thoughts on the subject ("a dozen teens plagued by mysterious Tourette's-like symptoms and seizures"):

It is Stress/hormone induced > rare, but long recognized and identified as a type of Conversion disorder > a Psychogenic disorder > originating within the Subconscious mind…has been called in the past or could be similarly related to “mass hysteria” (this phrase would be scrutinized as not a politically correct)…it is a pathology that is psychologically driven, yet the symptoms are real.

Some parents have recruited Erin Brockovich and together look (hope? $$$?) to prove the origin to somehow be environmentally caused. I wouldn’t suggest that they not exhaustively check into ruling out environmental factors, and understand the concerns (hopefully the parents' motives are ethical), but…

I strongly lean to believe this is purely psychologically driven (and understand that in this sense it that is real)and therefore, personally, I do not like to see the (re-)development of such disorders because I believe the widespread recognition and acceptance of these types of things increase the vulnerability of our teens to acquire this type of disorder as this “enlightenment” adds to the subconscious mind’s capacities to be inclined to allow it.

Anyway, I see this type of phenomenon in and of itself to be contagious and think it should be dealt with cautiously.