Dystonia

Your muscles are doing something you don't want. They contract — involuntarily, uncontrollably, sometimes painfully. Your neck turns to the side and stays there. Your hand cramps when you write. Your eyelid twitches and closes against your will. Your jaw presses together, your tongue moves as though it has a life of its own. What you had always taken for granted — mastery over your own body — is being taken from you.

Neurologically, dystonia is a movement disorder in which faulty signals from the basal ganglia trigger involuntary muscle contractions. From a psychosomatic perspective, a deeper question arises: why does your body execute movements you don't intend? What wants to express itself that you consciously don't express? And why does your body claim precisely the freedom you deny yourself?

Dystonia is not a malfunction, but a breakthrough — in the most literal sense.