Recovery Techniques Collection Guide

This collection is about approaches that may support symptom improvement, safer self-management, participation or quality of life. Here, recovery does not promise remission. For some people it may mean fewer symptoms; for others it may mean greater function, confidence, independence or stability while symptoms continue.

The master technique list is the actual list page. It has one section organized by symptom and a second alphabetical index showing the symptom or symptoms beside every technique. Each symptom name links to a full page with practical instructions, evidence limits, safety notes and sources.

For deeper functional-seizure work, see the CBT resource map and five-booklet project. It distinguishes complete existing manuals from partial programme materials, explains how evidence will be weighted, and provides separate reviewer-ready outlines for five original booklets.

How to read the labels

• Research-supported: evaluated in at least one relevant comparative study or synthesized research review. This does not mean the result is conclusive or applies to every person.
• Clinical consensus: recommended in a professional guideline, consensus statement or specialist clinical review; symptom-specific randomized evidence may be absent.
• Emerging: supported by a pilot, feasibility study, small series or developing treatment literature that needs confirmation.
• Community-reported: repeated in at least two independent public lived-experience or patient-community sources but not found in the research reviewed for that exact technique.

Many techniques are components of a larger rehabilitation program and have not been tested separately. The symptom pages say when evidence applies to a whole program rather than to one exercise. The functional-limb-weakness, functional-tremor, functional-jerks, functional-dystonia, functional-gait-disorder, functional-seizure functional-sensory functional-visual and functional-speech-and-voice collections are the first sets of expanded individual-technique pages; their explicit procedures remain educational drafts rather than fixed protocols.

Page counts and original technique lists

The history audit records the original entry counts for all sixteen symptoms and maps each entry in the seven expanded collections to its detailed coverage. Some original entries contain several components; some overlapping entries share a page. Extra care-planning or specialist-review pages are identified separately. Neither the original entry count nor the page count is a count of independently proven treatments.

There is no target number of pages per symptom. Future expansion must begin with that symptom’s actual list and explain any split, combination, omission or addition.

Required episode and flare coverage

Every symptom page should describe the symptom’s real time pattern and adapt recovery advice for the moment symptoms begin. This must appear in the person, supporter and clinician sections.

For each symptom, authors should explain:

• whether the symptom may be intermittent, episodic, fluctuating, persistent or fixed, using symptom-specific evidence rather than a blanket rule;
• the first safety action when a familiar episode or flare begins;
• how one or two already rehearsed recovery techniques can be shortened for use at onset when that is safe and practical;
• what to do when there is no warning or not enough awareness/control to use a technique;
• how to return gradually to the interrupted activity rather than immediately testing maximum function;
• what supporters should do—and what they should avoid doing—during an episode; and
• when a new or changed pattern requires reassessment instead of the usual flare plan.

A useful general structure is safety → reduce relevant load → one rehearsed symptom-specific cue → gradual return, but every part must be individualized. Reducing sensory or cognitive load may help a person whose symptoms worsen with overload; distraction or an external task may instead be an active rehabilitation method for some motor symptoms. The page should say which applies and avoid treating either as universal.

Some symptoms need special wording. A single jerk is brief but jerks may repeat through a long bout. Swallowing and airway symptoms require safety to override experimentation. Functional seizures are episodic, but warnings, clusters, recovery and other functional symptoms may make the surrounding flare much longer. PPPD is persistent by diagnostic definition, although its severity can wax and wane and stronger flares can occur.

Severe paralysis and drop attacks also need appearance-specific plans. Complete or near-complete limb movement loss begins with safe positioning, transfers, skin and joint protection, access and the movement that is currently available. Immobility confined to a functional seizure follows the seizure-event plan. A functional drop attack begins with injury prevention and event-specific assessment; a no-warning fall should not be assigned a warning-based technique. See functional paralysis and functional drop attacks.

A safe way to use the collection

1. Confirm that the symptom has been appropriately assessed and that the page matches the symptom being treated.
2. Read the evidence label and safety note before trying anything.
3. Ask the relevant clinician to help select and adapt techniques when there is fall, choking, breathing, injury, visual or seizure risk.
4. Choose a small functional goal and a short, repeatable practice rather than trying the entire list at once.
5. Stop and seek reassessment if a technique causes injury, fainting, breathing difficulty, aspiration, a major or sustained deterioration, or a symptom unlike the person’s established pattern.

The list is intended to be broad, but it is not proof that every possible technique has been found. Additions should identify the exact symptom, source, evidence category, practical sequence, limits and safety considerations.

Community material in this version

Grounding classification corrected September 14, 2026: sensory grounding also appears in specialist clinical guidance and is no longer classified here as exclusively community-reported. Cool or textured objects remain optional variants with no isolated efficacy evidence. See the grounding page for sources, sensory-access limits and the correction history. Public accounts describe use; they do not establish benefit.

A separate source notebook is used to collect public lived-experience quotations for review. Quotations are treated as descriptions of experience, not evidence that a technique works. The functional facial-symptoms, functional-paralysis and functional-drop-attack pages include small, clearly labelled review sets; none establishes an appearance-specific treatment or currently meets the two-independent-report rule for a new community-reported evidence label.

Related pages: Recovery techniques · Reference library · Technique index · Evidence standard · Citation index

Collection created: August 25, 2026 · Functional paralysis and drop attacks added September 2, 2026 · Functional tremor, functional jerks, functional dystonia and functional gait detailed pages added September 11–12, 2026 · Functional seizure detailed pages added September 14, 2026 · Clinical and accessibility review pending

Functional tics: a new presentation

The collection now has 17 presentations. Functional tics and tic-like symptoms adds motor and vocal/phonic coverage after the sixteen original lists. Its first overview contains five treatment/formulation/coordinated-care entries and three safety/access/support entries. The eight detailed pages expand those entries one-to-one, with an additional navigation overview. Specialist and lived-experience review remains pending.

Functional swallowing and globus: eleven detailed pages — one page per original entry, with assessment, nutrition, airway safety and treatment-evidence limits.

Functional cough and upper-airway symptoms: ten detailed recovery pages — all ten original entries expanded one-to-one, plus a collection overview. Assessed cough responses, breathing coordination, everyday care and coexisting conditions; professional-consensus evidence with diagnostic and airway-safety boundaries. Added September 20, 2026; human review pending.

Functional Cognitive Disorder: thirteen detailed recovery pages — thirteen original entries expanded one-to-one, plus a collection overview. Practical memory and attention support, individualized rehabilitation and clearly labelled early research options. Added September 21, 2026; human review pending.