A lot of you have probably heard about that outbreak of strange, spastic behavior amongst high school girls up in New York State. Hereis a really interesting piece on it.
Thanks for that, but I was disappointed that there was still no resolution. None of the explanations really satisfy.
Teens are so impressionable.
I heard a story once about a school in Africa where many students were suddenly stricken with incontro;lable laughing fits. Turned out it was simply mental suggestion that was causing it.
Not say that this is what is going on here.
Okay, I’ll say it. I called “BULLSHIT!” from the very start.
So will I. It’s not bullshit; it’s mass hysteria, like tarantism and things like that.
Regards,
Shodan
That sounds about right. That would explain why it was so limited to that demographic.
It was interesting reading about the different things that can trigger people, even subconsciously, to pick up these behaviors. The common background/environmental issues were intriguing as well.
Thanks for saying what I wanted to say. 
Very strange. Hadn’t heard anything about it before. At least they’re not burning any witches in Le Roy… yet.
Story update from Feb 23
This is bull crap. A wide spread, localized illness and they won’t explain it? Hiding behind HIPAA laws? WTF? HIPAA protects individual medical history. They should be able to generally explain what’s happened to the whole group of teens.
http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/150087/37/Update-on-Tourettes-Like-Illness-in-Leroy
You might try reading the New York Times link in the OP, which has more information.
Mass hysteria? I’ll buy that. It explains how Santorum won the primary here in TN.
Even by simply saying “it’s mass hysteria” it must be very scary for these girls (and the guy who is apparently afflicted). Reducing it to the simple common examples of how we react to things in the article, such as responding to yawning or laughing, can be very hard if you are trying to suppress the urge to join in. Just typing about this has set off a yawning fit for me! I can’t imagine dealing with weirder things the brain may spit out in this sort of situation. I can understand the desire to be able to point to something else, something outside the mind as the cause, but fighting the psychological diagnosis sounds like it would just make everything worse.
It instantly reminded me of the Mad Gasser.
If you think “Mass hysteria” and “Bullshit” are the same thing, you’re deeply, deeply ignorant.
So if it’s settled that it was mass hysteria, is it OK now for me to suggest that someone should set some video clips of these girls to “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads?
“This is not my beautiful wife!”
I tried but when I got to the bottom of the first page and realized I had at least nine more to go, I decided I just didn’t care that much.
I did the exact same thing. Then I read post #2 and said to myself “Well, I’m glad I didn’t just read a ten page article to find out there isn’t an answer”.
Seeing the picture in the article, maybe the girl is suffering from an overdose of sugary breakfast cereals. 
Seriously, though, I find cases like this fascinating. There are numerous cases like this from different countries. This one seems to be going on much longer than others I’ve read about, which usually seem to disappear after a relatively short time.