LeRoy Twitching Epidemic

In 2013, an epidemic of involuntary twitching took over a high school in LeRoy, a suburb 50 miles east of Buffalo, NY. It started when a cheerleader named Katie Krautwurst woke from a nap and began jerking so uncontrollably she bruised her face with her cell phone. 

Then it spread to her best friend, and to other honor students, mostly girls, in the small school of 600. As the story went viral, some of the children appeared on national television talking about their symptoms. It was first thought to be chemical poisoning. 

However, it turned out to be conversion disorder, where a small group of people unconsciously mimic the behavior of their peers. The condition was aggravated by social media, those that didn’t post their symptoms to YouTube or appear or on TV recovered much faster than those that did.
(Source 1 | Source 2 | Photo)