A CHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA, GIRL HAS GONE INTO A NON-STOP SNEEZING fit and nobody knows why or how to stop it.  Lauren Johnson, 12, started sneezing two weeks ago at the rate of 10 to 16 sneezes-per-minute, about 12,000 sneezes every day, and the only time she stops is when she is sound asleep.

Lauren Johnson

Her mother, Lynn Johnson has taken her to six specialists so far with no satisfactory explanations or treatments found yet.  The poor girl has had to stay away from her 6th-grade class at school while the episode continues.  A neurologist said Lauren’s condition may be “irretractable psychogenic disorder,” which could have been caused due to stress.  Or maybe not.

The AP filed this video report:

“There’s less than 40 cases ever documented ever in the entire world,” her mother says.  “Nobody really knows how to treat it, what’s going to work, and even in the cases where it might have worked or turned the sneezing off for awhile, a lot of times it comes back again and then you’re right back to where you started.”

While sleeping is her only escape from the attack, that doesn’t come easy.  “It’s pretty hard,” she said. “I have to kind of be physically exhausted before I can, because I just sneeze and sneeze until I eventually can hold off for a couple of seconds before I can go to sleep.  I just wish the sneezing would stop. I mean I feel fine now, but it’s just the sneezing going on, and on, and on, and I can’t really do anything,” said Lauren sneezing 5 times in 15 seconds.