Believers would assert that the physical and mental symptoms are not subject to medical treatment, but may only be cured through acceptance of and full communion with the spirit.
For example, in the most basic, frequent type of shinbyeong, the initiate is afflicted with the characteristic symptoms without apparent cause.
In some cases, the mental illness becomes so extreme that the mu leaves home and wanders through mountains and rice fields.
[4] In the fourth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), published by the American Psychiatric Association,[5] shinbyeong, or shin-byung, is listed as an example of a culture-bound syndrome.
It describes the syndrome as initially characterized by anxiety and somatic complaints (general weakness, dizziness, fear, anorexia, insomnia, gastrointestinal problems), with subsequent dissociation and possession by ancestral spirits.