Strange and unusual mental disorders

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Many people believe that schizophrenia is the only mental illness, and the rest is "well, character problems." However, our psyche is very fragile, and weirdness in behavior can sometimes hide a very real diagnosis.

Cotard syndrome

If it seems to you that your friend has watched zombie films and is delusional, take a closer look at him. Perhaps this is Cotard's syndrome - a rare disease when it seems to the patient that he has died, he does not exist, he has no organs, does not bleed, etc.

The French neurologist Jules Cotard first described the disease, calling it "the syndrome of denial." His patient was a woman who categorically refused to eat because she denied the existence of life in herself, claiming that she was already dead - and eventually died of exhaustion.

The disorder has three stages, from mild depression to chronic depression and mania. All cases are characterized by isolation and inattention to oneself - in general, it is logical: why take care of yourself if you are dead?

As a rule, the delusional ideas of those suffering from Cotard's syndrome are bright and colorful, full of fantastic ideas and are often associated with manic delusions of grandeur. A person can claim that everyone around is dead, and because it was he who infected the world with a fatal disease. Cotard's syndrome is commonly associated with other mental disorders and is treated with antipsychotics.

Syndrome of Paris

“See Paris and get crazy” - such a scenario, without any jokes, can threaten an impressionable tourist. But not for anyone, but for a tourist from Japan. This is one of the rare mental disorders that affects people in a particular country.

Like other syndromes provoked by culture shock, Paris syndrome manifests itself in those who initially had the prerequisites for mental disorders, and a visit to the other side of the world, a sudden change in the situation worked like a detonator.

At the heart of the Paris syndrome is a feeling of extreme disappointment. The fact is that the cult of Paris is celebrated in Japan. Almost every Japanese person is sure that Paris is the quintessence of beauty, fashion, love and world harmony. The marketers of French fashion brands are cleverly playing on this, selling not so much the goods of a particular fashion house as the "idea of Paris" in general.

And now imagine a person who is saving up for a trip to that very - ah! - Paris, to touch with its unworthy hands the "Great and Beautiful", but comes … to Paris. With its ethnic cauldron, bustle, typical for any metropolis, etc. In general, the realities do not live up to expectations so much that a tourist has a nervous breakdown, often leading to suicide.

Syndrome of Paris is quite common, and at the Japanese Embassy in France there is a separate hotline for those who suddenly feel unwell.

Stendhal's syndrome

It is also called Florence syndrome - another illness associated with tourism and culture shock. “Every year, dozens of tourists faint or hysterical somewhere on their way from the Uffizi to the Academy.

The feeling of depression arises quickly - along with the feeling of guilt … ", - writes Peter Weil in the book" The Genius of the Place ". For the first time such ailment was described by Stendhal in his notes on travels to Italy (Naples and Florence: a journey from Milan to Reggio): he himself experienced an ailment from the abundance of masterpieces in Florence.

Diogenes syndrome

Even those who have not read ancient philosophers have probably heard of Diogenes, who lived in a barrel. True, he did this not out of economy or a desire to retire. However, such a set of symptoms as the desire for isolation, apathy and accumulation, has been called Diogenes syndrome.

Sometimes there is another name - senile squalor syndrome (because most often the disease affects people of age suffering from senile disorder).

Autophagy

The word comes from the ancient Greek “autos” (ie “self”, “myself”) and “phagein” (“is”), that is, essentially self-absorption.

This term is used in two meanings: to describe the natural processes when the body absorbs its own tissues (for the study of these mechanisms, by the way, in 2016 the Japanese scientist Yoshinori Osumi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), and to name a mental disorder.

In a mild form, autophagy occurs almost at every step, manifested, for example, in the habit of biting nails or chewing on dead skin on the lips. Such little things, of course, are not a reason to run to a psychologist, but you should not ignore them - such habits signal an increased level of stress.

But in more severe forms, a person can cripple himself, passing to self-cannibalism. The nature of the disorder has not yet been studied.

Trichotillomania

Such a complex word is called obsessive pulling out of hair (not only on the head, but also on the entire surface of the face and body, including eyebrows and eyelashes).

A person himself may not notice this process, without fixing attention on his actions, or even deny it. Most often, the syndrome is accompanied by either stress or another mental disorder, as well as organic brain diseases.

Androphobia

In a nutshell, it's a fear of men. We emphasize: an abnormal fear of men. Its reasons are individual, they can be hidden in some trauma of the past or in other syndromes, such as social phobia.

Sure, all of this sounds like a reason for gender humor, but the symptoms are not as funny as they might seem. Androphobia manifests itself at the somatic level, that is, against the background of fear, real physiological changes arise: shortness of breath, sweating, dry mouth, etc.

It is curious that this is not only a female disease: men also suffer from androphobia, albeit less often.

Bibliomania

No, no, do not confuse bibliophiles with bibliophiles! The latter is about the love of books, and the former is about unhealthy collecting, a pathological passion for collecting books. Like any mania for hoarding, this is the desire for possession (remember about "my charm", that's about the same).

Moreover, the obsession with acquiring books is not necessarily related to the desire to read them. This behavior may be due to a neurotic defense mechanism associated with any past trauma or other disorders.

How to detect bibliomania? It is worth considering if someone from your environment accumulates an insane amount of books, experiences an irresistible urge to acquire them and a feeling of relief when buying them, and is also not ready to part with them - that is, he is not ready to either donate or give to read (this may not be greed, a symptom).

Boanthropy

If you have not heard such a term before, do not be surprised at how strange its description sounds. Boanthropy is a mental disorder in which a person considers himself to be a cow or a bull. First it appears at the level of fantasy, then obsession, after which the person begins to behave like cattle. Without any metaphors: eating grass, hums and butts.

The syndrome not only affects the human psyche, but ultimately affects its internal organs: our digestive system is not adapted to absorb the amount of grass and hay that people with boanthropia eat.

Erotomania

"Hobotov, you are a secret erotomaniac!" - said the heroine of "The Pokrovsky Gate". However, if that were true, the film would hardly have survived the comedy genre. Erotomania is a delusional illusion that a person is loved by someone.

Sounds sad, doesn't it? The objects of erotomania are most often celebrities, which emphasizes the unhealthy nature of the idea. Erotomania can last for years. A person believes that someone is showing secret signs of attention to him, sending all kinds of "signals", including telepathic ones.

It sounds like the despair of non-reciprocal love, but it should be taken seriously: erotomania usually occurs with other mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or manic-depressive psychosis.