5 Scary disorders you’ve never heard of
- Cotard’s Syndrome
Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up dead, but still able to experience everything that’s going on around you? That’s what people with Cotard’s syndrome feel every day. While not classified in the DSM, Cotard’s syndrome is a mental disorder where the sufferer thinks that they are dead or decomposing. The possible causes for it vary from as simple as adverse drug reactions to misfirings in the brain. - Capgras Syndrome
Also known as imposter syndrome, this disorder usually comes with dementia. It is the belief that a familiar person, or place, has been replaced with an imposter – an exact duplicate of that person or place. Even though it is often seen with dementia it can also come with schizophrenia, bipolar, or in people with brain injury or disease. It is very scary and upsetting for both the person suffering and their general caregivers if they see them as an imposter. - Body Integrity Disorder
This disorder includes the belief that one must be disabled. A lot of these people believe that their legs, arms, or toes are foreign objects and they shouldn’t be able to use them. They go to great lengths, even to sometimes to have limbs amputated. There are a number of different theories but no one supported fact as to why people experience this disorder. - Fugue state
This isn’t so much a disorder, but a symptom. In different illnesses it can appear but it basically happens where someone completely forgets who they are and becomes a completely different person. Not much is currently known about it, but it would be frightening. - Genital retraction syndrome
This is where the person experiencing the disorder holds a wrong belief that their genitals will suddenly retract into their body. It is a debilitating fear and interferes with their everyday life. This belief seems to state that they will also die upon the retraction of their genitals.
Sources:
http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/12-quirky-mental-disorders-you-havent-heard-about
http://www.medicaldaily.com/mental-illnesses-never-heard-it-388367
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