35 Mental Disorder Facts That Sound Scary but Are Real

- Sponsored Links -

1Bigorexia

Bigorexia

There exists a clinical condition that is the opposite of anorexia called Bigorexia. The person affected by it becomes obsessed with the idea that their body is too small, too skinny, insufficiently muscular, or insufficiently lean, although in most cases, the individual's build is normal or even exceptionally large and muscular already. It affects mostly males, particularly those involved in sports where body size or weight are competitive factors.


2. Aboulomania is a disorder that involves the occasional onset of crippling indecision. People suffering from it otherwise have no physical and mental problems. They simply run into very serious problems whenever they’re faced with certain choices even with simple everyday tasks (going for a walk or not, paper or plastic), to the extent that they struggle to regain normal function. They feel imprisoned by the inability to fulfill their own will.


3. Pretending to have a mental disorder is still a mental disorder. It is called nonsense syndrome or Ganser syndrome or prison psychosis. People affected by it exhibit short-term episodes of odd behavior similar to that shown by people with other serious mental illnesses. It is often seen in prison inmates where it may be seen as an attempt to gain leniency from prison or court officials.


4. Men can experience some of the same symptoms of pregnancy as an expectant partner. These most often include minor weight gain, altered hormone levels, morning nausea, and disturbed sleep patterns. In more extreme cases, they can experience labor pains, postpartum depression, and nosebleeds. This condition is known as Couvade Syndrome or sympathetic pregnancy.


5. Erotomania is a type of delusional disorder in which the affected person believes that another person is infatuated with him or her. This disorder is most often seen (though not exclusively) in female patients that are shy, dependent, and sexually inexperienced. The object of the delusion is typically a male who is unattainable due to high social or financial status, marriage, or disinterest.


Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History


6Olfactory reference syndrome

Olfactory reference syndrome

Olfactory reference syndrome is a mental disorder in which there is a persistent, false belief and preoccupation about emitting abnormal body odor which is foul and offensive to other people. People with this condition often misinterpret others' behaviors, e.g. sniffing, touching nose or opening a window, as being referential to an unpleasant body odor which in reality is non-existent and cannot be detected by other people.


7. Anton–Babinski syndrome is mostly seen following a stroke or head injury. Those who have it become completely blind as a result of the injury, but often are quite adamant in the face of clear evidence of their blindness that they are capable of seeing. They employ confabulation to fill in the missing sensory input. Following the accident, it may take days or weeks for doctors and family members of the victim to realize that the patient is blind. The patient will collide with pieces of furniture, fall over objects, may try to walk through a wall or through a closed door or talk to people who aren’t there at all.


8. Similar to paranoia, a person suffering from pronoia feels that persons or entities are conspiring against them, but instead of feeling that the world is conspiring to harm them or do them bad, people with pronoia feel that the world around them conspires to do them good.


9. Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is a rare disorder of unknown origin. Some affected individuals may exhibit automatic or “forced” obedience after a startle response during which they automatically respond to simple commands such as jump, run or hit. Individuals with this condition were first found in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine. One theory is that it is a genetic condition.


10. Jerusalem Syndrome is an intense religious psychosis that is triggered when a person who seems previously balanced and devoid of any signs of psychopathology becomes psychotic after arriving in Jerusalem. It is not endemic to one single religion or denomination but has affected Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. An affected person may believe himself to be the coming of the Messiah or the second coming of Christ. This psychosis resolves to full recovery after leaving Jerusalem.


- Sponsored Links -

11Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

Sleeping beauty syndrome or Kleine-Levin syndrome is a rare sleep disorder that causes the patients to experience periods of excessive sleep episodes, which can last anywhere from 20 hours a day to a couple of days to even weeks. About 80 percent of patients are teenagers when they first experience KLS. These episodes of lengthy sleep may be proceeded by flu-like symptoms and, when they're awake, people with this syndrome may exhibit various odd behaviors, including eating excessively, hallucinating or acting childishly.


12. Morgellons disease is a delusional infestation. People affected by it become delusional and see things crawling beneath their skin and see bugs coming out of their body. They then start scratching themselves, forming sores, in order to purge their bodies of fibers that they believe is implanted in them from a certain organism. This “disease” has been reported all across the world, and even a Congressional study was conducted.


13. There is a mental illness named “Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy” where a caregiver deliberately induces physical or mental problems in those who are in their care. This is typically done to gain attention and sympathy for themselves. Approximately 1% of asthma cases in children are faked by their parents. The worst case where this was noticed was of Marybeth Tinning, who is suspected of have killed all 9 of her children in a span of 14 years.


14. According to a 2010 report in the journal Current Biology, a woman known only as SM is literally fearless due to a rare genetic condition known as Urbach-Wiethe disease that hardened her amygdala, part of the brain responsible for fear response. Researchers exposed her to snakes, spiders, an amusement park haunted house and horror films, none of which scared her. Researchers said that these finding could help in progress for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders.


15. Locked-in Syndrome is a condition in which a patient has cognitive awareness, but can’t move any body part or communicate verbally about their cognitive mental state due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body, except for vertical eye movements and blinking. A man named Richard Marsh is a rare survivor of locked-in syndrome. During his coma, he watched his wife beg doctors not to take him off of life support, and witnessed his own rough handling by the nighttime staff. Another man named Martin Pistorius woke up from a coma after 2 years but was unable to show any sign of it, and so was trapped in a lifeless state for a further 10 years whilst being fully aware. Another victim of this disease, Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote a book by blinking his left eyelid for 10 months and died 10 days after the book released.


- Sponsored Links -

16Exploding Head Syndrome

Exploding Head Syndrome

Exploding Head Syndrome is a benign condition in which an individual experiences loud unreal noises like a bomb exploding or a gunshot going off in their head when falling asleep or waking up. There is no known cause and aside from the shock, it is harmless.


17. People suffering from Puppy Pregnancy Syndrome believe that shortly after being bitten by a dog, puppies are conceived within their abdomen. They believe that they will eventually die, especially men, who think they will give birth to the puppies through their penis. The syndrome is localized to villages in several states of India.


18. People with Misophonia are triggered by common sounds such as chewing, loud breathing or even repeated pen-clicking. It isn’t just an annoyance to them, but reactions range from discomfort to sharp anger to physical violence. It is an actual neurological disorder. There's no cure, but if one is diagnosed there are coping mechanisms that can improve one’s quality of life.


19. Impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome is a psychological pattern describing individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and suffer persistent fear of being exposed as a "fraud". Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing this phenomenon remain convinced that they are frauds, and do not deserve all they have achieved.


20. Fregoli delusion is a psychological disorder that causes the person suffering from it to hold a delusional belief that every person he or she meets is in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise. This disorder is usually caused by a brain lesion and it often has a paranoid nature, with the patient suffering from it believing that they are going to be persecuted by the person they believe is in disguise.


21Motion Blindness

Motion Blindness

Akinetopsia or motion blindness is a neuropsychological disorder that makes sufferers unable to perceive motion. They can still see acutely and recognize objects normally, but to them, everything seems to be frozen in time only to “jump ahead” in time and freeze again. They often view life as a series of photographs or frozen movie reels.


22. Visual hallucinations are usually associated with schizophrenia or drug use, but there is a condition named Charles Bonnet Syndrome, which can cause a healthy person to experience visual hallucinations. It isn’t caused by any mental illness but caused by vision loss. One-third of the people whose eyesight starts deteriorating, experience vivid, cartoonish visual hallucinations. Victims mostly tend to see weird creatures and animals. The reason behind this is that the brain always expects sensory input from the eyes, but when it receives nothing due to vision loss; it creates its own inputs.


23. People with Dissociative Identity Disorder, otherwise known as Multiple Personality Disorder, can undergo significant changes such as the need for glasses to correct vision, gain or lose an allergy, turn diabetes on and off, and even go from drunk to sober when switching personalities.


24. An unusual psychiatric disorder known as Glass Delusion swept through Europe during the late medieval period. People suffering from it believed that they were made out of glass, and feared that they might shatter into pieces. King Charles VI of France suffered from glass delusions. He refused to let people touch him and wore reinforced clothing to protect himself from accidentally shattering himself.


25. There is a psychiatric condition called “koro,” otherwise known as Genital Retraction Syndrome which is seen mostly in Southeast Asian and Chinese men. The patient suffering from it suddenly grabs his penis, fearing it will retract into his abdomen, disappear and ultimately cause his death. Scientists consider that it is caused by psychosexual conflicts and cultural beliefs.

1
2

Sign up to our Newsletter & get

FREE!! 1000 Facts E-BOOK

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

- Sponsored Links -

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here