Dark Side of the Mind: 25 Horrifying Mental Disorders

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.