20 Extremely Weird Mental Illnesses

1.

Stendhal Syndrome - Shocked by beauty. It’s a psychosomatic illness that can occur when an individual is exposed to a large amount of beautiful art in a short space of time. The symptoms one would experience include: rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations. It’s apparently quite common amongst tourists and seems to be triggered by famous works of art, areas of natural beauty, anything ‘’breathtaking’’ and even whole cities of cultural or artistic importance.

2.

Foreign Accent Syndrome - A rare condition following a head injury, trauma or stroke. This syndrome causes someone to speak their native language as if they had a foreign accent. Research has shown that patients suffering from this condition, the brain’s speech center was affected and damaged.

3.

Alien Hand Syndrome or Dr. Strangelove Syndrome - When your hand does what it wants… The alien hand syndrome is a neurological disorder in which one of the sufferer’s hands seems to take on a mind of its own. Having no control over ‘’Alien hands’’, they can perform complex acts such as undoing buttons, removing clothing, and manipulation of tools.

4.

Cotard Syndrome or The Living Dead – This disorder makes a sufferer believe that he or she is dead, non-existent, is putrefying or has lost his/her blood or internal organs. Rarely, it can include delusions of immortality. First described by neurologist Jules Cotard in 1880, it wasn’t until April 2007 when it finally received scientific legitimacy.

5.

Synesthesia - A neurologically based phenomenon whereby the stimulation of one sense causes the automatic stimulation of another, resulting in the ability to taste shapes, see music ect. So for instance one could perceive the number 13 as the color pink, or watch 2 Girls 1 Cup and taste chocolate ice cream.

6.

Capgras Delusion - This one is common in patients who suffer from Schizophrenia: Capgras Delusion is a rare disorder in which a person becomes convinced that someone, typically a family member or spouse, has been replaced by an identical looking imposter.

7.

Fregoli Delusion - And the opposite of Capgras, we have the Fregoli Delusion: A sufferer believes that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise. The condition is named after the Italian actor Leopoldo Fregoli and was first reported in 1927 when a 27 year old woman became convinced that she was being persecuted by two actors whom she often went to see at the theatre. She believed that these people pursued her closely, taking the form of many different people she knows or meets.

8.

Munchausen Syndrome - Most people would know what this mental disorder is all about: the sufferer feigns, exaggerates, or creates symptoms of illnesses in himself or herself in order to gain attention, sympathy, and comfort from medical personnel. While we all have a tiny spark of attention whore in us, patients who suffer from Munchausen sometimes go to dangerous and extreme measures, like the horrifying story about Sarena Sherrard, who injected fecal matter into her young daughter in order to get attention.

9.

Trichotillomania - The urge to pull one’s hair out. Be it scalp hair,eyelashes, beard hair, nose hair, pubic hair, eyebrows or other body hair.

10.

Exploding Head Syndrome - I imagine this syndrome to not being very pleasant: The person occasionally experience a tremendously loud noise as if from within his or her own head, usually described as an explosion or a roar.

11.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS) - AIWS or Micropsia is a condition in which a patient’s sense of time, space and body image are distorted. People may appear tiny or patients may feel that part of their body shape or size has been altered. A sufferer may perceive humans, parts of humans, animals, and inanimate objects as substantially smaller than in reality. Normal sized car may look like miniature models and your average size pet dog shrinks to the size of a mouse.

12.

Apotemnophilia - Also known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) or Amputee Identity Disorder is a mental disorder where a person experiences the overwhelming desire to amputate healthy limbs or other parts of their body. In extreme cases sufferers take it upon themselves to amputate their own limbs. Acrotomophilia is the sexual attraction to to other people who are already missing limbs.

13.

Aboulomania - It involves the occasional onset of crippling indecision. Aboulomania sufferers are normal in practically every other way, physically and mentally—they simply run into very serious problems whenever they’re faced with certain choices, to the extent that they struggle to regain normal function. Some aboulomania sufferers face incredible difficulties in everyday life, finding it nearly impossible to do simple things; even wondering whether or not they should go out for a walk can paralyze them with indecision.

14.

Mary Hart Syndrome - If you wanted bizarre, then you’re about to get it. It turns out that there are reported cases of people experiencing seizures upon hearing the voice of Mary Hart, a TV personality. A doctor who studied one of these claims said that the woman concerned really did fall into a seizure at the sound of Hart’s voice; he reported that the woman would also grip her head, looking distracted and confused. It is important to note, however, that this strange syndrome seems only to affect those who already have seizures for other reasons.

15.

Boanthropy - A strange delusional disorder whereby a person believes himself to be a cow or an ox. Some people think that the disorder usually starts out as a dream and goes on to pervade the waking mind, eventually taking hold as a full-blown delusion. It’s also possible that the condition can be induced by hypnotism, provided that the subject is more than a little suggestible.

16.

Autophagia - Autophagia refers to the condition of eating yourself, or parts of yourself—often by simply biting and chewing impulsively. This disorder doesn’t have an official place of its own in the DSM-IV, but it would fit in with impulse control disorders in general.

17.

Erotomania – This is a pretty strange disorder; essentially, it refers to people who are deluded into thinking that someone else is in love with them. But what makes this disorder especially bizarre is that the person who is supposedly in love with the sufferer is usually someone of much higher status than themselves—and often a celebrity. This delusion can be difficult to break; even if the supposed lover directly denies any feelings of love, it is often not enough to convince the deluded individual.

18.

Gamomania - If you’ve ever had a random stranger walk up to you and ask you to marry them, then it sounds like you’ve probably met someone suffering from gamomania, a mental disorder that causes people to make sudden, outrageous marriage proposals. If you accepted, then hopefully you two are happy. Although it’s unlikely, as your spouse undoubtedly brings home a new fiancé every day. Gamomaniacs have such an intense desire for marriage, they usually tend to lean towards a polygamous lifestyle.

19.

Doromania - An obsession with giving gifts, which really makes the illness sound less like a horrible disorder and more like a characteristic of a wonderful friend or a favorite aunt. This is assuming, of course, that your favorite doromaniac actually gives good gifts, and not just random items from the dollar store or cans of cat food wrapped up with a bow.

20.

Lycanthropy - Clinical lycanthropy is defined as a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can or has transformed into an animal or that he or she is an animal. Its name is connected to the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which people are said to physically shapeshift into wolves. The terms zoanthropy and therianthropy are also sometimes used for the delusion that one has turned into an animal in general and not specifically a wolf.