Six Unbelievably Strange and Bizarre Mental Disorders

Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS)

In 1955, John Todd (1914-1987), an English psychiatrist, first named Alice in Wonderland syndrome in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.  This syndrome is always related to distortion in time, space and body image. Due to visual hallucinations, one feels that their whole body parts have been altered in shape and size. For them, a ground may appear to be too close and/or a corridor may appear to be too long. Even though their eyes are normal, they “see” objects (such as people, buildings, cars, houses) larger or smaller than their original sizes.

Schizotypal Disorder

Schizotypal disorder is a psychiatric condition, in which an individual has difficulty to interact with others, often appear to be emotionally distant while holding peculiar beliefs and thought (they usually don’t hallucinate) with their interpersonal relationships, and hence isolating them from a normal relationship. They’re always very upset by their difficulty in building and maintaining close relationships in their social situations, and due to this reason, they usually have a few to no intimate relationship. Typically, this disorder begins in an early adulthood and may endure in their life time. They may experience very brief psychotic episodes (lasting minutes to hours), and if it’s left ignored, this situation can actually develop into delusional disorder (also called schizophrenia), brief psychotic disorder or schizophreniform disorder. Paranoid, avoidant, schizoid are some of the personality disorders that are always seen to be co-existed with this disorder. People with this disorder will behold a belief that someone is going to harm them even though there is no evidence to support such belief; when they’re walking down the street they believe that strangers or passer-bys are talking about their affairs; they may have abnormal fears and preoccupations (such as fears of being monitored by somebody); and they may even dress in peculiar ways (such as putting on layers of clothing) in a public place until the people surrounding them labeling them as “crazy”, “stupid” or “ridiculous”.

Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a condition in which a sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of mixed sensations. That means one sense of hearing is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more mixed sensation of sight or color. Very often, synesthete (a person with synesthesia) may see the word “plane” as mint green, a taste of “lemon” as blue, the number “4” as dark brown, or the letter “q” as orange.

Stendhal Syndrome

Stendhal syndrome (also called stendhal’s syndrome, Florence syndrome, or Hyperkulturemia) is a psychosomatic illness that usually happens when someone experiencepalpitations of the heart, confusion, dizziness, hallucination, panic attack, paranoia, amnesia, breathlessness, fainting, or other nervous conditions while viewing extremely beautiful artworks, artistic or historical artifacts or by trying to see a large amount of art objects in too short a time. This syndrome took a name of the French novelist Stendhal who described his experience with this phenomenon during his visit to Florence, Italy in 1817 in his book entitled “Naples and Florence: A journey from Milan to Reggio”. In a very short time, he found that he was absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty of the city’s intensely rich legacy of art and history which was so vividly to his soul, causing him walked with the fear of falling and he even had palpitations in the heart.  

Trichotillomania

 Trichotillomania, a hair-pulling disorder, is a type of rarely seen psychological condition that involves an irresistible urge to pull out hair from scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, but may even involve hair from any other areas of one’s body.  It’s a compulsive behavior that may be accompanied with anxiety or depression, affecting more girls than boys. Nevertheless, this mental illness may also start among kids as younger as one year old.

Bibliomania

Bibliomania, also called book-madness, was a term first coined by a physician known as Dr. John Ferriar from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. It’s one of the psychological disorders associated with uncontrollable urge to hoard and acquire books to the point where one’s daily life, social relations or health are disrupted. The severe form of this obsessive-compulsive disorder may sometimes involve recurring cases of book theft (also called bibliokleptomania).  In this particular case, Stephen Blumberg has been documented to convict of stealing books worth of $5.3 million.

More on mental diorders from my articles:

The most bizarre medical conditions you probably didn't know exist

The craziest, most bizarre and unbelievable mental disorders

The craziest and most horrific things your brain can do

Final remark:

If you come across your family member, beloved one or anyone showing you conditions of mental disorder stated herein, please help get them the mental health professional with a strong background of treating mental illness to deal with their existing medical condition. Also, pray for them in the name of GOD for their fast recovery.

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