Most people know of the more common psychological disorders, but you might not have heard of these ten you are about to learn about. They have been considered some of the worlds rarest mental health disorders and some of them are so odd they are hard to believe…
Split Brain Disorder
Split Brain Disorder
This is a condition where the left side of the brain and the right side of the brain are severed for medical reasons (to prevent people from having fits) or by accident. The two sides of the brain are held together by something called the Corpus Callosum. But the splitting part is not what the condition is. When the splitting happens the patient will often develop “Split Brain” disorder which means almost zero physical coordination, hardly any information processing and in some people it can even cause instant split personalities! So a split in the brain might well lead to a brain split!
Cotard’s Syndrome Disorder
Cotard’s Syndrome Disorder
This was discovered by neurologist Jules Cotard in the 1880s and it is where the patient believes they are dead. Not suicidal or believing they will die soon, but actually dead already! People who suffer from this will often plan their own funerals, follow through with wills and even sleep in the coffin waiting to be buried! It is basically an advanced form of depression, only the suicidal path is long gone.
Fregoli Delusion
Fregoli Delusion
This unusual form of schizophrenia is when people believe they are being followed and stalked by a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise, even going so far as to believe some objects are them! This can often be a hard mental health condition to treat because the patient will often believe the doctor or therapist is one of these “imposter” people.
Stendhal Syndrome
Stendhal Syndrome
This condition is named after 19th-century French author Stendhal who discovered it and it basically means a severe reaction to objects that have a profound emotional significance. Something as simple as a photo or toy can trigger the person to faint, suffer horrendous flashbacks and even cause them to self-harm just at the sight of it!
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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
This is basically an advanced form of Multiple personality disorder but the swapping is more severe where the personalities “take over” both the brain and the body, with neither personality knowing what the other has done, said or been. The current personality the person is doesn’t know they have this and will often say any diagnoses is a load of rubbish, only for the next personality to come along believe the exact same thing! There is no shared memories or experiences between any of them.
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
This is one of the most complicated mental health disorders you can get and it means the person feels disillusioned about the size of their body, their location and even the things happening all around them. Basically, they feel just like Alice down the rabbit hole, only without the fun parts.
Reduplicative Paramnesia
Reduplicative Paramnesia
This condition is when a person believes a place has been duplicated, sometimes more than once. Imagine getting Déjà vu all the time and you roughly get the way they feel. Sadly for people who suffer from it, it can often lead to paranoia with other things and even the belief that people are “out to trap them”. This has been known to occur in people who have suffered from a stroke or a haemorrhage/tumour on the brain.
Lima Syndrome
Lima Syndrome
Stockholm syndrome is when someone who is kidnapped or being held hostage develops feelings of trust or even love for the person who kidnapped them. But Lima Syndrome is where the opposite happens and the person who kidnapped them or holds them hostage gets feelings of trust or even love for the person who they kidnapped! I have to say this one scares me a little as I can imagine it would only make things worse in those situations.
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Triskaidekaphobia
Triskaidekaphobia
There are lots of people all over the world who will often attach dread or bad luck to the number 13, but someone who suffers from Triskaidekaphobia it is a number of dread and can cause emotional breakdowns, panic attacks and even cause them to want to commit suicide! I do have to wonder what the same thing would be called if it was black cats?
The Jumping French Man of Maine
The Jumping French Man of Maine
No, I didn’t make this up. This is a real mental health disorder in which the person suffering from it will randomly do an exaggerated startle reflex that often results in a “jump”. People who suffer from it often say they feel like puppets on strings and every now and again someone pulls those strings. It’s an odd disorder indeed, but much like all mental health conditions it is only truly understood by the people who suffer from them.
Have you heard of any of these mental health conditions or suffer from them yourself? If so I would love to hear from you in the comments below.