15 Strangest Psychological Disorders

Psychological issues in the United States are very common, affecting millions of Americans. It is estimated that 50% of all Americans are diagnosed with a mental health issue or disorder at some point in the lifetime. Psychological illnesses such as depression are the third most common disorder in the United States among people ages 18-44.

 

Mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and  schizophrenia are relatively well-understood. However, some disorders are so rare that psychotherapists may never encounter them. Here are 15 strangest psychological disorders.

 

Strangest psychological disorders

Some of the strangest, scariest and most uncommon mental disorder may include:

 

Pica

Pica is a bizarre mental disorder that drives people to eat inedible, and often bizarre items. The stomach contents of a Pica patient are restored at the Glore Psychiatric Museum in Missouri. The stomach of the patient contained over 40 screws, 400 nails, and salt and pepper shakers. Other records show that Pica patients may eat soap, wood, or even glass.

 

Psychologists do not have one cause to explain Pica. It is classified as a psychological disorder, although it is also linked to eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Other cases determine that it may be a culture-bound syndrome as well. Pica is taken soberly, as ingestion of items that contain soil or lead could lead to severe complications.

 

Prosopagnosia (Face Blindness)

This weirdest disorder is usually characterized by an inability to recognize people’s faces visually. People with face blindness may be able to recognize their friends through smells, sounds, or touch.

 

Capgras syndrome

Capgras syndrome, or delusion of doubles, is characterized as delusional misidentification syndrome. This strangest psychological disorder is commonly characterized by a false belief that a similar duplicate has replaced someone historic to the patient. In CS, the pretender can also replace an animal or an inanimate object. This disorder is most common amongst people having dementia or Alzheimer’s.

 

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is an umbrella term which covers a condition in which senses can be combined in odd ways. This uncommon mental issue may show up in various ways for different people. One person with this disorder may see a color all the time they hear a particular note on the piano. Another patient will see a color while hearing specific words. This may not negatively affect the ability of a person to live a normal life, but can cause some confusion before this disorder is first identified!

 

Alice in wonderland syndrome

Alice in Wonderland syndrome is a cute story, but not so cute when it affects your everyday life. People who experience Alice in Wonderland syndrome commonly find themselves feeling their body parts of other objects incorrectly, with terrifying results. AIWS leads to migraines and episodes that are not permanent.

 

Clinical lycanthropy

Clinical lycanthropy is a bizarre psychological disorder in which the person believes that they can transform into an animal. The most common animal connected with this disorder is a wolf. Werewolves might be found in spooky books, but if a patient believes that they are a werewolf, then they may be diagnosed with clinical lycanthropy.

 

Cotard’s syndrome

Cotard’s Syndrome is a weirdest disorder that is characterized by the delusion that the person is dead or dying. These delusions usually include the faith that a person has lost their parts of body, their body is decaying, or that they never existed in the first place. This disorder is closely related to serious depression and other mental disorders. It is also referred to as walking corpse syndrome.

 

Stendhal syndrome

For people with Stendhal Syndrome, that phrase may not be so metaphorical. When someone with this strangest psychological disorder is exposed to a beautiful scene in nature or work of art, they may experience fainting, rapid heartbeat, confusion or even hallucinations. Gallery or an art museum is usually not the best place for a patient with this disorder to visit.

 

Saora

Some uncommon mental issues only appear within certain religions or cultures of the world. Saora is one of these disorders. In the Orissa tribe of India, a group of young women and men show strange patterns of behavior that psychiatrists now identify as Saora. Among these abnormal behaviors is acting out in the faith that the patient was bitten over and over by the ants, even when no ants are around them. Saora patients exhibit fainting, memory loss, inappropriate crying or laughing.

 

Koro

Koro is a weirdest, culture-bound mental illness, but it has made headlines and caused hysteria across the world. Patients with this unique mental illness suffer from delusion that their genitals (private parts) are shrinking and will disappear entirely.

 

Koro is listed in the official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Koro outbreaks in the 60s have been linked to swine flu, while other types of outbreaks and food poisoning in labor camps have been reported in modern history.

 

 

 

 

Alien hand syndrome

Alien hand syndrome is a bizarre mental disorder in which one hand is not under the control of the mind. The person loses control of their hand, and it acts like it has a mind of its own. Sometimes one leg is affected, but it is uncommon. It can affect children, commonly alien hand syndrome occurs in adults.

 

It can be caused by numerous factors. Some people face this syndrome after a trauma, tumor, or stroke. It is sometimes associated with brain aneurysms, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.

 

Apotemnophilia

 This most unique mental illness is also known as body integrity disorder (BIID) or amputee identity disorder. It is a rare condition that occurs when your body image does not match your physical body. If you have BIID, you commonly desire to cut off a limb to become paralyzed.

 

People with this strangest psychological disorder feel that a particular limb does not belong to them. They may have a healthy leg or arm that they don’t feel right for their body and desire to have amputated. Some patients feel intense emotional pain while keeping the limb they don’t identify.

 

Diogenes syndrome

Diogenes syndrome is a strange disorder that occurs when an individual does not take care of himself and his surroundings, causing poor hygiene and possibly some social and health problems. It commonly occurs with other conditions, like dementia. People with this condition often show signs of severe hoarding, self-neglect, and social isolation. These conditions lead to illness such as pneumonia, or accidents like fires or falls.

 

Men and women of any age can have this disorder, but it commonly occurs as a behavioral disorder in older people. Research suggests that it is most common in people who are 60 years old, and who live alone.

 

Khyâl cap

Khyâl cap or wind attacks is a weirdest mental illness found among Cambodians in the United States and Cambodia. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V), symptoms are similar to those of cold extremities, shortness of breath, panic attacks, palpitations, dizziness,along with the symptoms of anxiety and autonomic arousal, like neck soreness and  tinnitus.

 

These attacks are centered on a wind-like substance, rising in the blood and the body, causing a variety of serious effects. They can occur without warning, and usually meet the criteria for panic attacks. It involves a fear that death might occur from bodily dysfunction.

 

This strangest psychological disorder is an example of a cultural syndrome, or syndrome that tends to co-occur among people in specific communities, cultural groups, or contexts.

 

Kufungisisa

Another strange cultural syndrome listed in the DSM-5 is kufungisisa, or thinking too much is found among Shona people of Zimbabwe.

 

In some cultures, “thinking too much” is considered to be damaging to the body and mind, causing particular symptoms like dizziness and headaches. Kufungisisa includes considering upsetting thoughts, specifically worries. As a cultural expression, it is reasoned to be causative to depression, anxiety,and somatic problems (such as “my heart is paining because I think too much). As an idiom, it is reflective of interpersonal and social difficulties.

 

Thinking too much is a common idiom of cultural distress and explanation across many ethnic groups and countries, including Africa,Latin America, the Caribbean,and among Native American groups and East Asian.

 

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