Our thoughts are only glued to the commonly discussed mental disorders: schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder etc, there are more rare mental disorders often not discussed but torment us day-in day-out.
This list contain some bizarre and weird mental disorders that are not spoken about due to how rare they are.
Stendhal Syndrome
It’s common to feel completely overwhelmed in an emotionally powerful tourist center, but what isn’t normal is rapid heartbeat, dizziness, hallucinating and fainting as result of being shocked by beauty. Experts say this psychosomatic illness can occur when an individuals is exposed to a large amount of beautiful art in a short space of time.
A notable example of this, is Jerusalem syndrome: a phenomenon being experienced by some of the people visiting the holy land, almost making a mental healthy person psychotic. Some lose control on sighting the beauty and the famous work of art and thereby proclaiming themselves as the Messiah.
Read also: Were the Old time Prophets Mentally ill?
Autophagia
Characterized as one of the impulse control disorders. Autophagia is a condition of eating part of oneself i.e. biting and chewing impulsively. An example is biting one’s nail.
Alien Hand Syndrome
When your arm lives as a separate entity, does what it wants, have mind of its own; then you are not far from the real-life nightmare “Alien Hand Syndrome.”
“I would make a telephone call and this hand would hang up the phone…I would light a cig.. and this one would put it out. I would be drinking coffee and this hand would dump it,” said Karen Byrne, a commentator on mental conditions.
Alien Hand Syndrome is a traumatic situation that occurs when an arm does whatever pleases it without the cognitive control of the person to whom it belongs, a result of the conflict between the left and right parts of the brain.
Pica
Pica is a dangerous disorder that gives people the compulsion to eat anything (wood, sand, soap etc.) not minding its nutritional value. This disorder is often seen among pregnant women, or kids with autism.
Read also: 5 Common Mental Health Disorders in Children
It includes: Tricophagia, consumption of hair; Coprophagy, consumption of feces, Urophagia, and consumption of urine.
Aboulomania
In every normal person, the brain is equipped with a deliberative mechanism that helps sift through actions and prioritize the things to be done. But, anyone having such mechanism disabled i.e. paralysis of the will, is said to be Aboulomaniac.
Sufferers of Aboulomania (a mental disorder characterized by crippling decision) report having difficulty in making decisions i.e. sufferers run into psychological problems while deciding what food to eat, where to go and many more.
Foreign Accent Syndrome
“I’ve lost my identity, because I never talked like this before. I’m a very different person and it’s strange and I don’t like it,” says Linda Walker whose English accent was transformed to Jamaican one after stroke.
Another report has it that Sarah Colwill, a British woman who was hospitalized for an intense migraine, woke up with a Chinese accent after surgery.
Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare disorder which sometimes manifests as a result of brain injury like stroke, making sufferer to speak native language in foreign accent.
References / Further Readings: Bret S. Stetka, MD; Christoph U. Correll, MD. Rare and Unusual Psychiatric Syndromes - Medscape. Jodie Gummow. 12 Quirky Mental Disorders You Haven’t Heard About - alternet.org Freakish Psychological Disorders - Interesting and Weird.
There are many disorders that are linked to brain. Many of them are still unknown to the public’s. Being a TMS therapist I think no disorder is scary because almost all of them are curable. Even these six disorders have cures as well. Problem with people is, the loved ones and the patients usually do not take their mentality seriously such as depression and any other pressure to brain. That can harm the mentality. Therefore, I would say that never be uncaring about your most important part of the body.