Showing posts with label OCD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OCD. Show all posts

Dec 30, 2013

Weird Disorders, Diseases & Syndromes

You may have heard about progeria, dyslexia or schizophrenia, but there are many other weird and rare diseases, disorders & phobias you may not heard of. I have made a list of some of those disorders.

Congenital analgesia:
The person feels no pain whatsoever, thus making it one of the most dangerous conditions. The person does not realize he/she is hurt, bleeding or burning. Therefore, corrective measures or treatment cannot be taken on time.
Congenital Analgesia Term was used in The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest Movie & Book of The Millennium series.
Find Details here- CIPA

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD):
A lot of famous people have/had OCD. Donald Trump, Katy Perry, Megan Fox, Charlie Sheen, Charlize Theron have or had OCD.
In the OCD category there are few disorders like- Obsessive Thinking Disorder, Compulsive Liar Symptoms, Obsessive Love Disorder (yes, it's a disorder).

Trichotillomania:
Trichotillomania, in psychological disorder, where the individual gratifies his urge by pulling out his or her own hair. The patient pull out their own hair or sometimes eat them.

Pica:
This disorder makes the people feel like eating things that we wouldn't consider at all. Like paper, mud, hair, glue, detergent, etc.

Synesthesia:
In the “Feluda” by Satyajit Ray a boy was able to see mathematical equations and numbers. Sounds impossible? This disorder made this possible.
Patients are able to see musical notes, smell words? Maybe 'taste' a triangle. This is actually a legitimate neurological condition, where the person suffering from it can actually do the above things.

Stockholm Syndrome:
A syndrome wherein the victim of kidnapping or abuse, becomes attached and loyal to his/her abductors or abusers.

The Living Dead Delusion/Cotard Delusion:
In this condition the sufferer believes that he is dead. In fact, the sufferers go to the extent where they start believing that they can smell the rotting flesh of their dead bodies, and they are decomposing. Nobody can convince them that since they can smell, they are still very much alive. This condition can also sometimes lead to patients believing that they are immortal. They think they are invisible, have worms crawling all over their rotting flesh, etc.
This term was used in Buffet Froid episode of TV series Hannibal.

Blaschko's Lines:
A medical condition, where strange stripes occur on the patient's body. It looks like the stripes have been painted on the body with precision. The stripes follow a pattern across all the sufferers, with almost all of them showing 'S' shaped patterns on the sides, abdomen and chest, and 'V' shaped patterns on the back. This strange condition has neither been classified as a disease nor as a symptom of any other disease. It is believed to be a pattern that is inbuilt into the DNA of the people suffering from this pretty rare condition.

Charles Bonnet Syndrome:
This is one of the most mysterious medical conditions that afflicts people suffering from visual loss. They suffer from hallucinations that can range from funny to bizarre and freaky. Sometimes they see things that are not present, while at other times the things that are present take on different forms, colors, etc. These hallucinations can last for anytime between a few minutes to a few hours.

Target Fixation:
This is a condition that usually afflicts bikers, racers, and pilots. The person becomes so completely fixated on his target that he forgets to avoid it, or stop when he reaches it, ending up colliding with the target! When a person is suffering from target fixation, their awareness is affected and they cannot pay attention to anything except their target. They lose track of any other obstacles as well, which often leads to accidents, and even then the sufferers of this malady do not realize what has happened until after the crash.

Aquagenic Urticaria:
A medical condition where the sufferer cannot tolerate contact with water. This condition is extremely rare and has affected very few people across the world. Even perspiration can give them terrible and painful rashes on their skin, and these people cannot take showers, or swim, or enjoy a hot soak in a tub.

Medical Students' Syndrome:
Medical student's syndrome is a weird medical condition wherein the medical students feel that they are suffering from the diseases that they are studying. The causes are not clear, but the environment in which they study is a major contributor to this condition. Most medical students suffer from this at least some point of their lives.

Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva:
In this condition, the torn muscles, ligaments, and tendons turn to bones, in an attempt to repair themselves. If you try to remove these 'bones', then the body just grows them again, to 'heal' itself, since it thinks that a part of the actual one has been removed. So surgery does not work. This causes broken joints to fuse together making movement between them impossible.

Jerusalem Syndrome:
Another strange syndrome is the Jerusalem Syndrome, where a person, upon visiting or leading to a visit to the holy city of Jerusalem, is gripped by a religious mania. The patient may become delusional and believe that he/she is a biblical figure on a special religious mission, and on reaching, he/she will dress in pure white robes and deliver religious sermons.

Hyperthymestic Syndrome:
Hyperthymestic syndrome, also called hyperthymesia, is a unique condition that affects the memory. Unlike Alzheimer it does not make the person forgetful, but instead gives them an autobiographical memory power. The person can remember each and every event they have personally experienced.

Music Induced Seizures:
One of the very, very mysterious medical conditions is music induced seizures. Also called musicogenic seizures, music induces reflex epilepsy. Certain types of music or sound frequencies tend to have low tolerance in the person's brain. When the person hears a song or sound or music at this pitch or frequency, it triggers the focal epileptiform EEG discharges in the brain. Thus, the person suffers from seizures as well as tonic-clonic seizures.

Apotemnophilia:
Apotemnophilia is a neurological disorder that the patient feel very strong desire to amputate their healthy limb(s). In some serious cases, the person is not content with their body parts and just wants to remove the otherwise healthy limb. Due to this, they may visit surgeons and request them to carry out a medical amputation.

Alien Hand Syndrome:
Also called Dr. Strangelove syndrome or anarchic hand, alien hand syndrome is also a neurological disorder. This is a condition that causes the affected person's hand to do what it pleases. It causes them to feel that they have lost control over their hand. It begins to act autonomously and involuntarily. This 'alien' behavior at times occurs without the sufferer being aware of what is happening. The rogue hand may even try to strangle the sufferer himself in sleep.

Fatal Familial Insomnia:
A very rare autosomal dominant inherited disease of the brain is fatal familial insomnia. The disease often occurs in people in the age group of 35 to 60 years. The person starts suffering from insomnia, paranoia, phobias, hallucinations, dementia and complete inability to sleep. About 7 to 36 months after onset, the disease proves to be fatal.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome:
Alice in Wonderland syndrome is a very rare condition. In this case, the perception power of the person is affected. The sufferer begins to experience micropsia or macropsia. This is a size distortion where the sufferer begins to see objects larger than they are or smaller than they actually appear. They may find buildings appear miniature in size and an ant appear like a gigantic monster to them. They begin to misinterpret things and some suffer from intense hallucinations.

Morgellons Disease:
The Morgellons disease is a condition where a person believes there are fibers embedded in their skin. They feel as if there are insects crawling underneath their skin, biting them or stinging them. These may lead them to cause spontaneous or self-inflicted skin lesions. These people suffer from a lot of pain and discomfort due to the symptoms manifested by the disease.

Moebius Syndrome:
The Moebius or Möbius syndrome is a neurological disorder. This is an extremely rare neurological condition where a person is born with facial paralysis. The person cannot close the eyes, or express any kind of facial expression. These people are often considered as dull or unfriendly souls. But, in majority of the cases, these people are just as friendly as any other person. Their expressionless face tends to make them appear strange.

Progeria:
A rare congenital disorder of childhood that is characterized by rapid onset of the physical changes typical of old age. The patient drastically age. The patient in most cases very young but look like over 70 or something.

Latah:
Going into trance and mimic other people and do what you are asked to do without second thoughts

Ondine's Curse:
Patients with this syndrome have difficulty to take in oxygen and may die if not taken precautions.

Kleptomania:
You may remember Marie from Breaking Bad, who steals things regardless of its value. It’s a mental disease where the patient steals almost anything regardless of its value.

Capgras Disease:
Another one is Capgras disease, where the patient believes or rather she/he is absolutely convinced, that their loved ones, mainly their spouse, is an imposter. Sometimes, if things go out of hand, they might even attack their loved ones, whom they think to be an imposter. These people, even doubt their own reflection in the mirror.

Masochistic Personality Disorder:
People with Masochistic Personality Disorder tends to show self destructive and self-defeating behavior. They feel that they have to be self sacrificing and accept exploitation from others. They might feel that they are unworthy of love and do not deserve love in their life. They avoid pleasurable experiences in life, in all its forms. They will find anything that leads to pleasure cumbersome, and will reject the same.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder:
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is typically defined by a person who has abnormally intense love for self and an exaggerated sense of superiority. Self-focus, self-importance, etc., are the terms that best define a a person with this disorder.

Multiple Personality Disorder:
Multiple personality disorder AKA split personality is a psychotic disorder in which a person has two or sometimes several distinct identities. These multiple personalities dominate and control the behavior of the patient.. It was first reported as a clinical disorder in the nineteenth century, before that patients with this disorder believed to be the result of a spirit or demon possession.

Ablutophobia:
The person with this disorder have phobia of washing, cleaning themselves. It is more common in women and children.

Alliumphobia:
Person who has this disorder have extreme fear of garlic and sometimes show eccentric behavior when they smell garlic.Sometimes people get confused that the patient is vampire.

Parkinson's Disease:
Parkinson's disease is a disorder that affects the which affect the part of the brain that controls muscle movements. With the help of modern science this disease is curable.

Down Syndrome & Mosaic Down Syndrome:
Down syndrome is a genetic condition that causes delayed development of physical and intellectual aspects of a child. A child with this condition, has a lower IQ, low understanding, reasoning and perception abilities. The person with this syndrome has 47 chromosome in every cell instead of 46 chromosome.
The presence of an extra chromosome in some cells can produce a number of physical characteristics, along with cognitive impairment. Sometimes, people with mosaic Down syndrome may not have all the typical physical characteristics associated with Down syndrome. Cognitive and intellectual impairment can also be less severe, compared to Down syndrome.

Dyslexia:
A person with dyslexia has difficulty with words. This is a learning disability that is characterized by the difficulty or inability to learn adequate reading or writing skills although conventional teaching and social-cultural activities are available. It primarily impacts the reading and writing abilities. It is a neurological or brain-based condition.

Aphasia:
People with aphasia face difficulty in communicating (reading, writing, and speaking) due to inability in understanding language. This condition results from damage to that part of the brain which controls language.

Asperger Syndrome:
A psychological condition where a person is incapable of social interaction or social communication or sometimes get obsessed with a single subject.

Alzheimer's Disease:
Patients lose their memory can not create new memory or remember the old memories.

I have excluded most of the phobias. You can Google list of phobias, and find a very long list of phobias from A through Z.