The 26 strangest mental and psychological disorders

Several mental disorders that are very rare because of their infrequency or because of the curious nature of their symptoms.

Mental disorders are frequently diagnosed nowadays, and according to experts, one in three people suffer or will suffer from some kind of mental disorder.According to experts, one in three people suffer or will suffer from some kind of mental disorder in their lifetime.

Some of these psychological disorders are well known, such as depressive disorder, anorexia, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. However, there are other mental disorders and illnesses that are rare due to their low frequency of occurrence or their bizarre symptomatology..

The rarest mental disorders

But... what are these atypical mental disorders? What bizarre psychopathologies can we find?

Below you can find a list with 26 very curious mental disorders:

1. Altrophagia or Pica.

Some eating disorders are very popular (such as anorexia or bulimia), however, there are others unknown to most of the population. One of them is Altrophagia or Pica, characterized by the fact that the person with this psychological alteration uncontrollable desire to eat non-nutritive or inedible substances, such as soil or paint. such as soil or paint.

Although some children may engage in this behavior out of total ignorance of the harmful consequences of these substances, Pica can occur at older ages. These substances, besides containing no nutritional value, can seriously damage the health of the person who consumes them.

• Learn more about this disorder: "Pica (alotrophagia): causes, symptoms and possible treatments".

2. Folie à trois

Folie à Trois is a very rare psychotic disorder.. If the Folie à Deux, in which two individuals share the delirium, is already uncommon, the Folie à Trois, in which three individuals share the psychotic break, is less common.

A well-known case of Folie à Trois involves three American sisters. Two of them moved into the same household and were neighbors of their other sister. The disorder emerged suddenly when they became close because they spent a lot of time together.

All three sisters had strong religious beliefs and the little girl began to question how there could be different interpretations of the Bible. This idea developed in the minds of the three sisters, and they decided to go to a house that was not theirs to begin their work. The owners of the home, who were in the house at the time, would not let them in and called the police. When the police arrived at the scene, they were assaulted by the three sisters.

3. Alien hand syndrome

The Alien Hand Syndrome (also Alien Hand Syndrome or Dr. Strangelove Syndrome) is a rare neurological disorder in which the hand goes on its own and does what it wants. The person feels that the hand is not his or her own..

This syndrome should not be confused with Phantom Limb Syndrome, which is suffered by some people who have lost a limb. You can learn more about the latter condition in this article, "Phantom Limb and Mirror Box Therapy."

4. Trichophagia

Trichophagia or Rapunzel Syndrome is. another very rare eating disorder because of the infrequency in which it occurs.. It consists of the person suffering from this condition having an irresistible desire to eat their own hair. This causes serious problems in the stomach, because the hair causes an intestinal blockage. It usually occurs together with trichotillomania, which is the pathological impulse to pull out one's own hair.

5. Autocannibalism or Autosarcophagia

This bizarre mental disorder is characterized by the person eats his own skin or consumes his own blood.. Self-cannibalism also occurs in Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome, a disorder in which a person self-mutilates and consumes his or her own body parts.

Individuals with this disease engage in compulsive behaviors such as biting their fingertips and lips (or any other body part they have access to), putting their fingers in their eyes, or throwing their body against a wall.

6. Boanthropia

If it is already rare the case of Zoanthropia, in which the person thinks he/she is an animal, in boanthropia he/she thinks he/she is an animal, in boanthropy, he thinks he is a cow or an ox.. This type of behavior is known as lycanthropic delirium, a psychopathological phenomenon that manifests itself as the unrealistic belief in the transformation of one's own body into that of an animal. In this case, the person adopts the typical behaviors of the animal in question.

7. Aboulomania

It can be that sometimes we have to make a difficult decision and we do not know what to do, something that is not normal. On the other hand, there are people who suffer from aboulomania, that is to say, the inability to make decisions. Deciding what to eat in a restaurant when you have the menu in your hand becomes a difficult situation when a person suffers from this psychological disorder.

8. Foreign Accent Syndrome

Foreign Accent Syndrome is one of the rarest neurological disorders, usually resulting from a brain injury, such as an accident or cerebrovascular injury. It is a rare condition, which causes the person to speak their native language as if they have a foreign accent.

9. Hikikomori

Hikikomori is a psychopathological and sociological phenomenon characterized by the person isolating himself from society and shutting himself in his room, avoiding contact with people around him. avoiding contact with the people around him.. It receives this name because, until recently, it was characteristic of Japan. Nowadays it is known that there are also cases in the West, even in Spain.

• Recommended article: "Hikikomori in Spain: social isolation syndrome does not only affect Japan".

10. Diogenes Syndrome

The Diogenes Syndrome is one of the best known of these strange disorders. It is characterized by the fact that people who suffer from the condition store and collect a lot of belongings and possessions in their home. These people are unable to get rid of them, so they accumulate more and more waste and abandoned objects in general. People find it strange that a person can live surrounded by garbage and this generates isolation, as well as hygiene and food problems.

You can learn more about this disorder in our article: "Diogenes Syndrome: causes, symptoms and treatment".

11. Tourette syndrome

One of the most striking disorders is undoubtedly Tourette syndrome or Gilles de Tourette syndrome (after Georges Gilles de Tourette, which is the eponym of this disorder). It is a neurological disorder that is characterized by the fact that those who suffer from it involuntary movements and sounds without a specific purpose..

To better exemplify what this disorder is, we invite you to learn more about a well-known real case. You can see it in this article that contains audiovisual content: "Super Taldo: the famous case of the Chilean boy with Tourette Syndrome."

12. Stockholm Syndrome

This disorder occurs in those people who have been victims of kidnapping, show some kind of positive feeling towards their captors and create emotional bonds with them.. Some experts think that it is a defense mechanism, a reaction provoked by the stress of a traumatic situation that happened. It is considered a strange disorder because it is difficult to understand.

13. Taijin Kyofusho Syndrome

Taijin Kyofusho Syndrome is a social anxiety disorder (SAD) that commonly occurs in Japan, and is characterized by a strong fear of being kidnapped. is characterized by a strong fear that the body, its parts or its functions are offensive to other people..

It can be confused with social phobia, but while the latter refers to the fear of being embarrassed in front of others, individuals suffering from Taijin Kyofusho Syndrome fear embarrassing others by virtue of their presence or appearance.

In other words, in social phobia the person worries about his or her reaction, in Taijin Kyofusho he or she worries about how others will feel about his or her presence.

14. Erotomania

This mental disorder is rare. The sufferer has the delusional belief that an individual, of superior status, is in love with him or her, with the peculiarity that the person supposedly in love is usually someone famous.. A strange and unusual pathology.

15. Omphalophobia

Omphalophobia is the irrational fear of the navel.. This fear or discomfort is towards your own navel or that of others. These individuals experience difficulties when bathing because they cannot look at their navel or touch it.

The symptoms are those characteristic of any specific phobia: irritability, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, feeling of fury along with anger, as well as a feeling of total helplessness. Undoubtedly, one of the rarest mental disorders.

16. Jerusalem Syndrome

A strange disorder that manifests itself in the form of delusions, visions and loss of contact with reality, after loss of contact with reality, after visiting the Holy City of Jerusalem or other holy areas in Israel.. It is a psychotic disorder that affects both tourists and people living in this city.

17. Paris Syndrome

Jerusalem is not the only city that is part of this list of mental disorders, because we can also find the city of light: Paris. The Paris Syndrome is a psychological condition experienced by Japanese tourists who are very disappointed when they visit the French capital.. The reason seems to lie in the unrealistic expectations that Japanese people have for this metropolis.

• You can learn more in our article: "Paris Syndrome: the strange disorder suffered by some Japanese tourists".

18. Koro Syndrome (Genital Restraint Syndrome)

Another disorder that occurs more frequently in Asian countries is the Koro Syndrome, an anxiety disorder characterized by the fact that the person who suffers from it characterized by the sufferer thinking that his penis is shrinking every day until it disappears. until it disappears. Not only that, but his member is absorbed by the body until it causes death.

Although it occurs mostly in men, some women also have the belief that their external genitals and nipples will be absorbed into the body and die.

19. Alice in Wonderland Disease

Alice in Wonderland disease is characterized by the presence of micropsia or macropsia, and is a neurological disorder affecting visual perception in which the individual sees surrounding objects as smaller (micropsia) and larger (macropsia).. Patients also suffer from an altered perception of time in certain places or at certain times.

20. Münchausen's Syndrome

Münchausen syndrome is a type of factitious disorder. It is a condition in which the person constantly and intentionally simulates very striking illnesses. This can lead to self-injury or the ingestion of toxic substances in order to receive care for the patient.. Its motivation is to assume the role of sick person and to be taken care of.

 

21. Triscaidecaphobia

This phobic disorder is due to the irrational fear of the number 13. People with this phobia avoid this number because of the tremendous anxiety they feel when they see it or touch anything that contains it. It is necessary to differentiate this type of anxiety disorder with the parascevedecatriaphobia, which is the phobia to Friday the 13th. It is one of the strangest mental disorders due to the specific character of what produces fear.

22. Crystal illusion

This is a very strange psychological disorder in which the person believes that his body is made of glass. believes that his body is made of glass and that it can be broken at any moment.. Despite evidence that they are made of flesh and blood, they are unable to abandon this false belief.

23. Cotard's Syndrome

This serious mental disorder is unusual. It is characterized because the subject perceives that he is separated from reality. He can see his body in the mirror, but he notices it as something strange, as if it did not exist. Individuals with Cotard's Syndrome, frequently believe they are dead or in a state of decomposition.

• Related text: "Cotard's syndrome: living people who believe they are dead".

24. Fregoli syndrome

A rare mental disorder in which the sufferer has the belief that different people are actually the belief that different persons are, in truth, one and the same person.. Therefore, he thinks that this individual is capable of modifying his physical appearance. It is usually accompanied by persecutory delusions.

25. Capgras Syndrome

If the previous point seemed strange to you, even stranger is the Capgras Syndrome. People who suffer from it think that their friends and relatives, in reality, are impostors, even though there are no objective motives.They tend to react with hostility and hostility towards their friends and family members. They usually react with hostility towards their relatives and friends, thinking that they are not them.

26. Reduplicative Paramnesia

This type of delusional disorder is really curious, as the person has the delusional idea that the context or scenario in which he/she is has the delusional idea that the context or scenario in which he is has been duplicated, i.e., there is another one or several identical ones somewhere in the world.that is, there is another one or several identical ones somewhere in the world. They may also believe that this specific place has been moved to another location.