The 7 Scariest Mental Illnesses

I am so glad I do not have any of these illnesses! I hope you’re sitting down and your stomach is empty. These illnesses are not for the weak stomach—researching some of these turned mine and increased my paranoia of sitting next to psychos on the city bus just a bit.

#7Capgras Delusion
This horrible syndrome has you believing that everyone around you isn’t who they say they are.Often the belief that the person you’re looking at is a robot with mask to trick you into thinking they are your friend, lover, coworker, or relative when really, they have been replaced. Capgras delusion has you believe that everyone around you knows that your loved one isn’t your loved one because they are most likely planning something against you…

#6 Fregoli Delusion
The opposite of capgras is Fregoli Delusion. Even more bizarre than capgras this has the person thinking that everyone around them are just one entity in different costumes. The name originally comes from Leopoldo Fregoli an actor who thought he and everyone else were the same entity. Probably not the best thing to be remembered by!

#5 Cotard Delusion
Imagine you are one of the walking dead, no seriously THAT is cotard delusion. They think they are literally nothing but a bag of bones walking around like some weird ghost. There was a study about a man who had this delusion, when he was taken to Haiti, he thought he was literally in hell and burning for his sins. How crazy is that!

#4 Diogenes Syndrome
While ‘hoarding’ is the most common name for it, thanks to some popular TV programs about it, the illness to gather lots of stuff is calledDiogenes syndrome. Sufferers will gather all kinds of articles from clothes to cats to anything else. People suffering from this syndrome will gather all different types of thing to replace holes in their life created by the loss of family members or the neglect of loved ones. This disease is most prominent in old people that have been left alone by family member. I personally have quite a shoe and clothing collection, but since it doesn’t interrupt with my daily living and everything has a proper place… I’m probably not a sufferer of the syndrome.

#3 Pica
Bricks and stones may break my bones but I eat them anyways.No, there really is a syndrome called Pica where the sufferer could be caught eating bricks or bones. It is said to give some person cravings for non-edible substances like soap, sticks, coins, hair etc. making the person’s stomach bloat and eventually causing the person to die of clogs in their digestive tract. This picture shows a woman’s stomach after she digested over 1,000 coins.

#2 Algonquian folklore lends its name to a highly controversial modern medical term called Wendigo psychosis. It is described by psychiatrists as a culture-bound syndrome, thankgoodness, I won’t find this in Idaho! The symptoms give the inflicted an intense craving for human flesh and having a fear of becoming a cannibal. So, imagine struggling with the fear of becoming a cannibal when late at night you’re lusting over human meat. YIKES!

#1 Body Integrity Identity Disorder is a particularly nasty disorder where the inflicted might have a strong desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs. They can also want to damage otherwise healthy body parts to create other personal disabilities like the story of a woman who intentionally blinded herself. Or this lady by the name of Chloe Jennings-White who not only lived like a disabled person despite being physically healthy… she now wants a surgeon to cut her spinal cord. Shudder!