Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder are among the disorders that are largely understood. But certain diseases are so uncommon that mental health practitioners might never come across them. These are five of the less common mental health issues.
Uncommon Mental Health Issues
1. Khyâl Cap
The illness known as “wind attacks” or chyâl cap affects both Cambodians living in the United States and Cambodia. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) lists symptoms that are common to both anxiety and autonomic arousal, such as tinnitus and neck soreness, along with symptoms that are similar to those of panic attacks, such as dizziness, palpitations, shortness of breath, and cold extremities.
2. Kufungisisa
The DSM-5 also lists Kufungisisa, or “thinking too much,” as a cultural syndrome. It is prevalent among Zimbabwe’s Shona people.Many cultures view “thinking too much” as harmful to the body and mind, leading to symptoms of mental health issues including headaches and vertigo. Kufungisisa is the habit of dwelling on unpleasant ideas, especially anxieties. Cultural expressions such as “my heart hurts because I think too much” are thought to be the root cause of anxiety, despair, and physical issues. It is a sign of interpersonal and societal problems as an idiom.
3. Clinical Transplantation
When someone has clinical lycanthropy, they may develop an illusion that they may change into an animal. The term of the sickness comes from the legendary condition of lycanthropy, or shapeshifting into wolves, and is frequently connected to becoming a wolf or werewolf.
4. Disorder of Depersonalization/Derealization
The altered condition of depersonalization/derealization disorder is characterized by a person feeling detached from themselves, their environment, or both. This disease makes its patients feel as though they are seeing themselves from outside of their bodies. In addition, they might think that time is moving faster or slower or that their surroundings are warped.
5. The Diogenes Syndrome
Diogenes Syndrome is primarily connected with increasing dementia in the elderly and is characterized by excessive hoarding of trash and seemingly random items. Extreme self-neglect, indifference, social disengagement, and a lack of shame are further traits.
6. The Syndrome of Stendhal
When exposed to art, people with Stendhal syndrome suffer from panic attacks, dissociative experiences, confusion, and hallucinations in addition to physical and emotional distress. Medscape states that “art that is seen as particularly beautiful or when the individual is exposed to enormous quantities of art that are concentrated in a single place,” like a museum or gallery, are the typical triggers for these symptoms. Individuals may, nevertheless, respond to natural beauty in similar ways. The symptoms of this illness were first reported by a French author in the 19th century, who had the syndrome in 1817 while visiting Florence. Hyperculturemia or Florence syndrome are other names for Stendhal syndrome.
7. The tendency toward apostasy
Apotemnophilia, also referred to as bodily integrity identity disorder, is typified by a “overwhelming desire to amputate healthy parts of [the] body.” It is thought that this illness is neurological, despite the fact that not much is known about it. Individuals who are impacted could try to amputate their own limbs or injure the limb to the point that surgery is required. Brain injury to the right parietal lobe may be linked to apotemnophilia. Treatment for the ailment is difficult because many who suffer from it do not seek help. However, once treatment is sought, apotemnophilia can be treated with both cognitive behavioral therapy and aversion therapies.
8. Syndrome of the Alien Hand
The idea that one’s hand has a life of its own and is not one’s own is what defines this syndrome. People who experience alien hand syndrome perceive their hand as autonomous, despite having normal sensation in it. People who have alien hand syndrome may personify the diseased hand as if it were a separate creature, with the affected hand having its own will and the unaffected hand being under their control. Damage to the corpus callosum, which links the brain’s two cerebral hemispheres, may result in this syndrome. Damage to the parietal lobe and stroke are two more lead to cause mental health issues . The hands then seem to be acting in opposition to one another, in what is known as “intermanual conflict” or “ideomotor apraxia.”
9. The Capgras Syndrome
The French psychiatrist Joseph Capgras, who studied the illusion of duplicates, is honored by the name of this illness. The mistaken belief held by those who suffer from Capgras syndrome is that a significant other, generally a spouse, close friend, or family member, has been replaced by a fraud. It can happen to those who have experienced traumatic brain damage, schizophrenia, dementia, or epilepsy. Treatment strategies are similar to those used for the underlying diseases and frequently involve the use of antipsychotic drugs.
10. The Syndrome of Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS), sometimes referred to as Todd syndrome, is a neurological disorder characterized by warped perceptions of time, space, and one’s own body. Hallucinations, altered feeling of velocity, and sensory distortion are possible symptoms of AIWS. Despite the fact that there are other symptoms, changed body image is the most common one: Patients experience confusion regarding the dimensions and forms of various body components. Panic and fear reactions may be triggered by these sensations. Children between the ages of five and ten may be affected by AIWS, which is frequently linked to drug usage, brain tumors, and recurrent migraine attacks.
