Rare Mental Health Disorders and What You Need to Know

We all have an idea of what mental illnesses are and what they look like. About 13% of the world’s population suffers from one mental illness or another. However, there are a lot of rare mental health disorders that are rarely talked about, and this article will list five of them.

Rare Mental Health Disorders

Even more difficult to understand can be rare mental illnesses. Many individuals are unaware of what is happening and even healthcare professionals can misinterpret or misdiagnose symptoms.

Rare Mental Health Disorders

Below are some of the rarest mental health disorders.

Erotomania

This disorder, also known as Clerambault syndrome, belongs to the same family as delusional disorder.

This disorder, which is a form of psychosis, makes people believe that someone they may never meet is in love with them.

Most times, the person in question could be a celebrity or public figure. Although these feelings are mere fantasies, these individuals often believe they are real.

Just like many other disorders, the specific cause of this disorder is unclear, but how it occurs depends on a person’s external factors, present mental state, and foundational personality.

Some psychologists believe that social media is a tool that has increased the rate of this disorder because it creates a false sense of belonging and connection that vulnerable and emotional people cling to when in need.

However, this disorder serves as a way of coping with extreme stress.

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Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

The name refers to the possibility of feeling bigger or smaller than you actually are. It’s also possible for the space you’re in to appear to change and to be closer or farther away than it actually is.

However, these are not delusions. These sensations result from adjustments in how your brain interprets the surroundings.

It can and does affect numerous senses, including your eyesight, touch, and hearing, so it doesn’t simply affect perception.

Additionally, time might change, either speeding up or slowing down. Since most people often outgrow it by the time they reach maturity, it typically only affects young adults. Although incidents still happen occasionally.

Apotemnophilia

This is a scary disorder and could send shivers down your spine. Also known as amputee identity disorder comes with an overwhelming desire to amputate or cause damage to healthy parts of the body.

Although the exact reason is still unknown, it has been suggested that it could be related to mental etiology, which is defined as a “pathological need driven by sexual compulsion.”

Recent research has also provided a neurological explanation, according to which the illness may be caused by dysfunction in the right parietal lobe.

Folie a Deux

This disorder is also known as shared delusion. It happens when a mentally stable person exhibits the symptoms of someone close to them who is suffering from a psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia.

For instance, your friend has a psychotic disorder that makes him think he’s being haunted by ghosts, if you have the shared delusional disorder, you will believe you are being haunted too.

Groups with a close relationship with a psychotic person have been found to experience shared psychotic illnesses. This kind is known as “the madness of many” or folie a plusiers.

As an illustration, if a cult leader had psychosis, his or her followers might have adopted those delusions.

Factitious Disorder 

This disorder causes people to lie about physical illness or injury. They do so to receive medical care or attention in a medical setting.

This is mainly psychological as there is no tangible benefit from getting attention. People who have it frequently struggle with very serious mental problems and run a great risk of trying to harm themselves in order to get more attention.

Two categories of factitious disorders exist:

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Self-imposed Factious Disorder: This is characterized by the fabrication of emotional or physical signs.

Therefore, a person might imitate behaviors typical of, say, schizophrenia. They will list all the accompanying symptoms and indicators. However, they won’t actually go through any of them.

Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another: People with this variation will create or manufacture symptoms of people in their care, like the elderly, children, or the disabled. Most frequently, it affects mothers who might injure their children in order to attract attention.

All forms of mental disorder are severe. All of them have the potential to affect someone’s mental and physical health.

In light of this, unusual mental disorders frequently require extra care and attention. People must receive the assistance they need. Reaching out for help is the first step in recovery.

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