Lesser Known Mental Illnesses

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental illness is so common that 10% of the 21st century population suffers from some form of mental disorder. Many of these diseases are linked to sociocultural contexts, such as those caused by an unbalanced diet or old age.

While some believe that mental disorders are a relatively “new” phenomenon that has only emerged in modern times, historical records show that people have suffered from psychological imbalances since ancient times. Indeed, we see from historical texts that, for example, in the Middle Ages, people showed behavior that appears to be depressive and traumatic stress disorder (although in those days those modern expressions were not used).

Today, we recognize a huge spectrum of mental illnesses , although many of them are relatively unknown to the general public.

What are the least known mental illnesses?

Wendy’s syndrome

The name of this disease has its roots in the story of Peter Pan. This mental disorder makes his victim downright  drowned in the responsibility of caring for a younger, more irresponsible individual. In addition, the syndrome manifests itself as a need to please another because of fear of rejection or rejection. The disease most often occurs in women with their partners or children.

Catoptrophobia

“ Excessive fear of looking oneself in the mirror ” characterizes this syndrome well. What is not very well known, however, is whether the phobia in question is about fear of a reflective object or a reflective image. A person suffering from this syndrome would preferably avoid, for example, traveling in an elevator with a mirror, or spending too much time in the bathroom. Risk factors predisposing to this disease include e.g. low emotional intelligence and low self-esteem.

Capgras syndrome

People who suffer from this syndrome stop recognizing their loved ones  and believe they have been replaced by a twin or cheater. The roots of this problem stem from the disconnection between affective memory and the visual recognition system. To learn more about this disease, you can watch the movie “The Broken” (2008).

Foreign dialect syndrome

When someone travels outside their own country, or simply interacts with a foreigner, it is not at all uncommon for a foreign accent to “catch” the traveler. However, when talking about that syndrome, it is worth noting that it occurs in individuals who have not had contact with a foreign dialect. The onset of this syndrome is often associated with a brain injury, such as bleeding.

Euphobia

Did you know that there is a phobia to receiving good news? Individuals with euphobia live with the nasty nasty news and struggle to digest the good news. This does not mean that the patient is evil, only that he is afraid or suffers internally when something good happens.

Eating disorders

Eating disorders are very common nowadays and are also talked about a lot in the media. Above all, bulimia and anorexia have received attention, but these are by no means the only sources of food imbalance.

One currently widespread eating disorder, classified as an atypical eating disorder, causes a person  to slavishly follow a diet after another.  When sufferers of this mental disorder get bored with one option, they look for a new diet and try to follow it, quickly and in an otherwise strict style. In addition, they set themselves very challenging weight loss goals and otherwise goals that don’t go hand in hand with themselves.

When their goals remain unattainable, they often internally shoulder the responsibility for it for their own cause and attack themselves with accusations of poor self-discipline or lack of smartness to follow that diet carefully enough. This inherently causes frustration, depression, impaired self-esteem or self-love, and most importantly, physical imbalance when certain nutrients are not eaten.