Psychologists, what's the most interesting mental disorder you've encountered?

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[jaybehkay]

I saw a video recently of someone who had visual hallucinations who had a service dog trained to greet people. If no one was there, the dog wouldn’t greet so the man could tell what was real and what wasn’t. Incredible

[saagabragi]

8:15

That is, in fact, still a disability. All wheelchair users aren't completely paralyzed from the neck down, there are multiple reasons for needing a chair. Extreme weakness, degenerative muscle or bone thing, etc. Those people are called ambulatory wheelchair users.

[kingdollop-head]

it’s important to note that these intrusive thoughts about children in OCD are really the opposite of pedophilia, as the reason they are there is that they re the worst thing the person can possibly imagine. So nothing makes OCD sufferers more likely to assault children, as they are much less likely to do so than the general population

[davidtherwhanger]

A lot of these stories highlight what I have tried to explain to many people about paranormal experiences. When it is your own brain lying to you, you can not know the difference between reality and your own memory. But they all seem to counter logic, reason, and examples with some variation of "I would just know."

[lorisewsstuff]

One disorder that is hard to watch is where a person loses their long-term memory following brain damage. They have no memories from the time following the event that caused the brain damage. It's like everyday they have to relive their past to catch up with the present. Like they wake up looking for loved ones that have long since passed away. Every day, they grieve for a life that no longer exists. It's heartbreaking.

[FractalParadox]

7:15 people think I'm crazy when I point that out. I agree with the psych. The extreme reaction people have with anything involving kids often has the exact opposite effect, even leading to making already terrible situations worse for the kids themselves. not to mention the millions of men who can't even go to the park alone with their own daughters because of course they get stopped or have police called on them. (and conversely, the millions of woman abusers who get out with a slap on the wrist because women can't be p*dos, and abused boys "wanted it" apparently) or the likely millions of people struggling with thoughts and attractions that they never bring up even on therapy, for fear of being crucified, leaving them with repressed struggles and mentally unstable, _more_ likely to hurt others or resort to illegal... child... content (as the narrator often calls it). Accepting and understanding p*dos has nothing to do with accepting child abuse, nor is it "defending child touchers." is just basic human decency that helps people _not_ to become child touchers. because nobody is born an offender. and the extreme attitude people have about the topic only serves to create more of them.

[quiet_nightz]

not a psychologist but dementia is both interesting and terrifying. my grandma has dementia and its so scary how quickly it basically tore her relationships with the family.

[ahh]

I developed capgras delusion at 15 and was hospitalized. I’m now diagnosed with schizoaffective. I would only recognize my mothers voice over the phone. If they brought me into the visitation room Despite her voice sounding the exact same, if I saw her as she spoke I would have started screaming and trying to convince the staff that that wasn’t my mom, that they needed to let me back into the hallway because that wasn’t my mom and she was going to hurt me. That she had been replaced and I didn’t understand how they couldn’t tell that that was Not my mom. I was only allowed phone contact with my family and would sob with my mom on the phone over I didn’t understand why she couldn’t visit me and why there was an imposter. I was fully convinced my mom was in danger and I kept trying to convince her to go stay with my dad out of state because her imposter wasn’t a good person. I also latter developed it with my dog, convinced it wasn’t my dog -, that the hospital staff and imposter of my mom had replaced her and given us a fake dog that looked like her and there were cameras in the fake dogs eyes so they could spy on us. It’s terrible. I still get delusions and visual hallucinations -, I’m medicated now on paliperidone. Schizoaffective and phrenia run in my family. Hidden camera delusions are my most common.

They were in my walls so I cut myself down to the mid fat on my leg to give them the ‘shock’ they wanted from watching me. So they could take the cameras down because I gave them ‘what they want’ it sounds insane now, but you *cannot* make sense of delusions because they’re not from a mind set that makes sense.

I only gave myself wet wipes baths for about two weeks because I was convinced there were cameras in the bathroom ceiling light. I have cptsd from CSA. I couldn’t stand the thought of people seeing my body and while hospitalized. Staff had to sit outside of the bathroom while I showered despite me not being an immediate risk of hurting myself in the restrooms because I was too scared to shower from my history of abuse. I needed a female staff member to make sure no one could hurt me or else I would have started screaming and crying in the group room after my shower and they would need to bring me out to the decompression room.

[juxtiicc]

"These are REAL intrusive thoughts" I feel so seen, genuinely

[labyrinthgirl]

Story 18 - It has been proven that some people are born with severe mental problems, like being a sociopath, and have never had any kind of trauma happen to them. Just like how the heart, the lungs, and other parts of the body can form incorrectly while the fetus is in utero, so can the brain.

[alicew.]

I had intrusive thoughts or more exactly, an impulse phobia, for years, but only learned that they were related to OCD and even a psychiatric disorder last year. I always thought that everyone had them, because people use this term very lightly. It didn't bother me much (because I was used to it and found ways to live with it), and now I don't have them anymore. Mine were about mutilating and ending myself in very, very gory ways and I must say, I'm glad I don't see myself ripping my face apart multiple times a day anymore. If you have these thoughts, know you're not alone, it doesn't make you a danger or a monster and that you can find help. I'm with you!

[badcaseofstripes]

POCD is the most common form of OCD and it's one of the worst to live with. That and autopedophilia are typically survivor conditions of people affected by severe child sexual abuse. The story of the guy worrying that he blacked out and did something that he didn't do, (although not in every case) could very well be having flashbacks of repressed memories that he can't recall as his own, so it makes him believe they are intense thoughts/desires that he finds disgusting or repulsive. To add on that, flashbacks can trigger a state of arousal in the survivor, in the same way fight or flight is triggered, just in a sexual arousal neuropathway. As a child abuse survivor who lives with these conditions, it is real nasty shit, highly misunderstood by psych/trauma illiterate people, and even therapists and people who should know about it, and it's not pretty at all. It's horrible to live with and insanely challenging to manage. Without a support system many will and have just killed themselves thinking they are a monster when they did absolutely nothing wrong. The amount of self hatred, self disgust and rejection of self it creates alongside society's uncharitable judgements of the coping mechanisms sexual abuse survivors form naturally, is a really deadly combination. Society certainly doesn't help with the general air of 'let's kill anyone with any impure thoughts or feelings regardless of actions', that shames survivors with flashbacks or intrusive thoughts for surviving in a way that isn't deemed palatable; quite literally collateral damage from entirely unhelpful, backwards and hateful rhetoric.

[PikachuLittle]

While I’m not a psychologist and am basing this entirely off of stories I’ve seen on the internet, I find the inability to understand the concept of fiction fascinating. Basically the people who believe that every piece of media they consume is an account of actual events, or who outright do not understand what a hypothetical situation is. It’s especially interesting because it’s likely based at least in part from an overclocked negative opinion on falsehoods, basically anything that someone tells you that isn’t 100% factual is them being actively malicious and trying to trick and manipulate you. Then you get into the weird doublethink that they perform to justify everything being true despite evidence to the contrary, things from all books being records of events from parallel universes that have been beamed directly into the brains of authors to Hollywood having giant celebrity cloning machines so they can kill actors without consequence. Absolutely wild headspace

[cryschanel]

I live with DID. It takes CONSTANT work with my selves, but it is possible to live a 'normal', fulfilling life. I have a full time job as a Regulatory Compliance Officer for a credit union, have an 18yr old fantastic child, and a 17yr relationship with my wife. We foster animals, we volunteer in our community, and are healthy and active. There have been scary times, definitely been hard times. I once found myself in a town more than 3hrs away from home at 1am. I don't know anyone there, and am usually in bed by 9pm. BUT, with hard work, you can be okay!

[Evelyn_]

"almost a disability but not kind of"... you dont need to be permanently in a wheelchair to have a disability. She had a disability

[medicalcal]

i have DID! it’s great to see someone talk so well about it rather than dumb it down to “evil alter” or something.

[squiddwizzard]

I lived story 8, though my doctor never called it OCD.

Thankfully I didn't have thoughts that I had done it.

But i lived that. I was suicidal a few times because, well -- I'd literally rather be dead than hurt some kid.

EDIT: Regards this condition, I am completely cured. Or cured enough that if/when I get the occasional disturbing thought I just tell it to go away.

I also lived story 1, 'hearing voices but they're helpful ' thing. I'm bipolar. At the time I thought the voices were God. I still do sometimes.

A voice in my head told me to take my meds.

I also had a point where I thought that I wasn't a good person. I was praying every day that I wouldn't hurt anybody in my psychotic state, and that I was OK dying if it stopped me from hurting someone.

And, at some point I was just, feeling bad and thinking "I'm a bad person" and .. I felt this voice say to me "every day you tell me you'd rather die than hurt someone, even a stranger. Every day. And you think you aren't good? Stop this. You're hurting yourself."

[rickwrites]

Hallucination voices arent heard as "in" your head the way you "hear" an inner voice monologue, but theyre heard as if outside the way you hear the radio.

[Beeba]

5-6 years ago, I extremely briefly (like, a couple of moments over a couple of consecutive days) experienced auditory and visual hallucinations, which I believe was brought on by stress and/or fatigue. Personally, I found the auditory hallucinations more distressing; the visual ones were just vague orb-like shapes in the corner of my eye that I could just brush off, but the auditory ones sounded SO real. One of them, I went to the bathroom at my college; the door into the bathroom area was very noisy, so I would have heard if someone came in, and nobody was in there when I first went in, so I was very confused to hear one of my classmates, Lara, suddenly calling my name while I was in a stall. It was so real that I replied "Yeah?" No response. Then I realised I hadn't heard the door and, confused, finished up and exited the stall - nobody. Freaked out, I washed my hands and returned to class, and asked Lara if she had come looking for me in the bathroom. Nope.
It was so strange, it was so clear and sounded EXACTLY like her. If I believed in the paranormal, I probably would have believed it was a mimic or an SW. I had a different auditory one the night before, where a random voice whispered loudly and aggressively in my ear "HAVE FUN" as I was about to fall asleep. B*tch, have fun doing what?! Dreaming??? I would if you'd leave me alone and not freak me out!

[Naruneyl]

Imagine how difficult it is do diagnose conversion disorders. Because from my experience, family members and doctors already doubt you enough (thinking you're not putting in enough effort, being lazy, etc) when it comes to disorders like anxiety and depression; imagine having a dissociative issue that stops you from walking, talking, seeing... but nothing comes up wrong on any tests. I imagine most doctors would want to chalk it up to Munchausen's