Ekbom Syndrome - Delusional Parasitosis

Ekbom Syndrome or Delusional Parasitosis is a persistent delusional disorder where patients falsely believe they are infested with pathogens such as parasites, larvae, insects and so on. They experience tactile hallucinations of insects crawling over or under their skin, burrowing, biting, stinging, and other bodily sensations. They also experience visual hallucinations of the organisms and describe these in detail and can draw them. Nobody else can see them. They try hard to find evidence of the infestation by scratching and digging at their skin, often with sharp objects.
I am Dr Beth Colby, a psychiatrist in London.
Other videos on my Talk Mental Health channel include:
Common Mental Health Conditions:
10 Symptoms of Depression
10 Tips for Self Help for Depression (in 2 parts)
Treatments for Depression/What will Happen if I tell my Doctor I am Depressed?
What is Anxiety?
What is Generalised Anxiety Disorder?
Positive and Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Paranoia: Paranoid Schizophrenia, Persistent Delusional Disorder and Paranoid Personality Disorder
Bipolar Affective Disorder Explained
What is Autism?
Autistic Spectrum Disorder ICD-11 v ICD-10 v DSM-5
What is Panic Disorder?
What are Panic Attacks?
What is Mania?
Paranoid Personality Disorder
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Anxious Avoidant Personality Disorder
Dependent Personality Disorder
Schizoid Personality Disorder
Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder
Anankastic Personality Disorder
Psychiatric Terminology
Psychotic Disorders, Affective Disorders and Neurotic Disorders
What Happens When Somebody is Sectioned?
Sections 2 and 3 of the Mental Health Act
Who is My Nearest Relative?
Current Mental Health Issues and News
Suicides in Afghan Veterans
Coronavirus Panic
Coping with Coronavirus Anxiety
Coronavirus will Harm People's Mental Health
Loneliness
PTSD in COVID-19 NHS Staff
Eco-Anxiety
'Mini Versions', under 2 minutes long, of my videos include:
10 Symptoms of Depression
10 Tips for Self Help for Depression
Positive and Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Anxiety
Mania
Anxious Avoidant Personality Disorder
Paranoid Personality Disorder
Schizoid Personality Disorder
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Dependent Personality DIsorder
Translated videos include:
Into Kurdish:
What is Anxiety?
10 Symptoms of Depression

Into Farsi:
What is Anxiety?
10 Symptoms of Depression

If you would like me to do videos on any other topics, or have any questions, please write a message in the comments section.

[GRAPHICTELEVISION]

My spouse and I work in pest control and we encounter people who suffer from this. My husband is very ethical and explains pesticides won't address their issue and they should speak to their doctor about what they're experiencing. Sometimes this offends the sufferer but we don't want to take their money if they're experiencing a mental health issue and apply pesticides frequently if they aren't actually experiencing pest issues. We commonly hear "black and white bugs. They'll produce a glue board, which we use to monitor pest activity, they've saved and point to the "bugs" that are actually just house dust and debris. They will usually insist we identify the bugs and want us to guarantee total eradicate of the percieved infestation. Very difficult conversation and situation to have with a practical stranger but we can't just spray and encourage the delusion.

[veganbombshell]

I believe my mother is going through this but nothing will stop her from believing it and she picks at herself non stop. Even with all tests coming back negative she won’t give up. :(

[BlueJayXO]

Can you please tell me how to get a person help if they don't believe it's all in their head? I have a family member with this condition. Thank you!

[hezoblezo]

I’m almost positive my mom has this. When I was 16 we lost our house and she lost me and my sister and became homeless. She’s been on the streets for a year and a half now and I’ve been living at friends houses. She’ll send me voice messages over Facebook messenger every once in awhile and she matches up to everything you said. She burned all her close she freak cleaned the house for months and months non stop she would freak out on my for leaving even a piece of hair In the sink because she said it’s growing parasites and bacteria on it and getting inside of her and her shoes and clothes. She moves from hotel to hotel becZuse she thinks she infests everything she touched. She’ll send me pictures but all of them are just blurry imagines. She’s afraid to spend to spend time with me or my sister because she doesn’t want to infect us. How do I tell her?

[flechette]

I had to evict someone with affliction. He kept using massive amounts of pesticides in the unit I leased to him. I had to hire hazmat personnel to clean the place up.

[Lisas_Creative_Designs]

This seems to sum up exactly what my sister has been going through for the past year. She is getting worse. How can we help her if she thinks the bugs, parasites are real??? My family is at their wits end.

[Helyob.castenelli]

I developed this condition after I was exposed to fiberglass from a mattress in my apartment on February 2022. It has been almost a year, my apartment have been cleaned completely from the fiberglass. I have clinically tested the apartment for residues of fiberglass and the test came back negative. My friends come over to my apartment to hang out and don't experience what I am still experiencing. A month ago I visited a doctor and he diagnosed me with Delusional Parasitosis. I am a 55 year old male who is eagerly looking for help. I have thrown a lot of my good clothing and clean almost everyday, and I still feel dust flying and hitting my skin and hair and it itches. The Dr. put me on Zyrtec twice a day and prescribed me Hydroxyzine HCL to sleep better. Sometimes I feel okay, but some days these flying dust attacks specially when the sun goes down. I hope you have a suggesting for me as I do have developed those symptoms you described. Isolation and depression. Please help! I live in Colorado USA.

[TheImerei]

How do you handle a person who blames you for their condition? Specifically, they blame their condition on you going to an external location such as a laundromat and now insist that you continuously bring back fleas and ticks to re-infest the house ("junkyard", she now calls it).

[Faymysticreations]

I believe my brother and sister inlaw have this mixed with Folie A Deux. They both think there are worms comming out of their skin. It's serious because they have lost custody of all 3 of their kids. I don't know what to do.

[oscarthagrouch]

bro i lowkey thought i had this when i took an edible 💀 it was scary like i convinced myself to go to the emergency room but obviously i didn’t end up doing. it’s strange rly

[shorx]

I literally am sure I had this condition for around 40 hours of absolute pain while I waited 8 hours in a crap British accident and emergency system in which they couldn’t even diagnose me of this crap. I felt genuine worms moving around my skin in pain and the best this worlds health system could let me do is sit me down in a shitty room so I can wait for an uninformed doctor who doesn’t fully understand that my brain is working against me and making me suffer to the brink of suicidal thoughts. God I hope for the sake of people to not experience what I experienced Doctors are replaced with intelligent AI so people can be accurately diagnosed faster and not have to suffer and go crazy.

[ConnectTheDotsProper]

My mom has just started with this. It's hard cause it's just us, me and her, and there's so many bad things going on in life right now. I'm fearful of my own physical health at the moment and am about to file for disability. I really don't know how soon I'm not going to be able to go into work.. and we have to move in two months!
I'm use to having her help, at least in part, in the findings of a new apartment, but now all she can do is think of these things. I'm afraid to leave for work. She's getting worse and I'm afraid that she may harm herself. It sucks. I'm just hoping that after we move, all this'll go away. I definitely don't want her to get worse!

[kyrek]

You obviously are not a parasitologist, strongyloides, h. Pylori and toxoplasmosis are hard to detect. If you suspect you have a parasite go see a parasitologist.

[blythebea]

Living with Ekbom's and feeling constant formication is something very few can even imagine. While I don't suffer myself I am close with someone who does, and their life is a living Hell, so please have some compassion towards anyone you suspect might be dealing with this. 🫂