A rare mental health disorder that is associated with schizophrenia, clinical depresssion and psychosis causes individuals to think they are dead. The Cotard's syndrome or Walking Corpse syndrome, as it is sometimes called, is not classified among the diseases in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) but is an acknowledged "disease of human health" by the International Classification of Diseases.
The mental health condition was first identified in the 1800s by French neurologist Jules Cotard when he encountered a woman who said that she saw herself as a decomposing remains made of just skin and bones. She felt that she had no brain, chest, stomach, intestines or nerves.
A spokesperson for mental health charity Mind says, "Cotard's syndrome is a type of delusion that is usually associated with denial of self-existence."
"The person experiencing the delusion might believe that they are dead, dying, parts of their body do not exist or they do not need to do activities to keep themselves alive (drink, eat, basic hygiene etc.)"
Esmé Weijun Wang, woke up one day and told her husband that she had been dead for a month after she lost consciousness while on a plane. She spoke of losing a sense of reality in the weeks leading up to that day.
"I was convinced that I had died on that flight and I was in the afterlife and hadn't realised it until that moment."
She suffered from Cotard's syndrome condition for two months. She had also been diagnosed with bipolar-type schizoaffective disorder. When she recovered, Esmé said that she stopped seeing herself as a "rotting corpse".
A man from Britain, Graham, was another one who lived and behaved as if he was a walking dead. Graham was diagnosed with Cotard's syndrome when began to believe that he had killed his brain as a result of an attempted suicide caused by severe depression. Graham recalled visiting a graveyard during this period and neither ate nor spoke. With psychotherapy and treatment, Graham gradually overcame Coatrd's syndrome.
Not a lot is known about the root and cause of this syndrome and too few studies exist to allow a more in-depth assessment of the condition.
Peter Kinderman, a professor and clinical psychologist, explains that existing literature on Cotard's syndrome are mostly derived from individual case studies. Among the theories of its cause is linked to a sense of confusion and distress that stem from surrounding conditions where individuals may feel that they no longer recognise their own self. They put together their thoughts and beliefs to explain their experience with the conclusion that they are dead.
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