Strange, Weird & Bizarre Medical Cases & Facts

We love horror movies.  Well, you might not, but I do.  For funsies, I decided to look into each of my favorite movie monsters and characters and find out what is actually medically wrong with them.  Keep in mind, this is pure speculation, and almost solely for my own benefit.  What?  Um.  No.  I mean, it’s totally for your benefit, because you’re the reader, and what you think matters.  So…you think this is fun, too.  Those other blog posts aren’t the blog posts you’re looking for…

Norman Bates

Ah, good old Norman.  He was a shy, mild-mannered boy who loved his mother more than anything.  Then his mother found a honey, and Norman decided that wasn’t OK.  He had some sort of psychotic break and killed his mother and her boyfriend, and then he was so overcome with guilt and craziness that his personality cleaved.  One part of Norman was left, but the rest of his widdle brain was overtaken by his dead mother.  Not in a possession kind of way, but more in a split-personality, totally nutso way.

The Diagnosis

Norman Bates suffered from split personality disorder, brought on by his too-close connection to his mother, and then  his guilt involving the brutal murder of said mother.  Who knows?  He might have had a little post-traumatic stress disorder as well.

Freddy Krueger

Freddy Krueger, he who terrorizes dreams, is actually the son of a nun who was shut into an asylum with a bunch of murderers and rapists, and they, ahem, took improper liberties with her, and Freddy was conceived.  So, he was the “bastard son of a hundred maniacs.”  He had an abusive stepfather, was endlessly tormented at school, and had a penchant for killing animals.  A budding psycho, his psychosis took full bloom when he went on a big killing spree, killing his wife and a bunch of kids in the neighborhood.  Later, the parents in the neighborhood burned him up, and his essence gained the ability to enter the dreams of poorly-dressed teenagers and kill them.

The Diagnosis

Well, we can’t really speak for the post-getting-burned-to-a-crisp Freddy, but the live and actively killing in the conscious world Freddy suffered from Psychopathy – a disorder that manifests in amoral conduct while the person seems normal on the outside.  Little Freddy killed the class pet and whipped himself with straps, but outwardly he was normal enough to get married, have a kid, and get a house in the suburbs.  After he died, all the psychosis and murderous rage came out.  Good times.

Michael Myers

If we go by the original film’s story, Michael was a little boy from a totally normal family who murdered his big sister on Halloween night.  He spent the next 15 years in a mental institution, not speaking a word, until he escaped to murder his (unknown to the audience) little sister, who had been adopted by another family.  If we believe Rob Zombie’s remake version of the film, little Mikey’s momma was a stripper, she had a totally skeezy and abusive boyfriend, and his sister was sort of  a skank.  The only person he loved was his little sister.  If that’s the case in the original film, we don’t see any indication of that, seeing he tries his best to kill her and all her friends.  In Zombie’s version, he actually drops the knife in the presence of his baby sister.  Bah.  We trust the original because…

The Diagnosis

Dude is the personification of evil.  Not according to Rob Zombie, but definitely according to John Carpenter, and we trust him more, because he conceived the character to begin with.  I realize there is some faulty logic involved with taking an explanation from a movie that Carpenter himself didn’t bless, but Halloween VI:  The Curse of Michael Myers, tells us that Micheal is a cog in the wheel of a Druid cult.  Apparently he’s the personification of evil, so he has to procreate with his own niece in order to create the perfect child to sacrifice when the constellation of Thorn appears in the sky.  Er.  Whatever.  Dude’s evil.

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Trichotillomania or obsessive hair pulling, is a disorder that affects many people all over the world. This serious mental disease can start in children as young as 12 months old! Let’s look at some startling realities of the condition, and what these compulsive hair pullers have to go through on a daily basis. Keep an eye out – if someone you know if suffering from Trichotillomania, this list will help you to understand exactly how extreme the condition can be.

1) A Few Here, and a Few More Over…Here

Did you know that excessive plucking of your eyebrows is a form of Trichotillomania? Many people who suffer from this condition state that their condition began with a few simple eyebrow hairs. This spiraled out of control, and soon it led to eyelashes being pulled, head hair removal and pubic hair pulling.

Because tweezing and general hair upkeep is such an ingrained part of our daily lives, many people who experience the warning signs of this condition, don’t realize it until they are hooked. Once the habit forms, it is extremely difficult to break. That’s why it’s so important to stop before it becomes a huge part of your life.

2) Not Just a Phase

Because Trichotillomania tends to start in most people when they are in their adolescence, the symptoms and clear warning signs are often overlooked by the people around them. Children are prone to all sorts of behaviors as they grow up, but that doesn’t mean this condition should be treated as a nail biting phase that will go away.

Like most forms of mental disorder, Trichotillomania gets worse over time, resulting in a prematurely bald child with severe emotional problems. These problems stem from the humiliation of hair loss so young.

3) Controlling Your Impulses

Make no mistake Trichotillomania is an extreme compulsion disorder, peppered with a form of masochism that manifests from the person’s own unnatural behavior. Though people are aware that they have this mental disorder they can’t stop, and it becomes as damaging and dangerous as cutting.

There is little help for these people, as the condition is so rare that it hasn’t been studied as much as other mental disorders. With only 200 000 people in the US affected, they often suffer in silence, or spend years in isolation ashamed of their condition.

4) Escalating Into Trichotillophagia

While Trichotillomania is obsessive hair pulling, Trichotillophagia is obsessive hair eating, which develops from the original condition. A person suffering from this condition may start out with both pulling and eating, though usually the pulling escalates into eating over time.

When people eat their hair compulsively it can cause massive health problems. The most extreme is when a large mass of hair forms in the stomach that clumps and forces weight loss, abdominal pain and eventually – emergency room admission. The clump is known as a trichobezoar and it needs to be removed immediately in open surgery or the patient will eventually die.

5) A Female Problem?

In a recent case study, an overwhelming proportion of Trichotillomania sufferers were found to be female. No one really knows why, but the logical reason would be that girls tend to internalize their feelings more than boys, and are therefore more prone to seeking emotional comfort – no matter how damaging it may be.

6) The Secret Gene

As science advances and more people come forward with this disorder, naturally progress with happen. Recently scientists have discovered a gene that is said to be responsible for Trichotillomania. Like the ‘addiction gene’ this specific mutation can be manipulated – though we are years away from that kind of cure. In the meantime, these scientists are studying people who are affected by the disorder, studying their genes and coming up with biological solutions to the problem.

7) OCD or Not OCD?

There has been much debate over Trichotillomania, and the world wants to know whether it’s a form of OCD or not. Seeing as this is a ‘realities’ article here is the truth about the situation. Trichotillomania is an impulsive disorder. OCD is obsessive compulsive disorder.

What’s the difference? Not much. The two could even be said to be interchangeable. The same supportive treatment applies, as does the general diagnoses. If you’re a hair puller, you have a form of OCD – it’s not OCD, but its close enough.

8) A Cure For Pullers?

Trichotillomania is pretty rare, but because of the severe effects on the people who do suffer from the condition – there are treatments that you could try. Cognitive behavioral therapy is an option, as it hypnosis and certain types of medication. These medications work best to calm the patient and suppress irrational urges to pull their own hair out. The most successful treatment for this condition is still constant therapy combined with long term medication. Like most mental disorders it will be a long road to recovery.

9) Damaging Effects

Hair pulling and eating will result in noticeable bald spots, receding hairlines and skin problems, if the disorder is acute. This in turn leads to social exclusion – as the person affected becomes more and more ashamed of what they look like. Wigs help, but they don’t disguise the fact that their eyebrows and other body hair is damaged or gone. This extreme isolation, guilt and shame sometimes end in tragedy and suicide.

10) A Life Long Struggle

The harshest reality of all is that people with Trichotillomania rarely recover. Instead they choose to live with the disorder, doing their best to look normal to the outside world when they go out. Until there is a definitive cure, hair pullers will always struggle to stop this damaging habit. All they can do is work towards it, go to therapy and take calming medication for as long as possible.

About Dana Bashor

On her free time Dana Bashor loves to freelance on different topics and provide consumer alerts for sites like planet antares scam alerts.  Catch up with Dana on her blog Dana Bashor blog where you will find whats going on in her life.

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