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Medical Professionals Share The Worst Mental Conditions They Know About

Reddit user MeepingBad6699 asked: 'Mental professionals of reddit, what is the worst mental condition that you know of?'

A doctor
Austin Distel/Unsplash

We all have our bad days that can be completely debilitating.

Some days are worse than others and can lead to mental breakdowns.

For most of us, these moments are fleeting, and we can greet the next day with a fresh start and mindset.

But that luxury doesn't always apply to everyone.

Imagine those who perpetually experience such an extreme frequently, maybe even daily.

Curious to hear of various diagnoses of the mind, Redditor MeepingBad6699 asked:

"Mental professionals of reddit, what is the worst mental condition that you know of?"

There are patients who are convinced they are no longer with us but are still able to articulate it.

Dead But Alive

"Cotard delusion. I'm a nurse and had to take care of a huge man with this condition. He came in with some odd behavior and escalated to Cotard. The delusion makes you think you are actually dead. He would scream he was dead all day and night. Lived in constant terror. He was such a sweetheart, but became so worn down and terrified over time he got quite dangerous and punched a nurse in the face."

– bbourke0626

Unalive Patient

"I had a patient check into the ER with this once but I didn’t know the name, she just kept claiming she was dead. She got baker acted and transferred."

– Dimwit00

Rude Awakening

"Also a nurse. I had a couple patients get ICU delirium that presented with them believing they were dead. Definitely not a fun time."

"I mean it sorta makes sense. Being in the ICU can be comparable to torture with the sleep deprivation, constant beeping and other noises, lots of pain and other physical discomfort, the thirst and hunger (thirst and hunger are very psychological so even if we give someone nutrition through a feeding tube or IV, your brain still freaks out because you're not eating or drinking). And so for some people, if you wake up, don't know where you are and you feel like you're being tortured, reasonable enough to assume you are in hell."

– PaxonGoat

Statistics Say

"Wow. So according to the DSM 5 there have only been 200 cases since this condition was identified (how long ago, I want to say 1800s). Anyway, I just found a new study from 2022 that says that about 1% of patients with schizophrenia are now reporting this delusion. Which, as the authors point out, is a significant increase. I wonder what has changed in the decade since the DSM 5 was published that is driving this uptick?"

"It is especially odd when you consider that people actually used to believe that dead people could come back to life, even designing coffins and burial practices around this belief because it was so commonplace. You’d think if anything the condition would be becoming less frequent and not more. Interesting."

– DarthMomma_PhD

Severe memory loss is one of life's cruelest symptoms.

Losing A Sense Of Self

"Dementias."

"Watching a person, their memories, their personality die but their body remain living and confused, is horrifying..."

– Sacu_Shi_again

"Terrifying Prospect"

"My grandma has dementia (she can barely talk right now, but she's still physically healthy, somewhat) and a lot of my closely related family died due to Alzheimer's. Granted they acquired it / started showing severe symptoms when already quite old (early to late 80s), but it's still a terrifying prospect to know that I'll probably die in such a way. I hope that when the time comes, and it starts to affect me in a significant way, my wishes will be respected and I'll be euthanized. Both to spare me the horrors of it, and to not be a depressing burden to those around me."

– pale_sand

Warning Signs

"My grandma had it and now my dad is constantly complaining that he's forgetting things/can't remember anything. He's not even 60 yet."

– antisocialarmadillo1

Eating disorder was another horrific mental condition Redditors mentioned.

Hosting A Non-Existent Parasite

"Delusional parasitosis comes to mind with this prompt. I’ve watched a patient go to well over a dozen doctors trying to get confirmation that they’re parasite ridden. After countless stool samples, blood work, labs, scans, biopsies, etc., she clearly didn’t have any but remains convinced."

– Blahaj_shonk_lover

Side Effect

"A friend of my mom's ended up with something like this after getting into the wrong kinds of drugs."

"She was convinced that there were little bugs in her face. Absolutely convinced. She'd pick at her face day and night."

"She got clean for a little while, came to her senses, and stopped picking. But the damage was done, her entire face was scarred."

– ShiraCheshire

Alzheimer's hits too close to home.

I've known so many people related to or knowing someone with mental illnesses resulting in severe memory loss and it is heartbreaking.

Now a family member was just diagnosed and it's a lot for me to process it. It's not just the individual suffering. Their loved ones truly suffer too.

What I am learning, however, is to not take the present for granted. It's all we have.

Doctors Explain How A Patient Went From Nothing Serious To Life-Threatening In An Instant

One Redditor asked: 'Doctors of Reddit - what is your craziest story where a patient present with mild symptoms thinking it was nothing and it turned out to be a serious life or death situation?'

Doctors in medical scrubs walking down a hallway.
Photo by Luis Melendez on Unsplash

Generally speaking, if we have a cough, headache, or runny nose, we assume it's nothing to worry about in the long run and don't bother seeing a doctor.

Most of the time, this proves to be the case, as our ailments and symptoms tend to go away after a few days.

Other times, however, what we thought was a minor illness ended up being more serious than we could have possibly imagined.

In some cases, had we gone to the doctor any later, we might not have lived to tell the tale.

Redditor mothermurder88 reached out to the Doctors of Reddit to hear shocking stories of minor illnesses that turned out to be far more serious, leading them to ask:

"Doctors of Reddit - what is your craziest story where a patient present with mild symptoms thinking it was nothing and it turned out to be a serious life or death situation?"

The Cause Of Severe Back Pain...

"My dad woke up with severe back pain one morning after not doing anything strenuous the weeks/days leading up to it."

"My mom flipped her sh*t and finally put her foot down that he had to go to the doctor after him putting off going to a doctor for years even for a routine check-up."

"That appointment showed a broken rib from a huge tumor on his spine, along with tumors around his buttocks/pelvis and upper back."

"Diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer."

"5 years and 100 treatments later he’s still kicking it."- vulpesvulpex

An Antacid Won't Cut It...

"Saw a patient with minor cardiovascular symptoms and a slight pain in his upper back."

"The senior debated back and forth whether it would make sense to run a CT to rule out anything more serious."

"She finally decided to do it and it turned out he had a massive aortic dissection and was basically wheeled right into the OR."- Beneficial-Bee7765

A Parent's Worst Nightmare

"My son."

"6 weeks old."

"He was also 6 weeks premature."

"Only symptoms at the time of me bringing him to the ER was inconsolable crying and wouldn’t drink his breast milk."

"Was told by others that I was just being a paranoid first time mom…he probably has gas or was colic."

"My instincts just told me otherwise."

"Brought him to the ER."

"Triage asks me what my concerns are."

"I told them he won’t stop crying and I can get him to eat."

"A couple hours later my 6 week old baby coded blue and went into respiratory failure."

“'Code blue pediatrics' will forever be the most haunting thing I ever heard."

"Since he was so tiny they were having incredibly difficulty intubating him."

"Was being kept alive in between attempts with that bag thingy (unsure what it’s called) and compressions."

"His diagnosis was late on set group b strep, sepsis, and bacterial meningitis."

"Had I not brought him in when I did and waited, my son would not be alive today."

"So yea…listen to your instincts, you have them for a reason."- PokemomOnTheGo

Mints Won't Cut It...

"A man came to the hospital because his wife always complained about his bad breath."

"Long story short, I met him because they consulted my department when the tissue biopsy came back as esophageal cancer."- TeamMiserable

Never Underestimate The Importance Of A Check Up

"I'm a dentist."

"New pt came in with what he thought was a mild ache in his teeth."

"Thought it was a toothache."

"Hadn't seen a dentist in years."

"Took a radiograph and the jaw bone around the teeth looked strange."

"Had him see an oral surgeon that day."

"Turned out was a very aggressive metastatic bone cancer and died a few weeks later."- jakeology_101

A Second Opinion Never Hurts

"I’m a nurse, not a doctor, but we had a guy come in years ago asking for a medication to 'help him stop sweating'.”

"He said he had had a sore throat for about a week, went to a walk in clinic, was diagnosed with strep throat and put on antibiotics, but he was so sweaty and just wanted a break from it."

"He looked pale and was indeed sweaty, so we took him back and ran some blood tests."

"His white blood count was the highest I’ve ever seen and he was diagnosed with leukaemia."

"We sent him to another hospital for immediate treatment, but we were informed he died literally hours after arriving. Incredibly sad, I couldn’t believe it."- madicoolcat

"I am a nurse, so naturally my mother called me one day when she had strange symptoms."

""'Earlier today, I had this feeling like there was a squirrel running around in my belly'."

"I reassured her that it was probably gas."

"It happened again a few days later when she was in the car with me."

"Something made me take her right to the emergency room."

"The doctor evaluated her and basically accused her of making things up."

"I asked for a different doctor, because she is not a complainer or a drug seeker."

"Turns out it was a malignant brain tumor (glioblastoma) that was manifesting itself as abdominal seizures."

"They said she had 1-2 years to live."

"It is now 7 years since surgery, chemo, and radiation and she is still alive."- feistynurse50

Some Things Need To Be Seen

"Patient’s wife called."

"Patient had a temperature of 98.6."

"No other symptoms."

"I explained that was a normal temperature but the wife said 'that’s a fever for him'.”

"She said she felt like something was wrong, despite no other symptoms."

"I told her that I respect that and that if she feels something is wrong she should get him checked out in the ER."

"The ER doctor called four hours later and said they did all they could do for him but he died of sepsis."

"He appeared to be normal when he got there but rapidly declined."

"That gave me a new appreciation that we truly can’t evaluate someone thoroughly over a telephone."- DisastrousNet9121

The Cause is More Important Than The Symptom

"8 year old girl gets brought in complaining about back pain she'd had for 3 months, several different doctors had given her painkillers to no avail."

"After about 5 minutes I asked her if she had any problems going to the toilet, she says it's 'foamy' when she pees."

"Bone cancer."

"She made a full recovery, and from what I know is in her 20s now, but to this day I hate how she'd been suffering for 3 months and no other doctor had bothered to even ask any more questions as to why an 8 year old girl was getting severe back pain."- PalpitationAdorable2

Never Fault A Doctor For Being Thorough

"Still in school and I was not present for this patient’s initial admission but rather her clinic follow up."

"However, patient was healthy 50-something year old who had an extended nosebleed after a long hike."

"It wouldn’t stop so they went to ER to get it cauterized/impacted (happens all the time)."

"Anyway, they did a CT scan as protocol and discovered she had a 20+ cm tumor on her uterus that was wrapping around her right kidney."

"She was immediately referred to a serious academic hospital and had a specialized oncology surgeon remove it."

"Amazingly, They got it completely removed without even having to damage the kidney."

"She had an amazing outcome and about a half a foot scar running around her abdomen from the surgery."

"I do not believe the CT scan was due to the nosebleed itself but rather I imagine as they looked further into her blood work and coagulation studies they found something that warranted further work up."- KocoaFlakes

Most of the time, a cold is just a cold, and an achy foot is just an achy foot.

Even so, should you have even the slightest bit of doubt, there is no shame in consulting your doctor about it.

As doing so may turn out to be a literally life-saving decision.


The Most Unusual Ways People Have Almost Died
Photo by Sandy Millar

I've lost track of the number of times I've averted death.

One of the most unusual was death by a dog.

My dog is small.

And she loves to sneak up on people.

She loves sneaking up on me the most.

I've explained that I need her to stop.

Especially after she popped out of a closet at the top of the stairs.

I swear I heard God whisper hello in the split second from when I tripped to miraculously being able to grab the handrail.

I've tried to tell her that she's not in the will, so lay off.

All of my other near deaths are car incidents and bad dates.

Care to share?

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In order for medical professionals to properly assess and diagnose a patient, the patient has to describe their symptoms as best they can.

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