Do You Know Cotard’s Syndrome?
Death is something that many fear. But of them, not all are afraid of the same. Some people fear disappearing, ceasing to exist in this world; others simply fear oblivion, because for them the true end occurs when you cease to exist in the minds of other people.
Speaking of physical death there are people who fear it, as we have said before. There are other people who wait for it because they think that the moment has naturally come, as Cohen said in one of his last interviews. They understand that it has to happen and they feel “ready” for that step. There are also the people who want it because they live in conditions that they cannot bear or who think they rob them of their dignity.
Finally there are the people we are going to meet in this article. They are very few and suffer from the so-called Cotard Syndrome. A syndrome characterized by the fact that the person who suffers from it thinks that he or she is already dead.
The delusion of believing himself dead
Cotard syndrome is also known as the walking corpse syndrome, delusion of denial or nihilistic delusion, among many others. Its name, Cotard, comes from the French neurologist Jules Cotard, who was the one who discovered this curious condition. As we can see, there are different meanings to refer to this strange disease in which the person who suffers it believes he is dead, when in reality he is not.
People who suffer from this disease do not believe that they exist and go so far as to consider that their body is in a state of decomposition or putrefaction. Even that their internal organs have stopped performing their functions. This disease not only causes that unreal belief that the person is dead, but the person himself begins to act as such.
Thus, for example, he stops eating because he does not think it is necessary. You can also stop moving, as dead people are still. In addition, they may feel that they are being eaten by rotting worms that they think they are suffering from.
The causes of this strange syndrome are found in the functioning of the brain. It processes well everything it perceives from the outside, but the emotional response that should accompany this processing is not adequate. When this happens, absolutely everything begins to lack meaning.
Our brain is very complex and everything is related. In this case, processing and emotional response go hand in hand, if one of the two fails, we no longer perceive reality as we should. We cannot affirm that this syndrome has a cure, although with adequate treatment its symptoms can diminish considerably.
How to live with Cotard syndrome?
Living believing that nothing makes sense, that we are rotting and that, in reality, we are not alive is not a very pleasant feeling. Surrounded by unpleasant odors that, they believe, emanate from their own body; Feeling non-existent worms devouring their flesh, people with Cotard syndrome live immersed in a real nightmare.
They are real zombies that feel oblivious to what exists around them. Although they perceive the same as you, it has no meaning for them. They begin to feel alien. They don’t even know who they are anymore. They begin to suffer what is called depersonalization.
Some of the people who suffer from this syndrome clearly verbalize what they are feeling. With this, they try to make us aware of what it is to live with this syndrome in their lives. For example, Graham, a 48-year-old man who had attempted suicide, explained to his doctor: “It’s hard to explain. I feel as if my brain no longer exists. “
Similarly, Mademoiselle X, a 43-year-old woman treated by Jules Cotard himself, claimed to have no brain, no intestines, no nerves, no chest, and no stomach … He no longer felt the blood flow through his veins. He believed he had bones and skin, but in the process of decomposition. This woman also did not have the feeling of hunger for a long time that she had not eaten.
Thus, Cotard Syndrome is a very rare syndrome that causes in those who suffer from it the sensation of being real zombies . An existence that is not such, that is why death is no longer something they fear.
