The human brain is truly a fascinating and terrifying thing. A Dutch medical journal describes the very odd case of a 54-year-old woman who was found in her garden strutting around, clucking and "crowing like a rooster."
Doctors called her condition Zoanthropy, which is when a person has delusions of being an animal and not a human being. The woman was "disoriented" during examinations and described strange things about her limbs, like her arms were actually wings and that they "flapped uncontrollably."
She was brought into the hospital by her brother after he found her acting like a chicken and told doctors that she has no history of substance abuse or psychotic episodes. It was a head scratcher for sure, but doctors eventually learned about a recent loss of a loved one that caused the woman to become severely depressed for about two months.
They also learned more about her history with anti-depressant prescriptions and that the switch to a new medication may have messed things up inside her head. All of that combined with going days without sleep, that could make any one of us cluck like a chicken.
If you believe the zoanthropy diagnosis, we learned that there have only been 56 documented cases going back to 1850. Some patients were reported to believe they were a wolf, a lion, or a snake.
Regardless of what was really going on, it's a reminder to pay attention to your mental health and the mental health of your loved ones. Your mind matters! Listen to our discussion below: