How powerful is fear? If you fear something so much can the brain actually create it?<p>Like fear of being blind or fear of having a mental disorder is that fear enough to actually make the brain mimic symptoms of it?
You might want to web-search for "somatoform".<p>These are pretty common and can cause considerable distress to people. Common forms include health-anxiety ("I'm having a heart attack"; "I have cancer"). Less common forms include blindness or paralysis.<p>A complicating factor is that people reject the treatment because they feel they are being ignored or dismissed as "making it up" or "faking it".<p>It can be tricky for clinicians to work with someone with a somatic symptom disorder. How do you respond to someone who claims to be blind, but who does stuff that requires sight?<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_symptom_disorder" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_symptom_disorder</a><p>> A somatic symptom disorder, formerly known as a somatoform disorder,[1][2][3] is a mental disorder characterized by physical symptoms that suggest physical illness or injury – symptoms that cannot be explained fully by a general medical condition or by the direct effect of a substance, and are not attributable to another mental disorder (e.g., panic disorder).<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_disorder" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_disorder</a><p>> A conversion disorder causes patients to suffer from neurological symptoms, such as numbness, blindness, paralysis, or fits without a definable organic cause. It is thought that symptoms arise in response to stressful situations affecting a patient's mental health. Conversion disorder is considered a psychiatric disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fifth edition (DSM-5).[1]
Yes, check out the Nocebo effect[0] (Placebos evil twin) and related phenomena like Voodoo death.[1]<p>From Wikipedia:
"Voodoo death, a term coined by Walter Cannon in 1942 also known as psychogenic death or psychosomatic death, is the phenomenon of sudden death as brought about by a strong emotional shock, such as fear."<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo</a><p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_death" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_death</a>