5 culture-specific illnesses and mental disorders

Even in medicine, many of these illnesses and disorders lack any tangible cause, explanation, or treatment. Most of the affected tribesmen attribute these ailments to a spirit, curse, or witch.

ALSO READ: Travel to India to legally marry an animal

1. Hikikomori

Hikikomori means “withdrawal” or “pulling in” and is a mental disease peculiar to Japanese youths. It kicks in when the youth withdraws from everyone and locks himself up in his home for months, doing almost nothing other than thinking.

Some young people even exhibit traits of obsessive-compulsive disorder and repeatedly clean their rooms or cut themselves. Most victims are at least 25 years old, and 80 percent are male.

A study sponsored by the Japanese government revealed that 236,000 Japanese suffered from hikikomori in 2010.

The government does not really understand the disease. It funded research that only caused more confusion because it couldn’t even give a proper definition of the disease. The lack of classification means that victims do not get effective treatment.

2. Running Amok

In English, the phrase “run amok” refers to the act of behaving in a wild and crazy manner.

But the phrase is actually from “running amok,” an illness peculiar to the natives of Malaysia, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. A person suffering from “running amok” exhibits violent and unpredictable behaviours and may even commit suicide.

It is believed to be a consequence of the isolation of the native tribes and is compounded by their spiritual beliefs. However, natives believe that it is caused by a spirit taking over the body. The only cure for running amok is to kill the victim.

This is dangerous because the victim will also attempt to murder the person trying to kill him. Another treatment is to just let the patient be. If he does not commit suicide, he could recover. However, the patient often develops amnesia and cannot remember all that happened.

3. Amafufunyana

Amafufunyana is a disease unique to the Zulus and the Xhosas of South Africa. It often involves a person’s stomach speaking a language that the person doesn’t understand.

Sufferers often experience nightmares, fatigue, and sleep difficulties. They also become angry, highly agitated, and prone to suicide. Sometimes, they even start talking in another voice.

Natives believe that the disease is the result of a curse. The person responsible for the curse supposedly takes ants from a dead person’s grave, makes it into poison, and feeds it to the would-be victim. Once eaten, the victim begins to hear his stomach talking.

4. Uppgivenhetssyndrom

Uppgivenhetssyndrom, or resignation syndrome, is said to exist only in Sweden, and only among refugees. The patients seem to have lost the will to live.

It only affects refugee children from former Soviet or Yugoslav states who now live in Sweden. The children suddenly develop the illness whenever they realize that their family is about to be deported to their original country.

The kids exhibit coma-like symptoms and refuse to move, talk, or eat.

5. Grisi Siknis

Grisi siknis is a mental disorder that occurs among the Miskito population of Nicaragua. Sufferers often remain in a coma-like state until they suddenly burst into a fit of rage. During this fit, they use weapons to fight off unseen enemies and try to flee from the community with their eyes closed. They also become exceptionally agitated and require up to four people to hold them down.

Members of the Miskito tribe believe that grisi siknis is the aftereffect of a curse and often turn to traditional healers for treatment. Investigations conducted after an outbreak in the 1950s concluded that it is just hallucinations. Apparently, someone deliberately added hallucinogenic drugs into the tribe’s water supply.