Capgras Syndrome - The Dangerous Delusion of Doubles - What is it? Short Documentary

[@fizzao1342]

My mother rang me late one evening to say she had stayed late at work and had ended up in a strange house and would it be okay if she slept there? She had dementia and my brother was away. I told her she was safe at home and it would be perfectly okay if she went to bed. I think she believed me eventually. It really shook me. Dementia is so cruel.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thanks for sharing that Fizza, it's easy to think of the memory problems of people with dementia as silly or funny, but it must have been very scary for your mother to think she was in a strange house alone.

[@jimimased1894]

i had this in a left temporal lobe seizure for about 5-10 minutes about my family.

[@firebyrd437]

I wonder if this delusion was the behind the belief of the changling in earlier times, where faries were blamed for stealing a baby replacing it with an identical one but who was markedly different in it's behaviour, often crying constantly. I read of an account where a woman in Ireland in the 1800’s believed to have been a changling, and the poor woman was killed by her husband by being held in a fire in the home

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Interesting question - I'll have to look into it.

[@_Violante_]

I wonder how many of the extreme examples of these symptoms are from people having their first few episodes of psychosis. I wonder what Capgras looks like in people who have undergone psychotherapy for symptom management. Presently, in my right mind, it's hard to imagine ever believing it again knowing that I've had the symptom before but it's always hard to tell where awareness ends and anosognosia begins. Thank you for your video.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Yes, the first episodes of psychosis are often the most intense.

[@TheSteveBoyd]

This is very common amongst Beatles fans.

[@Cerdinok]

My dad was diagnosed with Capgras syndrome when he was a little over thirty and I was less than five. He was hospitalized after he stole some money from work. he explained that he was the long-dead John Dillinger. My mom arranged for him to get an early release. He refused to see me when we visited him at the hospital. When he came home, I waited for him with my mom on the front porch. He walked right past me. Inside he explained, “If I’m not John Dillinger, then he is not my son!” When I began building plastic model kits, he told everyone I was building bombs and even hired an older neighbor boy to find the “bombs.” When I finished a model of the car he owned, I gave it to him on his birthday, but he threw it away saying he did not want it to “blow up and kill him.” Once he asked me if I could see the two “federal agents” dressed in black that were telling him that they were investigating me. He also has a number of visual problems. He is substantially color blind and interprets purple and green as the same color. He cannot hit moving objects, so therapy and legal probation included playing church-league baseball. He cannot ride bicycles; he says the pavement darts around him in strange ways and that it disappears and reappears unexpectedly. He was able to play golf with a low par, however, which I imagine is because he can hit an object that is not already moving. I asked him in college if he still believed I was an imposter. He said Yes. I asked him how could that be? He said he believed the John Birch society sent me to spy on him. I said, “When I was three?” He said Yes, he suspected my mom cheated on him when he was hospitalized. I took DNA tests confirming I am related to him through both his parents, my grandparents. When close relatives also proved we are related, he demanded they remove their family trees from the DNA testing platforms. He also vowed revenge for the DNA tests. Consistent with his delusion about the John Birch Society sending me to spy on him when I was three, he regularly rings up my employers and churches and tells them-that I supposedly hate black and Jewish people, that I am a schizophrenic imposter posing as his son to get his money, and that I love Donald Trump. Sometimes he asks employers to help him with an investigation he is working on for the “federal government.” Of course, all these things are his delusions. However, employers say that they “Cannot be too careful,” and terminate me before I can make connections on the job or establish tenure.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank for sharing this sad story. You movingly describe the fall out for other members of the family of serious mental illness and yet you sound so patient and understanding, you have my respect.

[@Cerdinok]

Thanks. Those are very kind words.

[@cassandra-]

@@Cerdinok That sounds terrifying, I'm so sorry ... is there any sort of help you can get him (if possible and if you're willing to) or a way to protect yourself if it escalates even further?

[@Davidos011]

Imagine you have capgras and you have your sibling which is twin to you and two other twins siblings

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Complicated!

[@nledaig]

Fascinating. Personally I have distrust of anti-psychotic medication, having seen it cause psychosis

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Was it being used to treat psychosis?

[@nledaig]

Yes. I weaned the patient off it and he was much improved. I did that with permission from his psychiatrist.@@professorgraemeyorston

[@garyward4531]

Are 49 year old special needs daughter started going through these she thinks she's Shannon Lee Bruce Lee's daughter now after watching this I think she thinks her Mom is someone else and when she eats now with right hand and the left hand sits on the table balled up I'm thinking now she might of had a stroke The video was very helpful Thanks for taking the time

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thanks Gary, glad it was helpful.

[@Durzo1259]

The woman who thought she was in a fake replica of her home and she was being kept there against her will; wouldn't it be obvious that she's not when she tries to leave and, you know, can?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

In many cases delusions are accompanied by feelings and anxiety that nothing is quite right and they can't trust their judgment. Delusions by their nature are illogical.

[@AnoukDrenth-e7g]

My father in law suffers from dementia. She thinks he has multiple houses that all have the same furniture, street views and neighbours. The homes are in different villages. He also has 4 instead of 2 kids. two pairs of the same sons. Sometimes they are small kids again.

[@supremeprime660]

I think i have capgras this luckly for me i never got along with my family now i like them was still really scary at first

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thanks for sharing.

[@joeaverage3444]

My mom has Capgras Syndrome. It's tough.

[@maryannyorston7062]

Imagine not recognising your own children - do you know what happened to the woman?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

The paper doesn't record what happened to her but she had spent the previous 10 years going to the police and writing to politicians and travelling around France to look for her missing children.

[@CSchaeken]

How very tragic 😢

[@Vorname_Nachnahme]

Are there normal people on earth?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

A few!

[@NyNyNator]

(In case this syndrome has not been caused by something accute, like a lesion, but instead develops due to other factors:) How selfaware are affected people of their disorder? Is there a certain time frame/ state in which a person might question those thoughts? I can imagine affected people catching themselves having those thoughts for the first few times and recognizing them as incorrect/ worrisome as those thoughts never appeared before, even if the brain signals them to be correct.

[@terryowings5667]

To @Cerdinok....nothing your father says or does is your fault....you do not have to prove anything to him or anyone else.... I hope and pray things will get better for you....are you busy?.....do you have a job?.....all you need is yourself ...... I pray good things will come to you!

[@jannettekirwin4530]

Must be what Lori Vallow espoused to have, if she'd been slick enough to think of it as her pathetic defense. Probably counter indicated by her MONEY motive. Although her brother may have, given his injury. But, gee he's dead too now.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thanks I didn't know of this case.

[@jannettekirwin4530]

@@professorgraemeyorston Oh , sorry, it is not a pleasant case.

[@owlnyc666]

Mostly suffered by women? Brain lesions. Pets replaced. House replaced. Neurological miswiring.

[@janedoe4623]

Why the two blondes in a tight tank top for a seriously themed video? Poor choice

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Fair enough, there is only a limited amount of stock footage that I have access to though.

[@ParishPflibsen1984]

The best doubles.

[@stuartmitchell1908]

Give over. How's about 2 attractive men?