Serious question - Have you ever met someone and thought that they could be a vampire? Well I have! (#firsttimeforeverything.)
Please bear with! Oh and don’t judge me!
I know this sounds pretty mental, but on the train home last night, I really believed the man opposite me was a vampire! He wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary and he certainly didn’t have the standard Robert Patterson glare, nor did he have bloody fangs…..he was just a normal guy with a more than average empty face.
As a scientist I am well aware that this “fancy” happened because I am reading a book about vampires, therefore they are at the forefront of my mind! This mixed with a bit of tiredness, clearly leads to a crazy Laura-mind concoction! However, no matter how much I told myself that the man opposite me was not a vampire, a small part of me still believed he was.
Anyway my decent into madness was soon brought back to reality, overridden by my enquiring mind! I decided to do a bit of research and see if anyone else has ever experienced anything like this; where your mind convinces you that “someone” is “something” they are not!
So, like a quack Doctor I turned to the first place I knew would help me, Google! I searched, “Condition, believing someone is a Vampire.” Sadly this returned no relevant results (mostly people believing they are vampires). I then omitted “vampire” and replaced it with “something.”
Hey presto – I am taken to a link about Schizoaffective Disorder.
What are the symptoms?
Schizoaffective disorder affects your thinking processes and your moods. Moods can swing from deep depression to extreme elation in the course of one ‘cycle’ or episode of the disorder, and in this it resembles bipolar disorder (manic depression). During the same episode, you will also have schizophrenia-like symptoms, which might include seeing or hearing things that aren’t apparent to anyone else (hallucinations) or believing something to be true that nobody else would believe (a delusion).
Okay, so for me only the last bit is true…..
What could have possibly triggered my crazy imaginings? Do I have a mild Schizoaffective disorder? I have never been depressed in my life, nor have I heard things others can’t, or at least not to my knowledge!
As I got off the train I considered my apparently irrational feeling, and, picturing the man in question sitting by the window, realised, on reflection, he had no reflection….
