A 54-year-old woman recently was convinced she was a chicken and temporarily thought she was a chicken reported by doctors at KU Leuven University in Belgium.
The woman, whose name was not revealed, reportedly had a stable job at a pharmacy and had no history of drug nor alcohol abuse before the strange episode, but one day her brother stopped by and found her clucking, blowing her cheeks and crowing like a rooster. While clueless, the woman’s brother took her to a nearby hospital, where the 54-year-old told doctors she thought she was a chicken and described feeling a new sensation in her legs.
The sudden episode of zoanthropy is a mental disorder in which one believes oneself to be an animal – ended when the woman suffered a seizure. Appeared to be her old self again after that and had no recollection of her short time acting like a chicken. The report mentions that she was embarrassed when her family told her what had happened and why she was in the hospital.
“Clinical zoanthropy, or the conviction of having turned into an animal, is a rare delusion,” KU Leuven researchers wrote.
“There are different views about its pathogenesis. This delusion can occur with an underlying psychiatric disorder, but it can also be secondary to structural or functional disorders of the brain.”
Source: Oddity Central