Some medical illnesses that, the moment you learn about them, lead you to assume that you already suffer from them, even though you (most likely) do not. The need to tell inappropriate jokes, make puns, or generally ramble on about irrelevant events is an example of Witzelsucht, which fits well into this category.
Patients suffering from Witzelsucht have a habit of telling jokes repeatedly, even when unsure whether what they have said is humorous or even proper to say. Patients may frequently struggle to understand sarcasm, another strange symptom associated with the condition.
The phrase, when taken from its original German form, translates to “joke (Witz) and addiction” (Sucht). During the 1880s, neurologist Hermann Oppenheim was the first person to use this term to characterize a patient population. “an addiction to trivial, excessive, and often sarcastic joking” was a symptom shared by all patient’s tumors in the right frontal lobe.
Although the illness is highly uncommon, there are case reports that chronicle its occurrence that may be found online. A man who was 54 years old started acting in a variety of peculiar ways, such as making inappropriate jokes, making childish comments, and laughing at his jokes.
Because of this condition, he got into difficulties at work when he muttered things like “who the hell chose this place” and ultimately lost his job.
The individual was assessed for behavioral changes after three years of improper overfamiliarity and deteriorating personal cleanliness. The evaluation came after three years.
In common with most other Witzelsucht patients, he suffered from issues in his right frontal lobe. This brain region plays an important role in humor and inhibitory control. This particular instance of Pick’s illness ended up causing damage to this region of his brain.
Witzelsucht can occasionally involve sexuality, hypersexuality, or other types of disinhibition, such as other forms. The same team identified one 59-year-old man as having begun embracing younger ladies for longer periods than was proper after suffering a hemorrhage.
He also began obsessively recycling and stealing after the event. The patient’s incessant joking drove his wife crazy, although he felt generally joyful.
As a means of reaching a compromise, he started writing down his jokes instead, which meant that by the time a psychiatric team evaluated him, he already had fifty pages of jokes prepared.
Even though they might not be the funniest jokes, he could not stop laughing at them. According to the BBC, most of the others include language that is unfit for publication.
It may appear a superpower to write an overwhelming number of jokes, but this talent comes with a price that goes beyond the usual socially unpleasant effects.
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