Punkstream ONLINE (English version) 02/03 2018 | Page 102

Cota r d's Syn dro me When we don‘ t see the walking dead just in mov- ies. Even though the Hallow- een is already over, I can‘t help but get back to it. I don‘t know about you but when somebody says Hal- loween I immediately im- agine monsters, costumes, witches and definitely some zombies. But what zombies actually are? Zombie can be explained as undead-corpse which ascends from grave, try- ing to fulfill their desire for blood by eating fresh human meat or brain. The concept of zombie has also its origins in voodoo cult in which it marks a com- pletely enslaved person. In most cases, those peo- ple execute commands un- knowingly under the influ- ence of some drugs. If the idea of the walking dead scares you then you can be glad you don‘t suffer from Cotards syndrome, also known as the syndrome of the walking dead. 100 Patients suffering from this illness think that they are dead, non-existing. They can think that some of their organs are missing and it’s usually one organ in particular - the brain. They don’t react to any impulses and they can’t even speak clearly. This mental illness is accompa- nied by feelings of guilt, negativism, and unrest- fulness. In very rare cases the Cotard‘s syndrome can cause hallucinations about immortality. Because the dead can’t die second time the patients think they are immune to being hit by a car, jumping from a high building or any danger. These illusions lead to un- predictable behaviour and the infected person loses any survival instinct that every healthy person has. These but also other men- tal syndromes are just the tip of the iceberg. Thera- pists know a lot more of them and some are just known inside the walls of psychiatric institutes. A lot of times we can’t under- stand the infected person