When Your Brain Can't Accept Reality: Anosognosia
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- Опубликовано: 15 дек 2019
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If patients seem to be unaware of their obvious conditions and symptoms, it might not be that they're in denial, but their brain might actually prevent them from realizing their disabilities.
Hosted by: Hank Green
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Can you do a second part to this video specifically about the mental side? I wanted to know if this condition had any relation to dementia or personality disorders in general. I wasn't sure if denying a personality disorder/dementia could be contributed to this condition, and if so then in what circumstances.
Fay-La-Mii I second this.
Hank seems to be a bit … unfocused.
@@Mcwollybob I would love that, too! I actually experienced autosognosia when I was dealing with Conversion Disorder, which is where the brain responds to stress by converting it to physical symptoms in order to disconnect from it. On top of that, I was also dealing with undiagnosed Bipolar 1 Disorder and a very painful physical ailment. It was scary at times because I sometimes completely lost track of reality and had no control of my body. Furthermore, it was actually nice to escape from reality sometimes, but, the hard part was coming back. Luckily, my dad is a hypnotherapist, so, he knew how to meet me in my subconscious mind and coach me through facing whatever triggered the reaction and regain control of my body so I could go on with my day. He also taught my boyfriend, who loved me so much that he was willing to do anything to help me through those episodes. We have since tied the knot, I am receiving proper treatment, and, although I still have Bipolar Disorder, I have not had any CD symptoms in four years.
@@rolfs2165 Hank has ADHD. That's why. 😁
'Tis but a scratch
Its just a fleshwound!
Just an arrow in the knee.
As I imagine: A talking head of a cleaved torso with limbs scattered about.
Yup, just a scratch.
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch!
So what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Doctor: Sir, you have anosognosia.
Patient: No, I haven't.
well you should have said no i dont cuz grammer
@@holaamigo3399 you mean "don't," because grammar.
@@carissstewart3211 well its because of vocab because thats not grammer,thats spelling
This entire set of comments is a Monty Python skit...No wonder I can't process what is real anymore....(*help*)
@@Walkerbtween yeet
“You’re blind”
“What? No I’m not”
“Is the light on?”
“Tis”
“‘Tis not, youre in the dark”
“Ahh, forgot my glasses”
Y u noo mak vidoes?!
Nobody like it no more, it has 420 and if y'all ruin it then you're a sinner
I’ve actually seen this first hand. I’m a nurse on a neuro critical care unit and we deal with a lot of large strokes that cause complete paralysis and neglect of one side of the body. I had a lady tell me over and over than if we would just unhook her from the monitors that she could walk to the bathroom, when in reality she couldn’t move or feel the left side of her body at all. When I asked her how her left side was doing, she would tell me it was working just fine. The brain really is fascinating.
Damn
In other words, there is a dissonance in bodily and neural feedback.
Aereto Basically yeah. A lot of times with these big one sided strokes, the brain kinda “forgets” the affected side, since a lot of times they aren’t getting any kind of sensory feedback from it.
Interesting, I can think of a lot of people who have risen to leadership positions who have huge cognitive dissonance.
My mother had a stroke wherein she lost the use of her left side, and the entire concept and experience of “left”. She once saw her own left arm lying across her body and accused me of leaving my arm in her bed. She then attempted to throw the arm at me. She also would eat only the food on the right side of her plate, look only to the right even if someone on her left was calling to her, etc. She suffered many other strange mental weirdnesses including believing that “they” had replaced her home (and, indeed, her entire neighborhood) with a cleverly identical copy, taking the original for themselves.
Can't accept reality you say?
*POLITICAL COMMENTARY INTENSIFIES*
_When your mother bakes you science-chip cookies but it's actually politics_ 🍪
It sounds like... *read smudged hand* Demopublicans have that!
Demopublican is what the demoman votes for
@@zyfigamer Vote Demopublican, because they took our jugs (of whisky)
Jacob or with a side of US history: vote Democratic-Republican because the federalists taxed our whisky!
So many weird conditions in this world!!!
Order in chaos
@@jrewt1 Do you mean chaos in order?
Chaos in order in chaos, with a side helping of entropy.
@@jrewt1 Well, what is a measure of order? What is a measure of chaos?
What is the standards that we must use here?
@@BIONICLECLAYPOKEMON a well ordered system can be defined with relatively few bits of information, whereas something irregular takes much more bits. Random noise is incompressible, repeating patterns compress well.
Reminds me also a little of a dementia/alzheimers lady I met a long time ago when I had a little summer job as a teen in a retirement home. She would ask me everyday if we would be so kind to let her stay one more night and if she could please keep te same room (she thought she was in a hotel). The first time I naively corrected her and said "this is a retirement home and you live here of course you have the same room". She seemed panicked and upset after that and said to me "but this is not where I'm supposed to be! I'm going to stay at my sisters place" and she walked out. (I found later her sister had already died some years prior and did not even live in the same town). She came back a little later after walking around for a bit and asked the same thing again, if she could please stay one more night in the same room. This time I did not want to cause her upset and told her "madam, you are our honoured guest we will prepare the same room for you". She was so happy when she walked of that time. Completely unable to see the reality, or interpret it, around her. Though she did seem to recognize the building and could find her way back by herself. The brain is very weird sometimes.
Sounds like the people who can't stop arguing on Twitter and RUclips comments.
The problem is that the other side think they're always right!
But they can't be always right, because they disagree with me, and I'm never wrong. Sad.
No, it isn't. Stop trivializing serious medical conditions just to attack people you don't like. Remotely 'diagnosing' your opponents (ex: accusations of gaslighting or stockholm syndrome) is just the modern form of demonization.
Or Republicans, jk but only sorta
@@ArawnOfAnnwn Hey look, found one!
As a teen, I worked at a local, small town restaurant. There was a visiting older couple that came in and the wife probably had had a stroke. She couldn't talk but just make noise. So when she ordered, I expected her husband to at least interject what she wanted to order. He never did. I just would order for her what he ordered. But, that was a really tough position to put a small town teenager in.
and.... other people around you didnt be like.... How did you know what she wanted? O_o
if she made only noises, she ordered nothing.
@@rickjames5998 It was a small town. I bet there were not any other customers.
@@charlieangkor8649 They were their to eat. It was obvious. Plus, I brought them a dinner and the husband didn't say no.
You did well!
is there a name for when your dreams are so realistic you have trouble figuring out what actually happened and what was a dream?
It's called 'lucid dreaming'.
@@TheCimbrianBull I was under the impression you know you're dreaming when lucid, I'm talking more about waking up and not being sure if you saw, did, said that thing IRL
@@cdmurray88
Oh, yes. You are correct about being self aware in a lucid dream. I don't know the name of having difficulties with discerning between dream and reality, though. I have also experienced what you are describing.
Madness
@@daphne4983 probs
"for your brains to keep doing their job, they need sleep"
HEY STOP THAT
Welp, woke up feeling fine, but now I’m convinced I have a disease I’m convinced I don’t have.
This is pretty fascinating. You've given me something to research later this evening!
Not surprising that after someone has a head-injury or a stroke, that they may experience a perception problem (rather than it being denial issue)!
I reject your reality and substitute my own
SAO Abridged nice
I legit clicked on this because I was raised by narcissists...wanted to see if this somehow commented on how they, well, reject consensus reality and substitute their own.
Anton-babinski syndrome is a weird one. As someone who is blind… Without my glasses, I only see colors at about 2 feet away. It’s not enough to really distinguish what an object is. Before they did a surgery to remove a cataract which had grown so thick it ruptured my lens and caused me to basically not have any light perception, I began to suffer from Charles bonnet syndrome. I’ve heard some people say the hallucinations frightened them. They didn’t for me. I knew what I was saying wasn’t real. It was in far too much detail to be something I was actually seeing. They did not speak to me, it was as if I was just watching some sort of a movie. It was a very odd experience. Now that the cataract is removed and the pieces of my lens removed from my eye, I still see stuff. Now though it’s kind of like purple and green and a weird shade of blue TV static. Before the things I saw were animals walking across the room. Some blue and turquoise squares that stretched and moved oddly, I saw people pacing back-and-forth, streams of them like they were two big wines I’ve never ending travelers going One Direction or the other in my room. It was definitely a strange experience.
we have a anosognosia epidemic
Yes 40% of Americans can’t accept facts.
@@lovely-mk4rt But 60% can accept alternative facts...
*no we dont*
@@raygivler You mean 70%?
Eh yea it's been going on for a really long time. I'd say just accept it. Soon Europe will be "fixed" so it won't matter.
Just like when Pinocchio had a fit when he found out he wasn't a real boy, but a carved imitation from a puppeteer.
But there is something also called Pinocchio Syndrome: Gelotophobia. (Fear of being laughed at)
Incidentally, there is also Peter Pan Syndrome... never wants to grow up or engage in adult behavior.
Though I kinda think Truman Syndrome is the most interesting.
I too check into the hospital “for a rest”
"Our brains work really hard for us, and to do their job they need sleep"
Wow Hank, it's like you just know it's 3:35 AM and I'm here watching this when I should have been asleep a good two hours ago or more D:
Lightweight.
It's 5:49am here, and I'm supposed to get up for work in 5 hours. lol
One of my cats died, and when I called in the other cat to see/get closure, it acted like the dead cat's body wasn't even there. I was witnessing a cat go through denial. This kind of emotional defense mechanism is very old.
Hank sometimes learning is just scary. Knowing so many ways that my life can get sooo out of its track is not easy. 😱
anosognosia is common during manic episodes as well.
Full-on mania is the only time I have to deal with anosognosia.
im so early my brain cant accept it
good for you
Yeah same here but high
Your brain also can't grasp the concept of grammar.
@@slappy8941 why do you have to be so rude? their grammar isn't even bad. this isn't an English essay.
Imagine waking up one day to someone telling you that you have schizophrenia and your family you have been "living" with were nothing but figments of your imagination and you had been living alone that whole time like a functioning crazy person lol
I can't accept that I'm in an Egyptian river!
I am in denial about da Nile joke lol
@John Hillman ...huh?
I'm in de nile
You're in Seine. You're French.
Your pic is giving me anxiety 😂
No mention of how squirting ice cold water in usually the left ear, temporarily diminishes anosognosia in patients? That to me, makes it a truly weird condition.
Bruh
+
-
This could be related to the vestibular system too, as that's located in the inner ear.
@@fortheloveofLDS that's what I figured it did, I wonder how exactly water affects it though.
That is less lack of self-awareness and more lack of awareness of a condition afflicting one's body. There seemed to be nothing regarding their awareness of their personhood.
Your brain is able to piece together missing visual information. It's fascinating.
It is. What we "see" is manufactured by our visual cortex in the back of our brain. Yes, it takes input from our eyes, but on the way from there to the back, that input has chances to be "improved" by other senses and memories, and that's all brewed and stewed together by our visual cortex. And actually, most of all this consists of editing things _out._ Babies can get entranced by a spot on the wall for hours. As we grow older, we learn more and more to block what isn't new and significant. This is all good, in that it makes the best use of our abilities, but it does make the eyes very much _unlike_ a camera that accurately records video.
@@adm0iii It's also how we process memories. Our brains just save the gist of it, the bits it considers relevant, and when you recall a memory imagination just fills in the missing bits. This is why people can often remember things that didn't happen or happened very differently, and while they might be saying something that's not true, they're not lying and they genuinely "remember" it like that.
Not only that, but when you recall a memory you "update" it, ie your brain had stored what it considered the important bits, you recreated a scenario in your head from those with help from your imagination, and then when you're done with that memory your brain does it again - takes the important bits from that new scenario based on the old memory, and replaces the old memory with the new one from that. That's why over time memories become distorted and further and further away from what actually happened. Watch a video of something that happened yesterday and it's exactly how you remembered it, watch a video of something that happened ten years ago and you'll probably find it's not quite as you remember it.
Our brains have different parts for short term and long term memory too, and when we create or update a memory it stays in our short term memory until we go to sleep, and it's during sleep that it gets compressed into the important parts only and stored in long term memory, where it's harder to get and tends to fade away and become corrupted the longer we leave it there.
Agreed. The very act of remembering _alters_ the memory; apparently new associations with one's present situation is the _reason_ we remember things, and those new associations are imprinted, allowing the memory to be more useful in future related situations. Brains are not like books or cameras that just record things that never change. That's great for living and learning, but bad for when we're witnesses in court cases.
I thought this was going to be a video about living in denial of the consequences of one's thoughts and behaviors.
When he said Roku near the end my mind instantly jumped to avatar. I got really confused for a second
"What do you mean the reality where Hank is single and eligible is not real?"
This is my 81 year old Dad dealing with worsening dementia. It makes it very difficult to help him when he can't even recognize there's a problem.
meanwhile i‘m too aware of my existence
Same
I can think of someone who almost certainly qualifies for this disorder, and unfortunately he’s “in charge” of our country.
What on Earth does Trump have anything to do with this? And how does he qualify for this?
Also, the economy has been booming ever since he took office. Obumer was a failure, so I'll pick Orange man any day of the week than Mr empty promises.
I know a stroke victim that swears he cant walk yet I've seen him hobble out on the porch for a smoke
*points to the Tobacco industry*
"Damn, we should buy that man an electronic wheelchair, help him out. "
“I’m a good sportsman” awww 🥺😭
Waiting for the day that we have enough information on aphantasia that this channel can make a video on it too
I work with patients who swear they can get up and walk, when they can't even sit up on their own. No, you ain't falling on my shift.
Welp, now I'm doubting my reality. Lovely.
Thank you, I learned something today. ❤️🇨🇦☕️☕️
Does this apply to dementia too? My dad insisted he could do all sorts of things like sign his name, for example. Then when given a pen, he could not sign and even said that he didn't know what to do. When asked again if he could sign his name, he said that he could having just proved that he could not.
Inability to assess own ability in dementia was also raised when a local bus driver ploughed into shoppers, killing 2 people. He was found to have dementia and be unaware of any impairment.
I watched Shutter Island yesterday and today you uploaded video about anosognosia,
what the luck.
I wonder how they would experience virtual reality. After gaming for hours on end the real world feels alien to me. I adapt to the virtual world, I get my "VR legs", my brain is used to movement without the vestibular stimulation. Perhaps it would help people suffering anosognosia as in VR you learn to adapt and observe your "self" without the normal inputs and perceptions. It would certainly be an interesting study.
Or it could possibly make it worse. If the character can do something the real body can't, that could enforce there isn't anything wrong. They are already confusing reality as it is. It's worth trying though. You never know.
suicune2001 i think perhaps putting them in a vr world where they have their real condition it may click that in real life they do have it. For example, putting someone in a vr body where they’re missing their leg because in real life they don’t understand they’re missing their leg. Idk ?
@@sarahd1250 Ohhh ok. That could possibly work. It would be interesting to try.
Vr legs, Sort of like sea legs? I've never used vr
@@Agaettis Yep. Your body doesn't handle movement very well at first. "Teleporting" which is basically point and click to move is a lot easier on the brain. Walking in the VR world without movement can cause something akin to sea-sickness.. but most get used to it quickly.
Your propioception adapts to the virtual world. You don't need to see your arms or limbs to know exactly where they are.
"Move your leg"
"I can't. I just want to rest"
"Sir, your leg is missing"
The only reality I can't accept is the spelling of that word
Probably misspelled due to somebody misreading a doctor's handwriting.
The ways that your sense of agency can fail are just so fascinating. Agency is your perception that you are the one controlling what your body is doing because you will it to. It can fail in little inconsequential ways or catastrophic ways. When it does fail, we are really really good at confabulating an explanation for why it didn't fail. Studies on people who have had their corpus collosum severed or have damage to their parietal lobe have found really fascinating stuff.
This reminds me a lot of that. Their sensory information is failing but they aren't aware that it has failed so an explanation is confabulated.
Wow, that is so weird!
Sentience is hard.
So very true...
I had this when I had my stroke. It was really detrimental in starting my recovery 💙
Wait, there’s ANOTHER SciShow besides the normal one and space?
WHY DID I NOT KNOW?!
Interesting!
I was an Charge nurse in a physical rehab unit, with patients who had strokes or hip/knee replacement. I saw this phenomenon in several stroke patients. They were real safety risks, as they would regularly tried to get out of bed alone, without any function one side of their body. They really did not know they were paralyzed.
"Reality is just hallucinations perceived as truth"
I think I've just found the next subject to hyperfocus on, this is the most fascinating concept I've learned about in years
Wow, never heard of that before.
" I am not crying, you are crying !!"
These kinds of conditions are so scary to me! Like, what if I’m actually disabled or blind or something and I don’t even know it
Woahhh... That's crazy 😲
You would know *something* was weird, since you can’t live the same life you had before. But you would make up an alternate explanation, for instance imagining that you can see - but you would run into trouble when trying to walk around outside, drive, pick stuff up etc. You would make up explanations for that too, but you probably would notice something was unusual.
Or aliens live among us harvesting our life giving substances, but they alter our brainwaves so we don’t notice them. It’s an overused movie plot.
I can see perfectly well! (turns and walks off cliff)
My husband experienced this when he had a large stroke that left him paralyzed on the entire left side of his body. Anosognosia made rehabilitation and physical therapy impossible. He would say, "they tell me that I had a stroke". It made caring for him miserable.
I'm a good sportsman
Not gonna name names but i can think of one orange politician with incredibly small hands who definitely has this.
Why aren't I 50 points ahead
This world probably a matrix to ease you into the reality that you'll wake up too.
this is so interesting, I think my grandma had this condition, so here is my story, she was 85 y/o at the time and one of his sons died ( my uncle) of a heart attack, she went to the funeral and everything however after a week she asked my mom when my uncle was coming from work, my mom thought that she was forgetting things and she explained to her that he passed away, but my grandma refused to belive it, and she used to pretend that he was alive and that he was going to come back from vacation, that last almost 6 moths until she accept it. Very scary is like the pain was a lot for her so her brain pretend it like it didn't happen.
That's terrifying, hope shes doing better now
@@richardriguard1394 Aww! thank you for your wishes Tyler, unfortunately my grandma passed away at the age of 87, 6 years ago. But she was fine in her last years.
Is hank speaking more slowly or somehow differently from normal or am I going insane
No, everyone _but_ you is going insane.
At this rate, next year, he'll look and act like Winston Churchill. It's a good thing... I think.
You should see him on microcosmos, very calming
I am not a doctor, but maybe it is both. Lol. On a more serious note if you do actually start to question your sanity, seek medical help. .
My mother was in so much pain from have 4 open back surgery's and a total hip she vomited passed out and woke up as her 13 year self. It was very sad and fascinating at the same time. The whole time she no longer felt, but was tied down and sedated so she would not damage the new hip.
Maybe it’s a blessing
The way the stripes on his shirt are slightly offset to his right drove me crazy.
I experienced some of these things when I had a bad reaction to intrathecal chemotherapy. I was frustrated that I couldn’t recall words or guide myself through doorways but I was more worried about making it to my next appointment on time. It still confuses me that my dad took me to my appointment the next day instead of the ER but I think he just didn’t know who knew how to take care of me. I was 23 at the time btw so it wasn’t like I should have been confused
Might want to bookmark that disorder.
I feel like i might be experiencing or have experienced something similar, i have EDS hypermobility aswell as a malformed, asymmetrical brain- I have trouble asking for help doing things even though its often excruciating to do it myself, my parents have to practicslly read my mind else ill start doing too much and end up horribly in pain and weaker for the next several days
Definitely not in denial of my situation but in actual moments of living I often ignore it and try to be a productive human anyway, I dont know why or how to stop it- and when people confront me to stop me as I do it I often break down into tears and its just allot of confusion.
Im still trying to figure out what to do about it 😥
Finally a video about Anton's syndrome. How do you know you don't have it?
What about how the idea of this might apply to aging? As an example, I'm approaching 40 but in my mind I'm still about 19 or 20, both physically and socially. I still often believe that people see me as a 20-something.
I feel like more than half of humanity has this condition. It's especially common in politicians.
"Man forgets he has Alzheimer's, remembers everything"
Do one on PTSD next
Monty Python and the Holy Grail's The Black Knight needs to see a doctor... or at least, one more after this video
Their brain creating reasons for their predicament sounds exactly like when someone has had the left and right hemispheres of their brain separated. When you isolate each eye's field of view and you put something in the hand on one side and blind that same side's eye, then remove the separation, the person will sometime's make up a reason as to why they are holding that object.
Is this a reactionary thing only? Or could it be a symptom of something degenerative?
It appears to be caused by damage to specific areas of the brain. In theory that means almost any type of damage to the brain can cause it but it usually is associated with acute conditions like a stroke.
Garfield’s bad ending irl
This is like the opposite of psychosomatic disorders. Hmmm
Psychosomatic health?
I don't know if this is what my father has but I just learned he is unable to accept the times he was a domestic abuser and physically and/or verbally abusive toward his family. He believes he never did any of those things. It saddens me but also makes me furious and I have no idea what to do
The memes are true !
I had a dog with this condition, sort of. He had cancer under his front leg (what humans would call their arm pit area), and it was too big to remove by the time it was correctly diagnosed. Eventually he didn't know where his foot was. He could lift the leg, but didn't know how to place his paw on the ground, so he would try to walk on the toes pointed down... Long, tragic story, but he refused to acknowledge he couldn't walk like that. Rather than raising the limb and using 3 legs, he wouldn't stop trying to use that leg. The idea the vets had was that he might've had a stroke.
Number of the beast
People on the Titanic be like until the bow starts going under:
I wonder if my late grandmother had this? She would make these ludicrous conclusions about normal things for no real reason. Stuff like thinking there was a cloud in the room when it was actually her cataracts or seeing the streetlight outside and thinking it's a ufo. She would also try and give things away that were meant to help her medically.
My dearest best friend just died today. She was like my sister for 6 years. And now, like that, she's gone.
My condolences
Ive met a man who didn't notice he's in the middle of having a stroke until someone told him that he speaks funny. It's like his mind still think he's speaking normally but in reality the speech is slurred. And also when he notices that everytime he types on his phone there's always typos eventhough he's sure he'd typed correctly
What’s it called when reality can’t accept my brain anymore?
Think I had a version of this once leaving prison
Strikes me that the only way one could seek treatment would be second hand. Prime territory for gaslighting as well as promotion of false positives in mental health.
i'm way too aware of my reality
Is it anosognosia that, during this video, I kept wanting to yell, "Focus!"
Is this vision blurry or bleary?
“...Commonly schizophrenia, but we’ll focus on just the physical... “
I’m confused. Isn’t a lot of, if not all mental illness a physical neurological condition?
It is, but he means to focus on the physically debilitating (motor skills, etc).
LazySpoon Utensil oh of course derp, confusion lifted :D
It sounds like it could be a good thing
The term used for this when someone with a stroke or closed head injury insists they can do things which they clearly cannot is "denial". It's not the same sort of denial - such as with an alcohol abuser. The denial in the neurological patient is really that they cannot TELL that they cannot do something, or figure something out. This most often happens if it's the right brain that is damaged (in a right handed person - not so simple for left and ambidexterous people)
This sounds like DPDR to the extreme.
my mind is really fucked up now, im so confused ????, i couldnt remember I of those five syllable words you were talkin about ? THANKS SCISHOW PSYCH !