What is Anosognosia? It is a Greek term meaning “to not know a disease.” NAMI (National Alliance On Mental Illness) has some information on its website about Anosognosia: click here to see it. From that information, I quote: “When we talk about anosognosia in mental illness, we mean that someone is unaware of their own mental health condition or that they can’t perceive their condition accurately. Anosognosia is a common symptom of certain mental illnesses, perhaps the most difficult to understand for those who have never experienced it.”
I asked ChatGPT: “What is anosognosia in mental illness?” It replied: “Anosognosia is a condition in which a person with a mental illness is unaware of their symptoms or that they have a mental illness. It is most commonly associated with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.” That’s quite an accurate reply.
In my book “The Overlife, A Tale of Schizophrenia,” both the character Jodie and her daughter, the character Sarah, live with paranoid schizophrenia and experience anosognosia for long periods. Jodie is unaware she has any psychiatric problem at all. Sarah knows something is wrong with her but fails to recognize that she lives with the same brain disorder as her mother. In Sarah’s case, this unawareness is partially the result of poor advice from doctors. Mainly, before getting competent treatment, Sarah’s symptoms when she has a psychotic break are at first so powerfully convincing that she accepts them as her reality without question. Only part way into each relapse does she sense that something is wrong, but even then, she doesn’t know what.
A great website to check out is Schizophrenia and Psychosis Action Alliance. They have a section which is a glossary of common terms. They define anosognosia as “A neurological condition in which the patient is unaware of their neurological deficit or psychiatric condition. It is associated with mental illness, dementia, and structural brain lesions as seen in right hemisphere stroke patients.”
Anosognosia during a mental health crisis is a type of “unawareness” which can be terrifying. It may leave you entirely mystified by the reactions you perceive from others. To you, it may appear that it is others who are undergoing a mental health crisis and not yourself. If rejection is aimed at you and no one else when you are unaware of the cause, it can deepen your paranoia.
Anosognosia is an important word, and there is much to learn about what it describes.