Legends about creepy werewolves have been going on for millennia, the transformation of people into animals is mentioned even in early medical works. But this is not mysticism, but a form of mental illness - the illusion of transformation. A middle-aged man named Matar has suffered from this disorder for many years. His nails seem to grow longer, and then there is an irresistible desire to attack …
In modern medicine, this disease is called "clinical lycanthropy" - the illusion of transformation into any animal. There have been times when people were confident in their transformation into dogs, hyenas, snakes and even bees. The disease is incredibly rare - when the psychiatrist of the Parnassian Institute, Jan Dirk Blom, studied all international practice, it turned out that only 13 such diseases had been discovered in the last 162 years.
The journalist Helen Thompson was well aware that there are few cases in world practice and she is unlikely to be able to face an illustrative example. By the way, clinical lycanthropy is not an independent diagnosis; it is one of the rare symptoms of schizophrenia.
Nevertheless, the journalist sent inquiries to various clinics, and it soon turned out that a man named Matar was being treated in the United Arab Emirates, who had been suffering from a rare disorder for many years. He is sure that he sometimes turns into a tiger. Matar agreed to a meeting, and Helen flew to Abu Dhabi.
Matar sat in a chair in a wide, busy corridor, wearing his traditional long white clothes and a white headdress. He's in his early 40s, but the dark circles under his eyes make him look older. He has a runny black beard and a gray wrinkled face.
Matara was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 16 years old. One day he began to have auditory and visual hallucinations - it seemed to him that bombs were going off everywhere. The guy called the police, saying that the country was attacked, as a result he was arrested for false reporting.
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Already becoming an adult, Matar discovered that, along with the usual hallucinations, he knows how to turn into a tiger. He felt the nails begin to grow on his hands and feet, he wants to growl. When this happened, he locked himself in his room because he was afraid to go out and eat someone.
Once the attack began right during the haircut - Matar jumped up and tried to bite the hairdresser.
The journalist asked Matar if he had a wife. He was silent for a couple of seconds, and then said that he had a wife. But he immediately threw his head back and made a very strange sound - it turned out that he was crying. Matar has a wife and two children (8 and 14 years old), but he no longer sees them.
The doctor explained that Matar's wife took the children away after symptoms of lycanthropy appeared - she thought he was dangerous.
Over time, the hallucinations began to worsen, and Mataru began to feel that these people were controlling his speech and reading his mind. Sometimes they wouldn't let him talk.
As the transformation into a tiger begins, Matar feels all the hairs on his body stand on end. Then an acute itching sensation spreads through the body - it starts from the left leg, then goes to the right, and then spreads throughout the body. Further, it seems as if an electrical discharge is being passed through you.
Matar abruptly stopped his story and said something in Arabic to the doctor. He turned to the journalist and said that Matar was turning into a tiger right now.
Doctors begin to talk quietly with Matar and ask him to relax. The room is quiet, and it seems that the patient is waging some kind of internal struggle.
Matar calms down and decides to continue the interview. The journalist asked why he considers himself to be a tiger and not a cat or someone else.
The journalist becomes uncomfortable. Matar has a terrible relapse - he gasps for air, looks down at his knees and lets out a terrible tiger roar. He kept his hands on his knees, while his fingers began to bend as if they had claws.
The doctors calm him down again. Matar takes a few deep breaths and suddenly becomes completely normal. He goes off to smoke.
At this time, the doctor told the journalist that, most likely, Matar did not take the medicine. He was prescribed a mixture of antipsychotics, antidepressants, and sedatives to help keep his symptoms under control. The doctor added that unless he really drank them, it would be impossible to feel safe in this room.
After these words, the journalist was ready to stop the interview, but the doctor suggested just moving to another room, bigger. Helen sat by the door so she could run out if something happened.
Matar's mother went with his sister to India. My sister also developed symptoms of schizophrenia and was sent to a specialized clinic for research.
Matar says that sometimes he thinks that a lion is attacking him. He grabs him by the neck, blood gushing from the wounds on Matar's body.
The attacks of the "lion" last several minutes, but sometimes they drag on for hours. It turned out that Matar's current relapse began last night - he locked himself in a room, wrapped a towel around his head and wrapped himself in a sheet so that there was no way to free himself.
Despite the situation that happened in the interview, Matar is not dangerous to society. When he is on medication, he is indistinguishable from any other person on the street.
Suddenly everything changes. Matar starts to laugh out loud, stretches out his fingers and bends them at the joints. Then he lowers his head and takes off his shoes - squeezes his left leg and hurts himself.
At this point, the doctor says that you need to leave. For a long time, the journalist did not leave thoughts about the fate of Matar, and a few months later she wrote to the doctor to inquire about his health. But soon she received a bleak answer: after that relapse, Mataru did not get better, similar cases have already been repeated many times and the man is still in the hospital.
