Delusional Parasitosis

"Delusional parasitosis is a form of psychosis or false belief, a "loss of contact with reality". In delusional parasitosis, sufferers have a strong delusional belief that they are infested with parasites, whereas in reality no such parasites are present. Very often the imaginary parasites are reported as being "bugs" crawling on or under the skin; in these cases the experience of the sensation known as formication may be the basis for this belief. Symptoms also include severe itching."

One thing almost every Morgie can tell you is, the itching is maddening!

For some individuals, there is physical evidence of bugs living, crawling, and even hatching from their skin and scalp and for others there is no physical signs and tests will come back negative for any type of parasite/insect life form.

The majority of health care practitioners will prescribe a large array of anti-itch, anti- parasite type creams that ultimately have no effect and unfortunately lead most physicians to conclude that their patient is suffering from 'delusional parasitosis'.

Another layer of delusion is being formed from this very issue and it is called the Martha Mitchell Effect. You can click here to read the article titled, The Delusion About Delusional Parasitosis.

This couldn't be further from the truth in most all cases. Yes, there is such a condition and it is often found amongst the drug addiction community because it is a common side effect of drugs like crystal meth and cocaine.

It literally sounds crazy to someone outside the community afflicted by the mysterious skin condition also known as Morgellons. I should know because I faced this myself; first as someone listening to a friend I had begun to suspect was losing touch when he claimed he had some kind of scabies/bird mite infestation that he couldn't get rid of, and then he 'gave' it to me! Soon I was in my own battle that turned into a nightmare against a 'bug' that would not die.

When the 'scabies' tracks began on my body, I still had no clue what was really happening to me. I had been dealing with weird skin stuff off and on for almost 4 months but had not yet seen the pattern for Morgellons. I had even read quite a bit about Morgellons but most of the symptoms did not match.

During the 'super scabies' phase, I was doing all the treatments I could find on the internet to kill scabies, some worked better than others but it wasn't until my daughter began to show 'hatching' tracks that I consulted her naturopath doctor. He was immediately skeptical, nothing he saw looked like any scabies he knew. He took skin scrapings and looked under the microscope. There were no feces, no scabies, no nothing!

I had brought one of my 'specimens' as well which he also looked at under the scope. He came back to report that what he saw just looked like a fiber ball! (This fiber ball felt like it had bitten me!) He went on to assure me that you could not feel traditional scabies bite, that they did not live off the body through something like a laundry cycle (which mine did), and finally that if you talked about something biting and crawling - it would psychologically affect us - meaning he had been getting the willy nillies himself during the time we sat and spoke. It was his way of kindly saying alot of this was my imagination!

So what is this???!!! He suggested it was a reaction to all the products I had been using in my home treatments. I sighed asked for a prescription of permethrin cream and went on my way.

I was at the end of my rope- well at least that's what I thought at the time - and so I gave myself the cream treatment. That night was the first night I slept fairly well in months. The next day I woke up and thought they were dead. There was no movement, no biting, no stinging, although my skin still felt itchy raw.

This lasted for two days. I was sure it was over. On the third day, it was as if 'they' woke up again. The cream had not killed them, it just knocked them out for a couple of days!

I was officially at war and now I was re-reading the info on this unexplained dermopathy with a whole new level of...bewilderment.

I truly felt like I was in a bad Stephen King novel as I once again I went back to my garlic and olive oil salves slathered on my skin and sat for as long as I could stand it basking in the sun. I was a recluse from friends, I hadn't snuggled or even hugged my kids in well over a month, lived in a cloud of diatomaceous earth, and I had burned several layers of skin off in a sulfur bath and some oregano oil bombs. I knew I would sound nuts if I spoke with my family about it, so I canceled trip plans and kept my mouth shut.

Thankfully it wasn't too much longer and then we found Dr. Staninger.

Delusional parasitosis? Maybe someone out there does have this, but I would strongly suggest they find a doctor/clinician that knows of Morgellons and see this specialist. It saddens me to hear all the different stories, a few that have ended in suicide.

This simply need not be, if you find yourself in a doctor's office that starts to doubt your health issues, you are in the wrong office!