I don’t know about you, but as a kid, I spent hours in front of a mirror squinting my eyes so hard they hurt, in a vain attempt to turn myself into my spirit animal. So you can guess my
excitement when I found there are people who have turned themselves into animals. Or
thought they had turned themselves into animals.
Zoanthropy is this curious syndrome that makes a person believe that they have turned into an
animal. It is a syndrome that is little known and extremely rare. In fact, there are only 56
reported cases in scientific literature presently. The past, however, is a different story. A
reported 600 supposed lyncanthropes (a term for people with zoanthropy) were sentenced to
death for having committed violent crimes in animal form(probably when the legend of the
werewolf came into being). Sheesh, a dark turn for a disease I initially thought was quite
humorous. Turns out, the syndrome is not funny at all.
Some of its symptoms include vivid delusions, hallucinations, and psychosis among various
others. The person diagnosed becomes a danger to themselves as well as the people around
them. This becomes a serious problem for the patients and their caregivers. Well, how then is
one supposed to cure lycanthropy? Google gave me interesting answers to that question. One
page told me that one may cure themselves at any time by taking a Glenmoril Witch Head back
to Ysgramor's Tomb, activating the Flame of the Harbinger, and defeating their beast spirit.
Another recommended aripiprazole. Both seemed pretty legit treatment options to me.
So I guess the answer to the title of this post is: yes. Animagi are real. It’s just that they are real
only in the cingulate cortex of 56 delusional muggles.
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