Real Life

Boanthropy — One of the weirdest disorders you've never heard of

Don't have a cow man

Amber Blaize
Our Weird & Wonderful World
5 min readJun 8, 2020

One of the rarest documented psychological disorders is called Boanthropy which is a specific type of zoanthropy, and it sufferers of this unusual disorder believe that they are a cow or an ox.
They try to live their life as a cow, even walking on all fours, eating grass, cow feed and they often stop talking, start mooing, and join herds out at pasture.

The most famous sufferer of this condition was King Nebuchadnezzar, who in the Book of Daniel “was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen”. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 605BC to 562BC. According to the Bible, he conquered Judah and Jerusalem and sent the Jews into exile.
He was also credited with building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was humbled by God for boasting about his achievements. He lost his sanity, and lived like an animal for seven years, according to Daniel, chapter 4. When his sanity was later restored he praised and honored God.

Those who suffer from the very rare — but very terrifying — Boanthropy disorder believe they are cows, often going as far as to behave as such.
They do not seem to realize what they’re doing when they act like a cow, which leads researchers to believe that this odd mental disorder is brought on by dreams or even hypnotism.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The cause of boanthropy is still unknown. Many people believe it to have religious links whereas others think it is related to witchcraft and black magic. Boanthropy could possibly be an additional aspect of another psychological disease such as Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder when a person might experience hallucinations and believe they are no longer human.

Other possible explanations for his behavior include porphyria or general paresis or paralytic dementia caused by syphilis.

Porphyrias are a group of rare inherited blood disorders. People with these disorders have problems making a substance called…

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Amber Blaize
Our Weird & Wonderful World

40 something, trying to navigate her way through life & convince everyone (and herself) that she actually knows what she is doing….