[juniorvickers]

Hi,
I'd like to apologize up front if I am posting in the wrong place, but I don't know the disorder I am about to describe.

A service member returned from combat within the last year after being involved in an IED explosion which killed several in his vehicle. He regained conscientiousness in the hospital in Germany. He is back in the States and is in a wheelchair. He insists that he is a double amputee, missing both legs, one below the knee and one above the knee.

He is not. He has both his legs, and although there was other trauma to his person, he has recovered fully physically. He truly believes that he is missing his legs. According to his doctors, he should be walking fine.

What would you call this disorder?

Thanks.

[Travelinglady]

I don't know. We aren't professionals here, but maybe somebody will answer.

[elevatedsoul]

im not a dr either, but PTSD can cause weird things to happen? maybe with psychotic symptoms, the patient is using the amputations as a coping mechanism? I wish the best for him and hope he recovers soon

[BLUEDOVE]

Yeah,I would say its PTSD coupled with massive
guilt because he is now OK physically,and his
friends are not.

[The_little_didgee]

Conversion Disorder?

[(JD)]

I'm sure the military has the right terms for this...

It's probably a blast-related brain injury. It may or may not be permanent, it could be purely neurological from the concussion? I doubt anything is just one thing though, and the trauma certainly has had cognitive effects as well.

It could be that the head trauma from the blast has messed up some of the wiring and needs some time to regain itself...similar to our "normal" concussion symptoms where it takes us a while to get it altogether. I sure hope it's only time he needs...

So hopefully with therapies (physical and psychotherapy) he will be able to sense and know he didn't lose his legs and regain the use of them.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by juniorvickers

Hi,
I'd like to apologize up front if I am posting in the wrong place, but I don't know the disorder I am about to describe.

A service member returned from combat within the last year after being involved in an IED explosion which killed several in his vehicle. He regained conscientiousness in the hospital in Germany. He is back in the States and is in a wheelchair. He insists that he is a double amputee, missing both legs, one below the knee and one above the knee.

He is not. He has both his legs, and although there was other trauma to his person, he has recovered fully physically. He truly believes that he is missing his legs. According to his doctors, he should be walking fine.

What would you call this disorder?

Thanks.

in rare situations the body can physically cause a person to not associate their limbs with being there, being attached,...

example I have MS. sometimes it takes a lot for me to realize my arms and legs are really still there, sometimes I have no feelings in those limbs therefore my mind is telling me my legs and arms are not attached to my body. on those days nothing anyone can tell me will convince my mind otherwise. just the way my body is handling my having MS.

many people wo have gone through a traumatic situation will also feel that their limbs are not their own, are not attached to their bodies, because that is how their mind works. sometimes its normal sometimes its called PTSD sometimes its called dissociative disorder, sometimes its called hallucination, delusional thinking....gosh I could go on with all the many different things this kind of problem is called.

in the end only this persons treatment provider can say how and why this person is reacting this way.

my suggestion if you are not this person, maybe there is something that the treatment providers and this person is not telling you, and the reality is if this is not you going through the problem theres nothing you can do and Im gonig to be frank here trying to diagnose another person is a very dangerous thing. you may end up coming to the wrong conclusions or end up getting a misdiagnosis by asking people other than his treatment providers who are the ones that are working with this person. I mean what if someone here told you this person has a tumor in their brain and you treat this person as if they did, only to find out they are normal or what if you get replies telling you this person is normal and this person actually has a brain tumor...either way you can be doing this person a dis service by going online posting and asking other mentally challenged people to give you a diagnosis on your friend. very dangerous indeed.

my suggestion if this person is you, keep working with your treatment providers. they are in the best position to get to the bottom of what is going on for you and helping you to get the right treatment for the problem.

[-jimi-]

if there is brain injury that can cause foreign limb syndrome but it's very rare and the damage must happen where the brain map of the body part is.

[sewerrats]

There is a thing called arm -leg syndrome for people that loose arms or legs , the brain and body still act has if they still have the limbs even pain from something they have lost. So mabye he thinks he has lost the limbs in the trama that happened, and in his brain its real . Guilt from not being killed or hurt worse, has unbalanced HIM.

[-jimi-]

Those things are the same but opposites. If you lose a limb you might still have the brain map for it. Or rarer, lose the brain map and keep the limb.

[anneo59]

Originally Posted by elevatedsoul

im not a dr either, but PTSD can cause weird things to happen? maybe with psychotic symptoms, the patient is using the amputations as a coping mechanism? I wish the best for him and hope he recovers soon

something similar happened to be, with non-combat military sexual trauma. I allowed it for a while to dominate my life!

[archipelago]

You can have a delusions with conversion disorder that are specific and do not affect other things. I would also think that PTSD is in the picture. I don't know about something neurological but I would check that out first. Medical issues like that need to be assessed first. What a terrible thing to have happen.

[-jimi-]

Since we don't know this person, don't know the physical injury, we simply cannot say if this is neurological or trauma related. We can guess but I assume their doc knows better what is going on.