healthmedicinet

He lost interest in smoking, stopped speaking and refused to eat as there was “no
point because I was dead”.

Only through months of therapy and treatment was he able to overcome the
condition and live anything approaching a normal life.

Cotard’s Syndrome is among the most rare diseases in the world and it is
thought that it affects just few hundred people at any one time.

It is linked to depression and comes in a variety of forms including some who
feel that their limbs are no longer functioning.

Writing in New Scientist magazine, Graham describes how baffled doctors
referred him to neurologists Adam Zeman at the University of Exeter and
Steven Laureys at the University of Liège in Belgium.

At the time Graham was being looked after by his family because his illness
had gotten so bad.

He said: “I didn’t want to face people. There was no point.

“I didn’t feel pleasure in anything. I used to idolise my car, but I
didn’t go near it. All the things I was interested in went away.

“I lost my sense of smell and my sense of taste. There was no point in
eating because I was dead. It was a waste of time speaking as I never had
anything to say.”

The nadir was when he felt compelled to go to his local cemetery as he thought
he would fit in.

He said: “I just felt I might as well stay there. It was the closest I
could get to death. The police would come and get me, though, and take me
back home.”

Graham’s recovery started with scans which found that levels of activity in
parts of his brain were so low they were more consistent with somebody in a
vegetative state.

Mr Laureys said: ‘”I’ve been analysing (brain) scans for 15 years
and I’ve never seen anyone who was on his feet, who was interacting with
people, with such an abnormal scan result.

“Graham’s brain function resembles that of someone during anaesthesia or
sleep.”

After his own regime of therapy and drugs, Graham is on the road to recovery.

He said that he is not really back to normal but can go out of the house on
his own and “feels a lot better” than he was.

He said: “I don’t feel that brain-dead any more. Things just feel a bit
bizarre sometimes.

“I’m not afraid of death. But that’s not to do with what happened – we’re
all going to die sometime. I’m just lucky to be alive now.”