What is Public Perception of Morgellons?

It doesn’t take anything to convince a Morgellons sufferer that their condition is in fact real. Being forced to succumb to a mixture of severe physical and psychological symptoms, Morgellons sufferers are reminded everyday that something is ‘wrong’ with them. However, things are different when it comes to public perception, both from average individuals and the medical community. The most common public reactions to Morgellons include: disbelief, fear and empathy.

Unfortunately, disbelief is perhaps one of the most overwhelming perceptions garnered by the public when it comes to Morgellons. The medical community is the most guilty when it comes to this perception. This is because there actually is a form of mental illness that causes some of the problems evident in Morgellons. It is called Delusional Parasitosis, and basically causes a victim to feel sensations that parasites are crawling on them. Delusional Parasitosis victims may try to relieve their problems through excessively scratching their skin or by applying harsh chemicals, which may result in irritation. What doctors fail to recognize, however, is that even though Delusional Parasitosis victims do damage their skin, they usually show irritation in areas that can be scratched. In addition, they do not produce the types of fibers that are evident in Morgellons. Despite this fact, doctors are still convinced that Morgellons is psychological only. This disbelief has spread into the minds of average persons, many of whom may harbor their own prejudices against the mentally-ill. Too many people believe that what a so-called mentally-ill person says has no merit, especially since they are producing symptoms for a disease not well-known.

This leads into another common public reaction to Morgellons: fear. Morgellons sufferers are often forced to become hermits because their condition hampers not only their psychological state but also their physical state. When people see massive skin irritation their first instinct is to think something is wrong with the affected person, thus they should stay away from them. This is worsened by the fact that no one really knows what causes Morgellons and if it can be spread. The Morgellons sufferer may also have their own internal fears about their disease simply because they don’t know why it is even existing in the first place.

The last public reaction to Morgellons is empathy. This type of emotion can be seen when one peruses message boards where Morgellons is a topic of discussion. When the average person is allowed to hear the testimonies of real Morgellons sufferers, they are able to listen by their hearts and not the bias of the medical community. Actually seeing pictures of Morgellons also increases the feeling of empathy. In fact, some online users empathetic to Morgellons have gone as far as comparing it to the AIDS epidemic, at least during the early stages of AIDS before doctors knew what the disease entailed.

In conclusion, three types of public reactions are common when it comes to Morgellons: disbelief, fear and empathy. It is unfortunate that in the current era the first two reactions, (disbelief and fear), have to exist at all. Fortunately, with the presence of empathy it is possible to limit the other two more negative reactions, since empathy can be the springboard needed to procure more Morgellons research.