When I was reading about somatoform disorders something that came to my mind was a syndrome I learned about in an entomology class called Morgellon’s Disease. Now, depending on who you speak with you will be told one of two things, either that Morgellon’s Disease is a physical disorder that causes fibers to grow under your skin, with symptoms like itching and burning skin, or that Morgellon’s Disease is a psychological disorder and the fibers the patients claim are emerging from their skin are actually due to external sources. The reason why I mention Morgellon’s is that to me it has some pretty strong similarities to somatoform disorders. People who suffer from Morgellon’s do seem to be suffering from a very real pain,…show more content… The first criterion is just that “a medicalcondition, other psychiatric illness, or the effects of a substance will not explain the patient’s symptoms,” and at this point in time Morgellon’s hasn’t been classified as a medical condition or a psychiatric illness, although it has similarities to delusional parasitosis, (DeepDiveAdmin, 2015). The second criterion is that “the patient doesn’t meet the criteria for malingering or factitious disorder,” which would have to be tested on a patient by patient basis, but it appears that people who suffer from Morgellon’s truly believe their disorder is a physical one, and they experience the irritation and pain that comes along with it DeepDiveAdmin, 2015). Lastly, “at least one primary area of the patient’s life is significantly disrupted by the symptoms or the symptoms cause a lot of distress,” which appears to be the case, because just searching the internet for Morgellon’s comes up with websites of people telling their stories, about how the crawling feeling under their skin keeps them up at night and similar (DeepDiveAdmin,
