TIL about Delusional parasitosis, sometimes referred to as phantom infestation, is a psychological disorder in which an individual mistakenly believes their body is overrun by living or inanimate entities. Typical examples of these perceived invaders include bugs, worms, or microbes.

[u/1998199888]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusional_parasitosis

[u/yay855]

I have psychosis myself, and occasionally experience that sort of full-body itching sensation that feels like you're being bitten by bugs all over. But the thing is, that usually happens when I'm having a psychotic attack and break out in hives or get a rash at the same time. TBH the body works in weird fucking ways and it's really fucking easy for your nervous system and paranoia to create a feedback loop of the placebo effect, but in a negative way.

Something happens that stresses you out a lot and you start to itch or feel strange sensations from hives, but unless you deal with that sort of thing a lot, you won't realize what's really happening. So you assume that it's some sort of parasite and try to get rid of it or see a doctor, only to be told nothing is there... which isn't actually solving the problem, so you just get more and more stressed about it, making the sensations worse.

Meeting people where they're at is essential for actually medically treating people. Even if the thing they think is wrong isn't really the problem, they're still experiencing symptoms and it's a doctor's job to treat them. Whether it's delusion or just something they didn't check for, it's the job of every doctor to actually help their patients; tossing them out the door without actually addressing the problem will just make them keep suffering, or even make it worse.