Lists about common mental illnesses and disorders and the many people around the world and throughout history who have lived with them.

A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Interesting

Think back to a time where you had a bit too much to drink. The next day, could you remember what your drunken self had done? Now,&nbsp;remove the alcohol. If you still drew a blank, you would have something in common with these <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/celebrities-with-multiple-personalities/celebrity-lists">famous cases of dissociative identity disorder</a>.<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder">Dissociative identity disorder</a> (DID), formerly referred to as multiple personality disorder, is when a person manifests two or more distinct personalities that switch off controlling the body. The &quot;blackout&quot; periods are where the dissociative part comes in. Often the personalities have no memory of what went on when other personalties were in charge. In other words, the individual may have no clue that the other personalities even exist.Usually, there is a dominant personality and one or more &quot;alters.&quot; Which personality is dominant can actually change over the years. Sometimes the alternate personalities appear as hostile, foreign invaders to the dominant personality, and can be mistaken for cases of demonic possession. Real cases of DID are extremely rare, and are almost always&nbsp;the&nbsp;result of extreme trauma or abuse. The disorder serves as a psychological coping mechanism in which&nbsp;the psyche compartmentalizes the trauma. Ultimately, the disorder is a failure to integrate various memories, personality traits, identity, and consciousness into a single, multidimensional persona.These are real people with dissociative identity disorder. All of their stories are true, and well documented. Beyond the sensationalism of tales like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a very real psychological concern that, while rare, can be extremely difficult to live with.

Famous Cases Of Dissociative Identity Disorder

General

12 Famous Cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Christopher Myers

Everything was going so well today. Your hair was doing that thing you like, there was no line at the coffee place, and you got to work on a little early.&nbsp;You even found out you're getting that promotion over Karen. Not bad!&nbsp;Now&nbsp;you're driving home, and you suddenly feel a sharp&nbsp;pain in your lower abdomen. Was it something you ate? Before you can think about it too much, the sharp pain hits again. By the time you get home, you're sweating. You check your temperature.&nbsp;A&nbsp;fever is setting in.Finally, you think,&nbsp;&quot;better safe than sorry.&quot; Time to put that health insurance to use.And that's how you got here. Lying back&nbsp;in a hospital bed,&nbsp;a&nbsp;heart monitor beep-beep-beeping by your side, and a doctor explaining your imminent surgery. They're going to take&nbsp;your appendix out. You might be scared about what happens if you <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/anesthesia-awareness-horror-stories/jacob-shelton">wake up during surgery</a>, but lucky you, there's a drug to keep that from happening. You're going to go under <a href="http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/tc/anesthesia-topic-overview?page=2">general anesthesia</a>, and by the time you wake up, you'll be right as rain. But exactly what happens when you go&nbsp;under?&nbsp;And, aside from that appendix getting taken out - or whatever your particular surgery may be&nbsp;-&nbsp;what happens to your body in anesthesia?&nbsp;

What Happens To Your Body When You Go Under Anesthesia

Laura Allan

People share their eyewitness and firsthand accounts of true creepy and wild stories that really happened to them.

WTF Stories You've Gotta Read

Exploring those otherworldly, metaphysical phenomena inexplicable by the laws of nature.

Soul and Spirit

Supernatural & Paranormal

To be honest, most people aren&#39;t &quot;gifted&quot; in the sense that they have extraordinary powers, so it&#39;s difficult to believe some people are born with a psychic &quot;gift&quot; <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/false-nostradamus-prophecies/mike-rothschild">that usually has little return</a>. Because of this, it&#39;s actually a rather notable occurrence when your clairvoyant pulls through. Given the rarity of the &quot;gift,&quot; it stands to reason that <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/13-simpsons-jokes-that-actually-came-true/robert-wabash">the most unexpected mediums can surprise you&nbsp;with some quality predictions</a>.

If you went to an accurate psychic, what would you want to know? Is it when you&#39;ll pass? The winning lottery numbers? If <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/love-tarot-cards/samantha-dillinger" target="_blank">your spouse is cheating</a> on you? Who wins the game of thrones? The people here, all from <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/yohnx/were_all_sceptics_here_but_tell_us_have_you_ever/">Reddit</a>, disclose&nbsp;predictions from psychics who truly knew their future.&nbsp;

People Reveal Times Psychics Actually Predicted Their Future

Amanda Sedlak-Hevener

Fun and horrifying facts many weird, gross, and excruciatingly painful things that can happen to you & your body in your final moments.

Terrible Ways to Go

Science

Every year,&nbsp;we hear about some pour soul dying in the mass of shoppers on Black Friday. <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/worst-human-stampedes-092415/mike-rothschild">Death by human stampede</a> isn't the most common way to go, but it definitely is one of the most&nbsp;horrifying. But what causes human stampedes, and why do you die in a stampede rather than being helped or picked up by others? The answers will rock&nbsp;your faith in human goodness to the core.Dying in a stampede of people seems impossible. After all, these are your fellow human beings, how could they crush someone to death under their feet and not notice? People who wonder this may never have asked &quot;what is a crowd crush,&quot; and probably haven't seen it for themselves.&nbsp;If you're one of those people still wondering what happens when you die in a stampede of crazed humans, the truth is downright grisly. Be warned: the descriptions here are not for the weak of stomach.

What Happens To Your Body When You Die In A Human Stampede

Lists of bizarre real headlines and 100% true actual news stories from the physical world in which we all really live that are stranger, scarier, and more depressing than any fiction writer could ever dream.

Unbelievable News

Lists about famous twins, twins in film, twin studies, identical twins, fraternal twins, twin names, and other twin stuff.

#Twinning

True Stories

There are numerous cases of twins separated at birth, with siblings being adopted by different families and having little or no knowledge that the other exists. While laws have ensured that twins are no longer adopted by different families, numerous sets of identical and non-identical twins ended up in different homes - many because of a controversial New York study that allowed researchers to separate twins that were in the process of adoption.This study generated so much controversy when it became public that the results were embargoed until 2066, and many states banned the separation of adopted twins. Many other twins were separated due to world events, such as war, or cultural difficulties. In some cases, they found each other quite quickly because of social media, and in others, it took decades of one or both siblings knowing something was off about their upbringing, and there was someone out there just like them.A few of these stories have taken turns for the bizarre, such as the twins separated in the 1930s with one ending up raised Jewish, and the other being forced to join the Hitler Youth. Then there are the poor souls who met, fell in love and married - never knowing they were actually separated twins.Read on to learn more about these fascinating stories of twins being separated at birth, only to rediscover their other half later in life.

15 Stories of Twins Who Were Separated at Birth

Twins Separated at Birth: List of True Stories of Twin Reunions

Mike Rothschild

Weird

Located in rural Kentucky is a most interesting and controversial museum&nbsp;called the Creation Museum. It was founded by Young Earth supporter and Evangelical minister&nbsp;Ken Hamm. If you&#39;ve ever visited a natural history museum, you&#39;ll find the Creation Museum quite different from that experience &ndash;&nbsp;in fact, you&#39;ll&nbsp;see the some of the most unbelievable attractions at the Creation Museum. The museum is designed to encourage the Evangelical faithful&nbsp;to accept the Bible in the most literal sense without involving science, as&nbsp;a&nbsp;majority of Christian institutions do not support the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/notable-things-that-creationists-believe/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">notable creationist beliefs</a>.

As with the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/cabazon-dinosaurs-creationist-museum/crystal-brackett" target="_blank">Cabazon Dinosaurs in California</a>, creationists&nbsp;use the Creation Museum both explicitly and implicitly to attempt to convert those who believe in the theory of evolution. It is one of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-museums-in-the-world" target="_blank">best museums in the world</a>&nbsp;to visit, as it is guaranteed to shock you, make you laugh, or even upset you. Take a look below and vote up the craziest things the museum displays as truth, from how the Earth was formed to how dinosaurs were man&#39;s best friend.&nbsp;

The Most Unbelievable Attractions At The Creation Museum

The Most  Unbelievable Attractions at the Creation Museum

Cheryl Adams Richkoff

The fascinating, sometimes tragic lives of identical twins joined in utero who beat the odds, survived infancy, and became people of interest around the world.

Conjoined for Life

Throughout history, conjoined twins have fascinated people around the world. Mainly, people want to know what it&#39;s like being a conjoined twin. Most people can&#39;t imagine what it&#39;s like living day in,&nbsp;day out, attached to your sibling.&nbsp;Most of us can barely stand being around our brothers and sisters for more than a couple days;&nbsp;how do these extraordinary individuals live their entire lives literally attached at the hip... or waist, or head?

While conjoined twins were introduced to pop culture mostly through&nbsp;&quot;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/human-attractions-pt-barnum-freak-show/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">freak&nbsp;shows</a>,&quot;&nbsp;conjoined twins today lead relatively normal lives. So, if you have questions&nbsp;about what it&#39;s&nbsp;like living attached to a sibling -&nbsp;and what that can mean for someone&#39;s&nbsp;physical, mental, and emotional well-being -&nbsp;you&#39;re in the right place.

Real Answers To Questions You've Always Had About Conjoined Twins

Katia Kleyman

Lists about the gazillions of things spinning around the whole infinite universe.

Space: The Final Frontier

Space

In 1997, NASA launched the Cassini-Huygens&nbsp;spacecraft to explore and photograph the mysterious planet Saturn. And 20 years later, NASA&nbsp;released high-resolution photos of exactly what the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/new-horizons-discoveries/stacie-hougland">unmanned spaceship was able to see</a>.&nbsp;

Researchers at NASA and the European Space Agency teamed up to design Cassini-Huygens in the 1980s. Named after astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens, the spacecraft was designed to not only photograph the planet, but also to collect data from it and its 62 moons. These latest photos came from Cassini-Huygens&#39;s&nbsp;final phase - called the Grand Finale - which started in April 2017. On September 15, 2017,&nbsp;Cassini&#39;s mission came to a close, and it burned&nbsp;up in Saturn&#39;s upper atmosphere.

The 16 Most Gorgeous Pictures Cassini Took Of Saturn Before Dying In Her Atmosphere

16 New Pictures of Saturn That Are Simply Breathtaking

Kate Jacobson

Lists about your head, shoulders, knees, toes, ligaments, veins, muscles, bones, and all the other visible features and hidden viscera that make up your very own unique body.

Body Parts

Human Body

What&#39;s the purpose of male nipples? This question has probably been asked by every man and woman who has ever lived. Are they <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/vestigial-organs/laura-allan">vestigial</a>? Did men nurse babies at some point? The very existence of male nipples raises a ton of mystifying questions. But in reality, science is well aware of the numerous reasons for why male nipples exist, and the answers are refreshingly straightforward.&nbsp;

For one thing, humans have a lot of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/reasons-for-weird-human-body-parts/katherine-ripley">body parts that just don&#39;t seem to make a lot of sense</a>. The appendix, pinkie toes, wisdom teeth - they all seem somewhat random. Male nipples aren&#39;t all that different, though they are probably the most noticeable&nbsp;bodily outliers. And yes, they are&nbsp;there for more reasons than to just to add some visual interest to the male chest.

Why men have nipples is a fascinating conundrum. The short answer to the question of &quot;why do guys have nipples?&quot; is that all fetuses begin as female, and develop certain female characteristics. The long answer involves testosterone, natural selection, and body chemistry.

Why Do Men Have Nipples?

12 Scientific Reasons Why Men Have Nipples

Lists about the infinite expanses of space and time. Read up to open your mind so wide, it explodes.

Theories of the Universe

Time&nbsp;impacts every aspect of our lives. Yet, despite our seemingly intimate relationship with time, many would be hard-pressed to define it. So, exactly what is time?For millennia, philosophers and scientists have proposed and argued theories about time, but very few have resulted in any kind of consensus. And while there still remains no complete definition, in its strictest sense, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time">time is a unit of measure</a>. We use it to describe an event, or the duration of or between them. This is true both in everyday matters, as well as in&nbsp;mathematics. Colloquially, we might say something like “time marches on” when speaking about life’s forward movement, while physicists&nbsp;would characterize this perceived experience as the “arrow of time.”Beyond time’s symptomatic effects, however, the true essence of the phenomenon remains controversial and mysterious. While physicists can use units of time within their equations, questions such as &quot;How does time work?&quot;&nbsp;continue to confound the scientific community. Indeed, as the superficial layers of time get pulled back, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/most-widely-misunderstood-scientific-concepts/bruce-maisy">common sense and intuitive ideas are challenged</a>, making it difficult to talk about the existential without flirting with something more metaphysical. As a result, the riddle of time has actually led some philosophers and scientists to rethink the entire model of our universe.In that spirit, let’s explore <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-widely-misunderstood-scientific-concepts/bruce-maisy?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">some scientific theories</a> about time that challenge our own views about reality.

Scientific Theories And Facts That Prove Time Is Way Weirder Than You Think

14 Scientific Theories That Prove Time Is Way Weirder Than You Think

Bruce Maisy

To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub, For what if someone (or something) terrible is waiting inside your closet, or lying under your bed, or kneeling on your chest?

While You Were Sleeping

Sleep

Sleep is a realm of mysterious occurrences, many of which are still unexplained. Weird things that happen when you sleep can run the gamut from scary to funny to just plain bizarre. When nighttime fears give way to recurring dreams and evil jinns&nbsp;(or <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-night-hag-facts/jen-jeffers" target="_blank">scary night hags</a>) who sit on your chest throughout the night, you know you’re in for a wild ride.Were you aware of the fact that some sleep behaviors shed light on daytime habits like smoking and anxiety? Did you know that a vast portion of the general population talks in their sleep? Do you ever wake up kicking, urinating, or feeling like you just got punched in the face? If so, the good news is that&nbsp;you’re not alone. The bad news is that we’re all alone once REM sleep sets in. To make matters that much worse, most of us are paralyzed in sleep.Some things that happen at night have strange scientific or spooky paranormal explanations. Here’s a look at dreamland from a scientific perspective with weird sleep facts that are guaranteed to keep you up at night.

12 Strange Sleep Phenomena And Why They Occur

Cynthia Griffith

Lists about the squishy ball of noodles inside your skull, how it works, things we think it does, and ways it affects your life all day, every day.

What's on Your Mind

Human memory capacity is pretty amazing, but don't fall into the trap of&nbsp;thinking you can rely on it all&nbsp;the time. It turns out that our brains can play tricks on us, and there are lots of reasons why you can't trust your own memory. From our inability to lodge colors into the old memory bank to our tendency to remember positive things and forget negative ones, we have memories that are more like rose-tinted biopics&nbsp;than gritty documentaries.&nbsp;In fact, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-examples-of-the-mandela-effect/elle-tharp">thousands of people who don't even know each other are capable of having the exact same false memory of something</a>.Read on for reasons why you should never trust your own memory. And write them down so you don't forget.

12 Reasons You Should Never Trust Your Own Memory

Cristina Sanza

Lists about the many kinds of so-called "acts of God" and how they affect their surroundings. 

Forces Majeure

Natural Disasters

Life is good at dying, and there have been multiple periods in the timeline of Earth’s history where life was nearly obliterated for good. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/extinction-biology">Extinction</a> is a natural phenomenon in which all members of a species completely die off, and <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/mass-extinction/">mass extinction</a>&nbsp;events are some of the most dramatic happenings on Earth. Abrupt shifts in the environment can turn entire ecosystems on their heads, and whole families of animals can disappear in a geologic milli-second&nbsp;(which is why people should kind of, sort of care about <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/ecological-impacts-of-the-extinction-of-endangered-animals/cynthia-griffith">critically endangered species</a>).&nbsp;Some threats came from outer space, like the violent meteor extinction of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/dinosaur-myths-that-arent-true/ranker-science">dinosaurs</a>. Others, like the Holocene extinction, are caused by forces a little closer to home. Volcanoes, meteors, invasive species, climate change, and a host of other things can all trigger an extinction event, and there’s nothing to stop another one from happening. If we want to avoid a repeat of any of these calamitous events in our lifetimes, it may be wise to look at the history of mass extinctions and the devastation they bring with them.

10 Extinction Events That Nearly Wiped Out Life For Good

Eric Luis

People love to drop <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-albert-einstein/stephanroget">Albert Einstein</a>'s theory of relativity into conversation, whether they're discussing the latest Hollywood blockbuster or just <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/hipsters-trying-too-hard/amylindorff?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">trying to look</a> smart. But what is the theory of relativity? You may know that it involves gravity pulling objects and some possible time dilation, but probably don't know that it is a whole new way of describing reality itself. You may take for granted that you have to meet a friend for breakfast at your favorite place at ten in the morning, but without the forces outlined in the general theory of relativity you would meet at a completely different place at a different time.First published in 1915, Einstein's theory of relativity managed to solve problems physicists and astronomers had been grappling with for centuries. It's revealed&nbsp;secrets about <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-happens-to-your-body-in-a-black-hole/bruce-maisy">black holes</a>, planetary orbits, and space travel. And as you learn more facts about the theory of relativity and spacetime, you'll discover just how mind-blowing it is.

12 Beyond Fascinating Facts About The Theory Of Relativity

12 Things Everyone Should Know About the Theory Of Relativity?

Aaron Edwards

Psychology

What is synesthesia? How does it affect&nbsp;the brain? What causes it? Synesthesia&nbsp;is a&nbsp;fascinating neurological condition, but researchers still don't know much about it. People with synesthesia experience cross&nbsp;stimulation when one sensory or cognitive pathway&nbsp;leads to an involuntary sensation to another. To put it simply, people with synesthesia can&nbsp;taste sounds or hear colors.A person might listen to their favorite&nbsp;band and automatically taste popcorn, or always see a certain letter in a particular color. It's both incredibly wonderful and completely baffling. Everyone with synesthesia (known as synesthetes)&nbsp;experience things differently. Some will swear that the number two is blue, while others insist that the number two is obviously green. Scientists have documented many&nbsp;different examples of fascinating connections people with different kinds of synesthesia will make. But as&nbsp;interesting facts about synesthesia&nbsp;prove, part of its allure lies in its mystery.

Colorful Facts You Should Know About Synesthesia

16 Colorful Facts You Should Know About Synesthesia

Jacoby Bancroft

Lists about all types of good boys and girls for the people who want to pet every single one of them.

Must Love Dogs

Dogs

We may think of dogs as <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/friendly-dog-breeds-that-are-good-with-kids/reference">man's best friend</a> (or our <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-pet-strollers/ranker-shopping">little fur babies</a>), but what do dogs think about&nbsp;us? Humanity may never fully know,&nbsp;but we are&nbsp;closer to an answer thanks to dog brain scan studies. In examining dogs' brains, scientists are discovering&nbsp;how&nbsp;our canine companions' brains work and how dogs think. In fact, some of the facts we've learned about dog brains show us they're more like people than once thought.Scientists have specially trained canines to enter and stay&nbsp;in a&nbsp;fMRI machine - complete with headphones to protect their sensitive ears - to study what happens inside a dog's brain. The results of the brain scans are intriguing, providing evidence that dogs are complex and emotional creatures, something <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/joys-of-dog-ownership/ashley-reign">most dog owners probably knew</a> all along. A dog’s happy or guilty-looking expression may not mean exactly what you think, but humans are finally closer to resolving the question, &quot;How do dog brains work?&quot;&nbsp;

16 Things We've Learned From Scanning Dog Brains

Things We've Learned From Scanning Dog Brains

Erin McCann

Weirdly Interesting lists at Ranker - the ultimate source for lists and rankings in all categories