Life Desk :
There hasn’t been enough research on why more women than men are vulnerable to this pathological disorder, but tentative studies point to hormonal fluctuations as the culprit. The trigger is usually a lack of self-esteem, the search for an escape route from abuse suffered in childhood and an acute sense of loneliness. “It is commonly observed in people who are chronically depressed, intensely reclusive or bi-polar in nature,” says Dr Hingorrany.
“The delusion builds an alternative reality where the object of your affection desires you as intensely,” she adds.
All in the mind
At the heart of the disorder is the most basic human need-the need to be loved. “I had to gradually guide Radhika through the painful stages of reprocessing her trauma.” In the past, she was physically abused by a domestic help that had led her to seek refuge in an imaginary world. “Being shy, she could not discuss the problem with anyone and started regarding Shah Rukh Khan as a saviour,” she explains. “She felt he could help her out of her problem the way he did with all his heroines. The fondness grew into a disturbing attachment.”
Beat it
Radhika was prescribed antipsychotic drugs to ease the spells of hallucinations, depression and insomnia. She had to hand over all her posters of Shah Rukh and, had to be with friends or family every waking hour. Bangalore-based clinical pyschologist Dr Brinda Amrutraj says, “Depending on the severity, treatment can range from counselling to medication and pyschotherapy.” She admits that symptoms can recur and the obsession may shift to another person. Indeed the line between reality and fantasy is thin, one that our mind crosses every now and then. The trick is to hold on to a compelling reason to find your way back.
Erotomania is also known as de Clerambault’s syndrome, after the French psychiatrist Gaetan Gatian de Clerambault, who wrote an in-depth review on the disorder in 1921.
Actor Shahid Kapoor was recently shadowed by a female admirer, who introduced herself to everyone as his wife, and even landed up at his apartment one morning.
For three years, almost every night, 19 year-old Radhika Mittal* used to step out of her house in Mumbai and walk over to Mannat, the palatial, sea-facing mansion of actor Shah Rukh Khan. Radhika’s parents were used to seeing her bedroom wall covered with Shah Rukh’s posters and they initially ignored their daughter’s dreamy longing as a teenage crush. They didn’t know that Radhika’s midnight wanderings lasted well till the sun came up. But when Radhika started telling everyone around her that Shah Rukh loved her and that the two often met, her parents lost their cool. “Her father used to have bitter showdowns with her,” says Mumbai-based clinical psychologist, Dr Seema Hingoranny, who counselled Radhika for two years. “They didn’t realise that Radhika suffered from erotomania that, in severe cases, can even cause hallucinations, which lead a person to believe that the person she desires is a real presence in her life.”
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