Doppelganger Syndrome

The irrational fear that someone you know has been replaced by a polymorphed entity in someway

Look, I'm telling you that they is NOT who they say they are

In a few words of the multiverse, there something called Capgras delusion, a psychiatric disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or another close family member (or pet) has been replaced by an identical impostor. In Easthalen this has been taken up a notch with the use of magic, shapeshifters and so on, so there is some legitimacy to this. However, even when presented with evidence, the person who suffers from Doppelganger Syndrome (DS) will still believe that the subject has been replaced or changed and only they see the truth.

Transmission & Vectors

This is not a condition that can be transmitted as such, but sometimes a copycat type can effect can spring up if the person accused of being copied is famous or reasonably well known.

Causes

So far, only one common thing, apart from the illness itself, unites the various cases of DS and that is seeing someone transformed in some way. It could be a druid, a polymorph spell, a natural shapeshifter and so on. This seems to plant the idea in their minds that people can change or be changed. Not everyone who witnesses a shape change will suffer from DS, but for those who are suscitible, this is what starts it off, the peppble that causes the avalanche.

Symptoms

There are no physical symptoms as such, but those who suffer from DS frequently become paranoid around people, even more so around those they know as the illness progress.

Treatment

Treatment can vary from cases to case, but most treatment plans involve simply time and repeated exposure to the same people, along with very subtle magical healing effects. If this is done too obviously or too quickly, it can set treatment back or as in a few cases, make it worse as it strengthens the self-belief that "they" have got to the healers as well.

Prognosis

If caught early enough, the treatment is, relatively speaking, easy and painless, if time-consuming. Quite often those who have been "cured" will still have a lingering discomfort around shapeshifters of any type.

Prevention

The only known way for someone to not develop this, as opposed to Capgras delusion which doesn't need a "trigger" and can just happen, albeit very rarely, to anyone, is to not be exposed or even know about shapeshifters of any kind.

Type

Mental