British researchers are embarking on what they're calling the world's first study of chronic deja vu, a condition where people can recite details of situations or people they've never before encountered.
One retired electrical engineer who complained to his family doctor that he had an awful sensation of deja vu was told to go to a memory clinic.
"He said, 'Well there's no point. I've already been before', " says Dr. Chris Moulin, a psychologist and memory researcher at the University of Leeds.
Except he hadn't.
Another woman stopped playing tennis in the firm, but mistaken, belief she was playing the same rallies over and over again.
Another man insisted he'd already been to his friend's funeral.
The phenomenon, which may affect one in 200 people with memory problems, is unlike the fleeting, eerie feeling people get from time to time that they've experienced something before, and that they know what's going to happen next.
Instead, chronic deja vu sufferers are constantly overcome by the sensation something new has happened before. Depression is common, and some sufferers are initially misdiagnosed with epilepsy or labelled "delusional" and put on anti-psychotic drugs.
Why should I have to keep repeating myself to my readers?
Source: Ottawa Citizen
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