To some psychiatric patients, life seems like TV

[Hannah Bell]

NEW YORK – One man showed up at a federal building, asking for release from the reality show he was sure was being made of his life. Another was convinced his every move was secretly being filmed for a TV contest. A third believed everything — the news, his psychiatrists, the drugs they prescribed — was part of a phony, stage-set world with him as the involuntary star, like the 1998 movie "The Truman Show."

Researchers have begun documenting what they dub the "Truman syndrome," a delusion afflicting people who are convinced that their lives are secretly playing out on a reality TV show. Scientists say the disorder underscores the influence pop culture can have on mental conditions.

"The question is really: Is this just a new twist on an old paranoid or grandiose delusion ... or is there sort of a perfect storm of the culture we're in, in which fame holds such high value?" said Dr. Joel Gold, a psychiatrist affiliated with New York's Bellevue Hospital.>>


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081124/ap_on_re_us/truman_syndrome


I've had this sensation, not of "literally" believing i'm on a stage set, but of feeling events were phony/meaningless/unnecessary/senseless - "as if" it were a stage set, a play, all surface.

I don't think it has so much to do with fame having high value though...anyone else?