especially when you’re not REALLY on a reality show at all… when it’s all in your mind, man!

“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…

Delusions tend to be classified by broad categories, such as the belief that one is being persecuted, but research has shown culture and technology can also affect them. Several recent studies have chronicled delusions entwined with the Internet such as a patient in Austria who believed she had become a walking webcam.

Reality television may help such patients convince themselves their experiences are plausible, according to the Austrian woman’s psychiatrists, writing in the journal Psychopathology in 2004.” [source: yahoo news]

sure, we all wish we could make the cut for a vh1 reality show or be a real life walking webcam, perhaps these psychos are just trying to bring their dreams and aspirations to life by claiming they’re real. and then they get attention like they wanted all along. so good for them!