A rare condition called déjà vécu has been causing an 80-year-old man to perceive every event in his life as a previous experience, similar to the time loop described in the movie Groundhog Day.

Can you imagine watching TV and seeing the same thing over and over again, or trying to read a new book only to find yourself looking at the same pages you read the day before? How about driving and seeing the same cars behind you every day, or walking past the same people as you’re strolling down the street? It sounds like an eerie experience worthy of shows like The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror, but it’s actually the life of people suffering from an extremely rare condition known as déjà vécu. Believed to be a complication of Alzheimer’s disease, déjà vécu is the persistent impression that any new encounters are just repetitions of previous experiences.

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A Connecticut woman has been accused of stealing over $600,000 from her husband’s bank account over the last 20 years and trying to cover it up by making him think he has Alzheimer’s disease.

Donna Marino was arrested last week for reportedly stealing money in the form of pension checks, workers’ compensation payments, and Social Security income from her husband of 20 years. When the man’s daughter discovered paperwork related to credit cards her father knew nothing about, she notified the police, convinced that her stepmother had taken control of the family finances. It was at that point that the unnamed man admitted to leaving Marino in charge of finances, because she had convinced him that he had Alzheimer’s disease.

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At the outset, the mountainous region of Antioquia in northwestern Colombia comes across as a breathtaking natural paradise. But its picturesque valleys and winding green hills hide a chilling secret –  an unusually large number of young people here suffer from a hereditary form of Alzheimer’s. Several of Antioquia’s residents are at various stages of the disease – right from early signs of memory loss to total dementia.

Early-onset Alzheimer’s is quite similar to the typical form of the disease – it is caused by toxic proteins that destroy brain cells, leading to memory loss and eventually, death. But there is one major difference – the symptoms begin to occur at a frightfully young age, sometimes even before the victim turns 40. It begins with forgetfulness and slowly progresses to disorientation and delusional ideas.

Afflicted with this form of Alzheimer’s, the people of Antioquia often reach the final stage of the disease in their mid-forties. And there’s only one explanation for the bizarre condition – it’s all in the genes. Generations of inbreeding has resulted in the spread of the defective gene in the region for the past 300 years – throughout a widely branched family that now has over 5,000 members. This makes Antioquia home to the world’s largest population of Alzheimer’s sufferers. They are all believed to have inherited the ‘paisa’ mutation, which is a simple genetic defect on Chromosome 14. The mutation is named after the people living in the area, who are known in Colombia as Paisas.

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When American artist William Utermohlen was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1995, he decided to make the best use of his limited time and memory. He began to use his art to understand himself better – for five years, he drew portraits of himself before he completely forgot how to draw.

Through this unique series of self-portraits, viewers can observe the London-based artist’s quiet descent into dementia. As the terrible disease took control of his mind, his world began to tilt and his perspectives flattened. The details in his paintings melted away and they became more abstract. At times, he seemed aware of the technical flaws in his work, but he simply could not figure out how to correct them.

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