Human/Vampire Relations is a Subsidiary of:
The Undead
Research led by D.J. Williams, director of social work at Idaho State University, indicated that people who identify themselves as ‘real’ vampires – that is, needing others’ blood to gain energy – would not disclose their practices to those in the helping professions and risk reactions like ridicule, disgust and possible diagnosis of a mental illness.”
“Newstweek,” in a short piece headlined “Real Vampires Exist – and They Need Counseling Too,” framed the topic as about “how one self-identifies,” comparing the social stigma of coming out as a vampire with coming out as transgendered.
Can modern culture with our grow acceptance of alternative lifestyles allow Vamps to co-exist peacefully among us? Why not... so lets weigh the health factors: Many animals suck blood, including leeches, vampire bats and female mosquitoes. Humans, however, cannot drink blood safely for several reasons including the risk of blood-borne pathogens and iron toxicity: humans, unlike true vampires, have no way of preventing the iron-rich blood from causing a life-threatening condition called hemochromatosis.
Other self identified vampires
claim to drain not blood, but some sort of psychic energy or life-force from others; since these energies have not been proven to exist and are unknown to science, doctors don’t worry about that kind of vampirism.
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Clinical Vampirism
There are many people who genuinely believe themselves to be werewolves and vampires. Clinical lycanthropy is a recognized medical condition in which a person believes himself or herself to be another animal, typically a wolf or canine.
Self-Claimed Vampire-Werewolf Accused of Murder
A German man named Peter Stump (or Stubbe; spellings vary) claimed in 1589 that a belt of wolfskin he owned allowed him to change into a wolf. He said that when he changed form, his teeth and hair would grow and he had a desire for human blood. Stump confessed to killing at least a dozen people while in the form of a wolf; there was no real evidence that he could actually turn into a wolf, of course, and it’s clear he was mentally ill. He was found guilty of murder and decapitated on Halloween of that year.
Though Stump’s case is an extreme example, he’s not alone. In 2011, for example, a 19-year-old Texas man named Lyle Monroe Bensley broke into a woman’s apartment and bit her neck.
