@lizzie it varies greatly but generally bad things cause theres literally nothing that can convince you that you're alive and as a result lots of people stop eating. some self harm just to check if there is, in fact, bloodflow like those around them claim and literally do not understand how there is if they've already died. many plan their own funeral which is frankly a level of courtesy i wish regular corpses had too and if all else fails they just go to dig their own graves

im unsure how things like pain work but its a spectrum in any case. half of all patients dont even think that they're dead but rather that they cant die though ironically that results in largely similar symptoms

and yea. tis rather odd especially because by definition its not psychosis or a delusion but rather a hard neurological defect like epilepsy

anyway the way you treat this depends on the cause, in the case of antiviral induced cotards syndrome you just... wait for the antivirals to make their way out but much more interesting is what you do in the case of micro stroke: you zap the bitch. zap the brain to make it get a move on with rewiring itself to account for the damage and just turn a spot slightly to the left into the new "not dead" signal generator