Warren McKinlay - who served in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in Bosnia – lived in a strange "alternate reality" for 18 months after he became convinced he had died in a motorbike smash.
The 35-year-old from Braintree, in Essex, told the Mirror: “I know it sounds utterly bizarre, but I genuinely believed I’d died in the crash, but for some reason my spirit hadn’t moved on.
“I was convinced that I didn’t have to eat, because I was dead I had no need for food anymore. I’d sit for hours in a room refusing to talk to anyone."
Warren was left fighting for life after the accident left him a serious brain injury, ruptured lungs and a broken pelvis and back.
Doctors at Headley Court rehabilitation centre – who treated William following his release from hospital – later diagnosed him with Cotard's Syndrome after he told a therapist he thought he had died in the accident.
William said: “I couldn’t process the fact I had a brain injury – which I now know is actually a symptom of having a brain injury.”
“I knew something desperately wasn’t right but I had no idea what it was, as I’d never been like that before the accident.
"I felt I was literally a dead man walking. It was as if I was a ghost.
Sufferers of Cotard's Syndrome – a neurological condition – believe parts of their body do not exist or in rarer forms, that their whole body has died.
More than 10 years later William has said he no longer believes he is dead but his life has changed.
He added: "I’ve lost the person I was before the accident and I’m someone different now.
“Whilst I no longer believe I died in my accident, I still struggle with the daily challenges of living with a brain injury."
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