Trope names that reference some sort of sickness, whether real or not.
Not to be confused with Indexitis.
TV Tropes has been diagnosed with the following:
- Aesop Amnesia: Characters learn an important lesson, and then forget it to maintain the status quo.
- Alt-itis: YMMV; players keep creating a new characters to see what odd combinations of skills, abilities and appearances they can discover.
- Asian Cleaver Fever: A character preparing Asian food incorporates knife acrobatics and general theatrics into the process of cooking and serving patrons.
- Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: Trivia; a creator working on a lot of projects at the same time.
- Bedhead-itis: A sick character's illness is indicated by messy hair.
- Beneficial Disease: Diseases with positive effects.
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: The Big Guy is the most likely to die out of the heroic party.
- Bishōnen Jump Syndrome: YMMV; works aimed at guys attempt to appeal to girls by making Pretty Boy male characters.
- The Black Death: A plague which killed many people in history, most notably the 1348-1350 pandemic spanning Europe and Asia.
- Brain Fever: A sickness in the brain caused by shock or stress.
- But Now I Must Go: Also known as Mary Poppins Syndrome; a hero leaves their team of heroes to go somewhere else.
- Bystander Syndrome: People ignore a crisis because they're not personally involved in it.
- Cabin Fever: Going mad from being in an isolated area without outside contact for an extended period.
- Career-Ending Injury: Someone unexpectedly suffers an illness/injury or one they already knew about abruptly worsens, making them unable to pursue their goals or career.
- Cerebus Syndrome: A comedic work shifts towards more dramatic and serious storylines.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A character regularly betrays their allies.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: A character feels the need to help everyone, oftentimes to their own detriment.
- Chronic Villainy: A villain always reverts to evil ways, despite numerous attempts to reform.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: A character disappears from a series/franchise without an in-universe explanation and is nowhere to be seen or mentioned again.
- Colon Cancer: Titles with two or more colons.
- Complacent Gaming Syndrome: YMMV; players select the same character/strategy over and over.
- Convenient Terminal Illness: A character makes a Heroic Sacrifice based on the reasoning that they're going to die soon anyway, typically from terminal illness.
- Cure for Cancer: A miracle cure for a terminal, incurable disease, typically cancer.
- Deceased and Diseased: Zombies and other undead creatures are portrayed as poisonous or filled with disease, and they may spread death wherever they go.
- Default Setting Syndrome: YMMV; the game offers a variety of options, but everyone just picks the defaults.
- Definitely Just a Cold: A character has a serious disease but insists it's nothing.
- Diagnosed by the Audience: YMMV; the audience speculates that a character has a disorder.
- Disappointing Last Level: Formerly "Xen Syndrome"; an otherwise good game has a bad final level.
- Disease Bleach: Prolonged stresses, typically an illness, turn someone's hair white.
- Disease by Any Other Name: A known disease or disorder in modern times is referred to by a different term in the past or in another universe.
- Diseased Name: A character is named after a disease.
- Disease-Prevention Aesop: The moral of the story is about preventing getting sick and/or preventing getting others sick.
- The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Aversion to mentioning a disease by name, typically due to social taboos.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Characters talk with the 'L's and 'R's replaced with 'W's in their words.
- Faking Another Person's Illness: Pretending someone other than oneself is sick.
- Fang Thpeak: A fanged character, often a vampire, has a speech impediment which causes them to mispronounce 'S' as 'TH' or 'SH'.
- Fever Dream Episode: A whole episode is taken through the perspective of someone's fever-induced hallucinations or nightmares.
- Fictional Disability: A character who has some sort of disability that doesn't exist in the real world, often related to fantasy/supernatural elements or more advanced technology.
- Floating Head Syndrome: A generic film poster or DVD cover art that features multiple characters from the shoulders-up.
- "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: A character gains a good trait or loses a bad one, but the changes disappear after some time has passed.
- Food Coma: Falling asleep after eating a big meal.
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Also known as Sudden Wealth Syndrome; a stock plot where a character has a huge and very sudden increase in expendable income, only to waste it all shortly thereafter.
- Footnote Fever: Generous use of footnotes in media that don't usually have them.
- Funny Schizophrenia: Mental illnesses and disorders being Played for Laughs.
- GIS Syndrome: Full name 'Google Image Search Syndrome'; the use of stock images as backgrounds.
- Gold Fever: Characters who come across a trove of gold (or silver, gems, cash or other treasure, but most often yellow gold) will almost inevitably become obsessed over it to the point of near lunacy.
- G-Rated Mental Illness: Kid-friendly depictions of mental illness.
- Green Around the Gills: Nausea depicted in fiction as a character's face turning green.
- Hanahaki Disease: A fictional disease where someone begins coughing up flower petals because they have unrequited feelings for someone.
- Hate Plague: A plot where an unknown force causes characters to become angry and disagreeable with each other.
- Ideal Illness Immunity: A character who is somehow immune to all disease.
- Illness Blanket: Illness is signaled by the character being wrapped in a blanket; does not include instances where the sick character is in bed.
- Incurable Cough of Death: A character with a chronic cough will die by the end of the work.
- Infection Scene: A scene that shows exactly how a person becomes infected with a disease.
- Instant Illness: Diseases in fiction take an unrealistically short time to develop.
- Knight Fever: Useful Notes page on British titles of nobility and honour.
- Late Character Syndrome: A video game party member introduced later than others sees little actual use.
- Leslie Nielsen Syndrome: Trivia; a dramatic actor does comedy, sometimes temporarily.
- Lima Syndrome: An abductor feels sympathy for their captive.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: A child with a terminal disease that can survive anything except the disease itself killing them.
- "London, England" Syndrome: Stating the city and country to avoid confusion with another location of the same name.
- The Mentally Disturbed: Mental illnesses are treated as character flaws instead of the potentially debilitating conditions they really are.
- Merlin Sickness: A character ages in reverse.
- Metallicar Syndrome: A distinctive vehicle is never searched by cops in fiction.
- Methuselah Syndrome: Humans living and staying able-bodied far longer than in real life, with little to no explanation.
- Middle Child Syndrome: If someone is neither the eldest or youngest sibling, they will be The Un-Favourite.
- Missing White Woman Syndrome: The news covers the murder, kidnapping, or disappearance for middle-to-upper class White women and girls more than missing persons from any other class, race, or gender.
- Mistaken for Disease: An inexplicable mishap is incorrectly assumed to be the result of a disease.
- Morning Sickness: Morning nausea as a shorthand or tell for pregnancy.
- Münchausen Syndrome: A psychological disorder that causes people to feign illness for attention and sympathy.
- Music Video Syndrome: Media that are not music videos are cut to resemble music videos.
- Mystical Plague: The Plague created either by magic or divine powers.
- Nausea Fuel: YMMV; scenes and events intentionally made to make the audience want to puke.
- Ocean Madness: Being at sea for extended periods of time can drive a person insane. This may or may not involve drinking seawater.
- Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: The Official Couple is put through Hell for the duration of the plot.
- Only-Child Syndrome: Only children are stereotyped to be lonely, independent, selfish, or spoiled.
- Pac Man Fever: All fictional video games are portrayed as 80s era games.
- Phlegmings: A character is depicted with saliva, phlegm, drool, or some other mucus dangling between their teeth, typically to show that they're a badass, creepy, or furious.
- The Plague: A widespread contagious disease.
- Plague Doctor: The stereotypical outfit of a doctor treating the Plague — an ankle length overcoat, boots, thick gloves, a brim hat and a mask reminiscent of a raven's face, complete with a beak.
- Plaguemaster: A character who intentionally spreads disease, typically having supernatural powers over it.
- Plague of Good Fortune: A character has an amazing series of good things happen to them, despite the fact that they don't want it to.
- Plague Zombie: Zombification is portrayed as an infectious disease in fiction, or is caused by one.
- Playing Sick: Pretending to be sick to avoid something unpleasant.
- Plot-Induced Illness: Illness strikes when it's most convenient for the plot.
- Polka-Dot Disease: A fictional disease that's characterized by having spots somewhere on the body.
- Prone to Vomiting: Someone who throws up a lot.
- Resurrection Sickness: A character has various physical ailments after coming back to life.
- Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: A serious work grows lighter and more comedic as it goes on.
- Samaritan Syndrome: Heroes feel guilty for every time they might have saved someone, but didn't.
- Science-Related Memetic Disorder: A psychological disorder which causes a character to act like a Mad Scientist.
- Scully Syndrome: Skeptical characters come up with convoluted ways to explain away a phenomenon that is blatantly supernatural in nature.
- Sequelitis: YMMV; a franchise or series gets worse with each new installment.
- Sequential Symptom Syndrome: A gag where someone lists the symptoms of a medical condition, and someone else nearby shows them as they're said.
- Share the Sickness: A sick character tries to give their disease to others.
- Sick Episode: A character is sick for one episode.
- Sickness Equals Redness: If a character is sick, typically with a cold, they are portrayed with red noses and/or cheeks.
- Soap Opera Disease: A vaguely-defined, deadly, chronic disease commonly seen in soap operas.
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: A child character is suddenly older without explanation.
- Somethingitis: Using the suffix '-itis' as shorthand for disease or problem.
- Space Madness: Being in space for extended periods of time can drive a person insane.
- Special Snowflake Syndrome: An RPG or other character is created with unusual traits or abilities for the setting, usually out of the player's desire for the character to stand out.
- Spring Cleaning Fever: Cleaning being treated as Serious Business.
- Sterility Plague: For one reason or another, people can't give birth anymore.
- Stockholm Syndrome: Useful Notes page on a proposed psychological condition in which kidnapped victims develop loyalty, sympathy, or affection (sometimes even sexual attraction) for their captor.
- Successful Sibling Syndrome: Someone feels their more successful sibling overshadows them.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: In a setting where Anyone Can Die, a character survives the first installment, only to die early or suddenly in the sequel.
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: A character who was on the good side in the first installment becomes evil early in the next one.
- Synthetic Plague: The Plague is artificially created by humans instead of natural means.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: Bringing an individual "better" than oneself (or the general population) down to their level, usually out of either envy or desire for conformity.
- Teleportation Sickness: Teleportation has unpleasant side effects even when it functions normally.
- Televisually Transmitted Disease: Rare diseases are disproportionately common in fiction.
- Temporal Sickness: Time Travel making someone physically ill.
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: Trivia; an actor mostly known for comedy switches to drama, either permanently or temporarily.
- Trippy Finale Syndrome: The finale of a series takes place in some trippy and abstract realm.
- Trope-Namer Syndrome: Administrivia; editors trying a little too hard to create a new Trope Namer.
- Typhoid Mary: A character carries and spreads a deadly disease without showing symptoms; they may have no idea they have the disease at all and often refuse to accept they have it.
- Victorian Novel Disease: A woman is Delicate and Sickly, and the illness is said to be very serious, if not terminal, but she looks perfectly healthy if a bit pale, and she's generally still physically able.
- Viral Transformation: A transformation that can be spread through a virus and physically changes humans to non-humans.
- The Virus: Something that turns others into itself or into entities subservient to itself.
- Weirdness Censor: Formerly known as Sunnydale Syndrome; the Muggles see supernatural phenomena but refuse to believe they saw it.
- Worf Had the Flu: A much stronger character is defeated during a fight against a lesser character due to an illness or some other handicap.
- Zombie Infectee: A character is infected with The Virus during a Zombie Apocalypse or some related scenario, and tries to hide their condition from their friends.
Perhaps there's a cream for it...
