Psychosis - another reason to be anti-theist

[watchamadoodle]

I also knew a schizophrenic guy who had (I'm guessing) about a 160 IQ. Talk about challenging assumptions.

A coworker who told me that when he was a police officer, he was told about a homeless person in our area who was actually a millionaire. This homeless person had some tragedy in his life and just started wandering the streets.

My sister used to volunteer distributing donuts every week to homeless. She told me about one homeless man in particular who was very intelligent, well educated, charming, etc. He had spent many years in the Navy before something caused him to become homeless.

There is another guy I often see who always wears shorts and a T-shirt - even when it's winter time. My mother said she saw somebody give him a blanket for warmth, but he just looked at it confused and rolled it up under his arm. Another guy used to jog down the median every day pointing at the sky. He would kneel and cross himself at every stop light. My sister in law offered him a ride once, and he said "I'm just that crazy guy. I don't need a ride, but thanks anyway."

It's a shame that these people are homeless. They seem like good people. aside from their problems.

[Spooky]

Fantasy is usually dangerous after a certain point.

[Losty]

Anyone can be psychotic if they have a mental illness, religious, atheist or whoever, sounds silly to me.

As always, P'slice, the point goes right over your head. I have no idea whether mental illness is more prevalent in religious people, atheists, or if it's mostly even. You could probably look up up some studies and find out. That's not the point though. Psychosis is a mental illness that should be treated. When a religious person has it they're more likely to attribute the voices in their heads to god and not seek medical treatment. That can have a negative effect on themselves and those around them and can prove to be very dangerous in extreme cases. Do you think god really tells religious mothers to murder their children? Or do you think religious mothers with mental illnesses attributed their illness to god? And if it's the latter do you think everyone involved would have been better off had the mothers gotten real treatment for their illness, rather than gone to church and praised <insert deity here> for choosing to speak to them? I'm looking forward to another ridiculous response.

[bennyboy]

I also knew a schizophrenic guy who had (I'm guessing) about a 160 IQ. Talk about challenging assumptions.

A coworker who told me that when he was a police officer, he was told about a homeless person in our area who was actually a millionaire. This homeless person had some tragedy in his life and just started wandering the streets.

My sister used to volunteer distributing donuts every week to homeless. She told me about one homeless man in particular who was very intelligent, well educated, charming, etc. He had spent many years in the Navy before something caused him to become homeless.

There is another guy I often see who always wears shorts and a T-shirt - even when it's winter time. My mother said she saw somebody give him a blanket for warmth, but he just looked at it confused and rolled it up under his arm. Another guy used to jog down the median every day pointing at the sky. He would kneel and cross himself at every stop light. My sister in law offered him a ride once, and he said "I'm just that crazy guy. I don't need a ride, but thanks anyway."

It's a shame that these people are homeless. They seem like good people. aside from their problems.

I'm not so sure that it's so much a problem for some of them as for us. Nothing pisses normal people off like someone who doesn't want to live their life eating, shitting and making babies.

When I was a kid I used to meditate, fast, do drugs. . . whatever to explore myself. I'd walk 10 miles barefoot just to enjoy the soothing feeling of walking on a cool beach. I'd spend the night on the beach, freezing my ass off, even though my hotel room was a 10-minute walk away. . . just to see what it really meant to appreciate the sun when it rose.

Now, I'm making money. My wife is hot (to me at least), my kids are coming along okay. But it's a rare week when I don't wish I could kick of my shoes and walk off into the horizon. Ask my in-laws, and that kind of talk is stark raving insanity. But that's just because I wouldn't be acting the way they want me to.

[watchamadoodle]

Psychosis is a mental illness that should be treated. When a religious person has it they're more likely to attribute the voices in their heads to god and not seek medical treatment. That can have a negative effect on themselves and those around them and can prove to be very dangerous in extreme cases.

Thanks, Losty, I quoted the above, because it is exactly what I was trying to say in the OP, and it is more clear. (My OP was a little confusing and meandering, so I understand how people could easily miss that important point.)

[Losty]

Psychosis is a mental illness that should be treated. When a religious person has it they're more likely to attribute the voices in their heads to god and not seek medical treatment. That can have a negative effect on themselves and those around them and can prove to be very dangerous in extreme cases.

Thanks, Losty, I quoted the above, because it is exactly what I was trying to say in the OP, and it is more clear. (My OP was a little confusing and meandering, so I understand how people could easily miss that important point.)

I thought the OP was well written, then again, I'm crazy. :p

[Angrboda]

I've been thinking a lot about my religious beliefs today. I feel I need to go one of two ways: deeper into my Hindu faith (I've felt there's a certain superficiality to my Hinduism), or I could go the other direction and embrace atheism. Unfortunately I'm stuck, and one of the reasons that I am stuck is because of psychotic delusions which have religious overtones. Since I've been taking anti-psychotic medication for 1-1/2 years, the delusions are less intense, but they still seem "true" to me, even though they're not as strong as they used to be. Unfortunately for me, my religious beliefs and my delusions are entangled, making coming to a clear decision about which way to go very difficult. However, looking back on my past, it has been the psychosis itself which has been the main "harm factor" in my life (to address the OP). Yes, my psychosis does have an effect on my religious beliefs, but it's not that my religious beliefs cloaked my psychosis, and the psychosis has always been a problem in and of itself. I don't know if things would have been different in a fundamentalist sect with these delusions, but I doubt it. We talk about religious people being 'deluded', but that's just a figure of speech. Real psychotic delusions are a different beast. They tend to be fixed around specific themes, and I doubt that a truly ill person would not stand out from the rest as being what they are, mentally ill. So I think in a very few cases, religion might cloak mental illness, but not many. If anything, an anti-medicine religious stance is more likely to be problematic for the mentally ill religious person, but that's the case whether the illness is mental or physical. So, no, I don't think religion likely contributes a great deal to the problems that a psychotic individual faces in the majority of circumstances. But that's based on my own experience, and another person's experience might differ.

[watchamadoodle]

I've been thinking a lot about my religious beliefs today. I feel I need to go one of two ways: deeper into my Hindu faith (I've felt there's a certain superficiality to my Hinduism), or I could go the other direction and embrace atheism. Unfortunately I'm stuck, and one of the reasons that I am stuck is because of psychotic delusions which have religious overtones.

I felt the same way the last several years. Intellectually, I accepted atheism, and I accepted that my religious experiences were psychosis, but I also knew that I wasn't really an atheist. I knew that atheism was just a lie that I told myself, because I couldn't cope with woo. Then a few months ago, I was forced to test one of my key delusions, and it failed the test. Then - poof - all my delusions vanished at once, and I was finally an atheist. Intellectually I know that woo is possible, but it doesn't matter to me now.

However, just a few nights ago, I started reading about Gnosticism in Ehrman's "Early Christianities", and I could feel my old woo-delusions returning. I suspect that if I tried to learn and practice Gnosticism, then I might become delusional again.

So I would suggest atheism instead of Hinduism - even though it's hard to be an atheist. (Of course that is just my opinion. Everybody is different. )

[psychoslice]

Anyone can be psychotic if they have a mental illness, religious, atheist or whoever, sounds silly to me.

As always, P'slice, the point goes right over your head. I have no idea whether mental illness is more prevalent in religious people, atheists, or if it's mostly even. You could probably look up up some studies and find out. That's not the point though. Psychosis is a mental illness that should be treated. When a religious person has it they're more likely to attribute the voices in their heads to god and not seek medical treatment. That can have a negative effect on themselves and those around them and can prove to be very dangerous in extreme cases. Do you think god really tells religious mothers to murder their children? Or do you think religious mothers with mental illnesses attributed their illness to god? And if it's the latter do you think everyone involved would have been better off had the mothers gotten real treatment for their illness, rather than gone to church and praised <insert deity here> for choosing to speak to them? I'm looking forward to another ridiculous response.

I don't have to answer anyone's question to the way they want me to answer, I say what I want to say, and you yourself said plenty from what I said. Also not many churches just pray to god to heal someone who has mental problems, I have schizophrenia and my church never said I should not have proper treatment. All churches pray, but most of them also allow treatment for want ever, of course there are some like the Christian Science, but their idiots.

[Losty]

Leave it to you to miss the point twice, p'slice.