(May 3, 2010 at 1:45 pm)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote: Just to be pedantic as I am, I know you must know this but I just feel I have to say it I don't know why:
Caecillian Wrote:Really insane people often believe very strange things, usually of a paranoid nature. They also have experiences of things that don't exist (e.g. auditory hallucinations). And because of the strange things that they believe and experience, they are unable to function very well at all.
True, but hallucination certainly isn't required for insanity I reckon. I never experienced one hallucination as far as I know - but I had countless delusions and was so delusional that I certainly classified as insane.
Yeah, you're right of course. Some insane people have delusions, some have hallucinations, and some poor fuckers (quite a few actually) have both.
Re: staying sane
If you've been put on lithium, then I'd assume that you've been diagnosed as bipolar, or perhaps hypomanic (thats bipolar without the depression)- the fact that you had delusions of grandeur but not hallucinations is very consistent with this. The prognosis for bipolar is actually pretty good- there are a large number of bipolar people out there with responsible jobs, families etc who function just fine as long as they take their lithium.
