ask a Pure O sufferer

[Rev. Rye]

I'll give you something interesting to think about. Mental disorders are debilitating and severely impact a person's life quality. And the worst thing you can say to someone who is suffering from one is that their problems are imaginary, or like you did, a sham.

If you're going to insist on debating this, please start a new thread. That sort of discussion isn't for my nerves.

I've taken a few psych classes and there's a general agreement among my teachers that for something to count as mental illness, it needs to have a negative impact on the sufferer's life.

Fun fact: In 1950, James Stewart starred in Harvey, the story of a man who is best friends with a 6 1/2 foot tall rabbit nobody else can see. While this is likely a clear-cut case of a hallucination and attendant delusion, which could very well be sufficient for a schizophrenia diagnosis, it should be noted that throughout the film, he sees nothing unusual about it, and, come to think of it, is so easygoing that he doesn't seem to have any problems with his life at all. When I asked one of my teachers about this, whether or not he would be diagnosed in a real-world setting, she said "probably not."