I'm insane! Ask me a question! (Or six, or seven!)

[Edwardo Piet]

Yes, you have to try to not seem insane. But seeming insane and being insane are two different things.

Ok, my next question. Why, if you're not trying to be insane, do you normally seem at least quite a bit more sane than on this thread?

And yes I am insane. I've got the medication to prove it lol.

EvF

[Violet]

Yes, you have to try to not seem insane. But seeming insane and being insane are two different things.

This is true

Ok, my next question. Why, if you're not trying to be insane, do you normally seem at least quite a bit more sane than on this thread?

It's not me, it's just you

And yes I am insane. I've got the medication to prove it lol.

EvF

Medication doesn't mean you are insane. It just means you had a short spurt of it

[Rhizomorph13]

Hamburger?

[Edwardo Piet]

It's not me, it's just you

Sure it is...(!)

For all you Americans who don't get Sarcasm... I will finish the above sentence with: NOT!

Medication doesn't mean you are insane. It just means you had a short spurt of it

I'm still on the medication..... if I had a bigger 'spurt' it would just mean I'd need even more. It's still more evidence of my insanity than you have of yours :p

I actually really believed I was God, Jesus, Satan, the only person alive, someone mistaken for a terrorist, an alien, and basically any thought that popped into my head I believed. I had multiple delusions for 8 weeks. I even mentioned how I'd created the Disney movie 'The Lion King' and my bro, who, unlike me, was not insane at the time - jokingly asked me what my inspiration for Simba was lol (as in, the creation of the character).

I was pure actually completely totally and absolutely fucked up insane. I was put on 600 mg of lithium, which was increased to 800mg because it was having no effect, and I was also put on an anti-psychotic and a sleeping pill. I ran around the hospital ward for 7 weeks like a madman (the madman that I really was), and up to the last week I gradually got slightly less insane and gradually got better and then was let out after the 8th week but was still on meds and I still am now.

Ok, another question: Do you honestly think you're more insane than that? (and if so, you're weird for thinking that, but that's it weird, not actually insane as in clinically, seriously insane. Unless you can provide the evidence of course ).

EvF

[Caecilian]

Having spent quite a few years working in the mental health system, I've come across a lot of people who actually were insane.

What do I mean by this? What is insanity, anyway?

Well, in my view sanity/ insanity is a matter of 2 things: to what degree you see reality as it is, and to what degree your bizarre/ delusional beliefs and/or experiences (if any) impinge on your ability to function. 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.

So...

Saerules: You're a deeply weird person, and that should be taken as a compliment. But I see no evidence that you're actually crazy. Quite the opposite, really.

EvF: The fact that you're on medication means that you may have once been insane. It doesn't mean that you're insane now, or indeed that you'll ever be insane again, as long as you continue to follow medical advice. Your posts reveal you to be a rational, painfully honest, and very intelligent human being. Crazy you ain't.

EDIT: Have just read your last post (posted while I was writing). You definitely used to be insane. But you definitely aren't insane any more.

Now if you if want to meet some really crazy people, who are truly out of touch with reality and thoroughly fucked up by their delusional worldview, go visit a fundie website.

[Violet]

Hamburger?

Indeed, i think so too

Colloquially, insane mean's "weird, quirky, bizarre, atypical, eccientric" If i was the literal definition of insane (well, it's roots are "not"-"healthy", but moving on to what you mean), then I would hardly be posting anything comprehendible

I definitely did not mean the common working definition (the one denoting mental health). Silly people trying to pin common definitions on what I say

[Edwardo Piet]

Aha! So I am (or at least to be) more truly insane than you! I win

Thank you very much for your truly awesome and awesomly true post Caeclian, the fact that you worked in mental health also makes me respect you some more because a lot of people are very ignorant about it (including myself before I got ill).

I was insane, I don't know if I ever will be again.

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:

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.

Sae, another question then. What is your favourite drink?

EvF

[Darwinian]

Wat vraag sou jy jouself te bewys dat jy is stapelgek en watter antwoord sou jy verwag?

[Autumnlicious]

Was fuer eine Antwort erwarten Sie auf die Frage vom Realitaet?

[Caecilian]

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:

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.