July 26, 2008

What do YOU think?

"No, they don't. I know when I have problems! But, I am not selfish and absorbed. Part of being mentally messy (and please, no hate mail, you KNOW it's true) is about being selfish. People who are selfish don't really give a crap about self introspection. Therefore they don't know from crazy!"

-- Response to the question Do Crazy People Know They're Crazy? on Yahoo! Answers

We aren't asking specifically about narcissistic personality disorder, Sugar. From what I've read on blogs, those living with a mental illness seem to do quite a lot of self-introspection. How much do you do? And makes you arrive at that conclusion, a bad experience with one person, prehaps?

Ok, Mariah, that's quite enough ranting at the person.

Since, as far as I am able to tell, the majority of the readers of this blog would fall into the "mentally messy" category, what do you think about this opinion? Are the mentally interesting automatically somehow selfish? And are the selfish less self-introspective? If you disagree, what do you think pushed this Answerer to that conclusion?

4 comments:

  1. Just a quick one from me, haven't read the yahoo answers, as my mind (read stomach) is on other things.

    I am, fo sho, "mentally messy" but I wouldn't call myself crazy. To my mind, mental health issues don't equal craziness but *untreated* mental health issue might. At least us mentally messy types are aware of our thoughts and actions etc., realise there might be something wrong or just not quite right and take steps to remedy it. It's the people who think they're *absolutely fine* that you have to worry about, who are in real danger of being crazy. And selfishness doesn't come into it.

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  2. The question is too vague to be able to answer fairly. Firstly there's the question of what is meant by "crazy", and secondly, and more importantly, the question is assuming that the answer for one person is the same as the answer for the next.
    Take schizophrenia for example (which, sadly, is the illness most people think of when presented with the word "crazy"), one person may be well aware of their illness and the symptoms, and another may be in complete denial.
    As for the "selfish" thing, from what I've seen here on the mental most people include "so other people suffering the same issues can see they are not alone" in their reasons for blogging.

    Good post :)

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  3. Interesting... I tried back to see if anyone posted anything new and it appears the question has been deleted.

    I did find the generalization (un-definition?)of "crazy" quite irritating as well- but that's typical Y!A, which is why I don't usually post on there and just read it for amusement when bored.

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  4. Crazy people, or to be proper, people with a mental illness, generally are unaware of their mental illness unless they are high functioning. A low functioning schizophrenia patient would have no idea they are ill, but someone with manageable, but still worrisome, schizophrenia would know they are ill and would seek help. A side note on schizophrenia, I have two sisters diagnosed with the mental illness, both highly functional and really nice people. They know that when they didn't take medication, their mind was a scary place(btw i have their permission to post this). And it's true when people think crazy they think schizophrenia patients. And it's a terrifying illness, especially when they show you what it's like to be inside their head. There is an audio track that they play at seminars to teach people about schizophrenia, and they make you try and talk to someone as you listen to it and the thoughts and words that come out of the track are just what they think and it's rather scary.

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