Why are you all pretending?

[articulett]

Yes Jmonticello, people don't take medications for a lot of reasons... usually it's because they don't feel ill. This is true with bipolar as well. And it seems like the medications are an attempt to control you... you don't trust people, doctors, etc. that suggest that you are ill. I think you are correct jmonticello. To me, it sounds like "classic" schiz. I wonder how you get someone to consider that their mind might be fooling them when it's so very hard to get any kind of believer-- religious or conspiracy theorists or people who believe they astrally travel to consider whether they might be misperceiving or misinterpreting events. Every brain is sure that it cannot be fooled... I like James Randi because he fools you and then shows you how you fooled yourself... I value that... I value knowing he difference between what is real and what is an illusion. I love optical illusions and tricks of the mind and knowing how I can misperceive. I think it's easy to see why people would assume the earth was flat... and why it makes no sense to imagine it as spherical.... and then why it really is spherical and why our perception does not experience it as such.

I am interested in seeing what Brendy discovers. Clearly he/she is intelligent. It sounds like a scary experience. I am interested in your experiences. I'm really glad you posted.

This touched me: There is a stigma associated with mental illness. But with treatment people with he illnesses can become the help for others. Just as former addicts make for he best drug counselers... something about having been in the trenches--

 

[thaiboxerken]

Goodbye Brendy. I could care less about you. You're done. I can only hope that those who care about you can deal with their loss.

 

[articulett]

Yes, Brendy.... I will nice in your head. I hope you keep us apprised of what you find out and what you think. I have no doubt that you believe it is 100% real in your head.

 

[jmontecillo01]

articulett, thanks for the link to the video. I suffer from schiz-affective meaning schiz with depression. As I said, suicide, homelessness, etc is common among people with mental illness. I myself tried to end my life at the early stages of my illness. The stigma is caused by ignorance which I am hoping will, in time, vanish through education.

Brendy, schiz has nothing to do with stupidity. A lot of people we admire comes from a family with a history of mental illness or they themselves has the illness. examples are John Nash, the son of Einstien, and I believe Thomas Jefferson as he claims his watch talks to him and gives him advice (auditory hallucination).

I understand the difficulty of believeing that what you hear are nothing but voices in your head and nothing else. Me myself, even at this point in time still has questions.

One of the first thing I heard a long time ago is "From that little mountain he would come down, with the law that will guide all man's law, that all men are created equal". I am not an American but through research, I found out that the words "all men are created equal" are the opening words in the declaration of independence. The author, Thomas Jefferson whose home was Monticello, Virgina. As I understand it, Monti - mountain, Cello - small.

There are a lot of things that I heard which left questions in my head. So the question now is how many coincedences does it have to take before it stops to be just coincedences.

But what is important is to keep my sanity so I stopped asking questions and live my life in the same manner as I lived my life before I had the illness and to understand that I have to accept that I have an illness so that I can utilize the available methods, like theraphy and medications to avoid relapse.

 

[creativecritter41]

Oh.. and please check YouTube for my emotional video entitled...

"LEAVE.... BRENDY.... ALONE!!!!"

LOL!!

 

[Belz...]

If some good comes out of my whole problem is that it has forced me to do alot of thinking about what the conscious is.

Thanks for caring. If you meet me sometime just be nice in my head, ok?

Seriously, though, you should get some help.

It's easy to be fooled by our own perceptions, but at some point you've got to be skeptical of them when they contradict everybody else's perceptions and commonly accepted physics. Right ?

 

[aggle-rithm]

The stigma is caused by ignorance which I am hoping will, in time, vanish through education.

Just as atheists are the only social group that it is socially acceptable to discriminate against, mental illness seems to be the only handicap that it is socially acceptable to make fun of. Despite all efforts to educate the public, it is still seen as a character flaw rather than an illness, making it permissible to ridicule those who suffer from it.

Behavior that is seen as "funny" in a mentally compromised stranger is quickly recognized as deeply disturbing if seen in a loved one. When my mother had hip replacement surgery a few months ago, she went through a period of several days when she was hallucinating and deluded. Some of the things she said were funny...we are able to laugh about them now...but you couldn't sit with her for long without feeling a sense of panic that her personality might be permanently altered.

(Fortunately, it was just a case of over-medication, which seems to be a problem with elderly patients these days).

 

[Pragmatist]

I don't really know who I am anymore.

Well, I think you're a sockpuppet of Lucianarchy.

Does that help?

 

[godless dave]

Brendy, the symptoms you describe are consistent with schizophrenia. I strongly suggest making an appointment with a doctor and describing what is happening to you.

 

[blutoski]

Try as I may, I can't lay the Tina Resch tragedy at the door of skeptics. William Roll was her champion and was convinced her hoaxing was something supernatural. He was also part of the psychology department IIRC. Perhaps he should have looked at her a bit more skeptically, canned his paranormal bias and sent the girl to a psychiatrist. Also if IIRC, Randi was denied access to the girl when she was brought to Duke.

I didn't mean to imply that skeptics were to blame. On the contrary: the skeptics who were able to provide an informed opinion distinguished themselves by suggesting that if the girl was doing this on purpose, that therapy would be merited.

 

[supercorgi]

Behavior that is seen as "funny" in a mentally compromised stranger is quickly recognized as deeply disturbing if seen in a loved one. When my mother had hip replacement surgery a few months ago, she went through a period of several days when she was hallucinating and deluded. Some of the things she said were funny...we are able to laugh about them now...but you couldn't sit with her for long without feeling a sense of panic that her personality might be permanently altered.

Yes, funny behaviour when viewed from outside but when you get close to it, it's just heartbreaking. I had a friend once - beautiful, brilliant, creative young woman. She was also bipolar. When she'd start to go into a manic phase, she would stop taking her medication because initially, the manic phase felt great. But then it would get bad and she would develop psychosis. She'd start hearing voices and getting odd notions that she could draw power into herself by pressing her fingers on the pyramid on the back of a dollar bill. It was so said because when her condition was stabilized, she was a delight to be around. It was really hard to watch her when she got like that.

 

[Miss Whiplash]

I didn't mean to imply that skeptics were to blame. On the contrary: the skeptics who were able to provide an informed opinion distinguished themselves by suggesting that if the girl was doing this on purpose, that therapy would be merited.

Sorry I misunderstood. You are quite right.

 

[quarky]

This thread reminds me:

Is it not peculiar, the way we categorize people, in semi-discreet units?

Below a certain I.Q. threshold, for instance, it is cruel to pick on someone.
Yet, the not-quite retarded get very little sympathy, and often end up in prison, because they just don't have the smarts to compete these days.

Along comes brendy, who (bless his heart, really) is seriously whacked, and people are walking on eggshells about it.
Whereas, the semi-whacked homeopaths and such, are fair game for a hammering.

I'm not defending any of it..just commenting on the arbitrary nature of our compassion, or lack thereof.
Having spent some time with the mentally ill and mentally retarded, as well as physicly handicapped people, I can say that its possible to call their bluffs without being a dick, and that they mostly appreciate frank interaction.

Its even possible that Brendy should try to read other people's mind, so that he isn't so victomized by believing that they can read his.

Why would he belive that telepathy is real, yet it is a one-way street in his case?

Brendy, if you aren't gone, might you try to explain this?

 

[articulett]

Yes, every troll believes their woo is true... but they come here to preach... they don't imagine they could learn anything from anyone here. Often they are daft. Brendy asked for help. And he's clearly bright. And it's not an ego thing where he's trying to prove that his woo is true to himself life so many who come here to preach. It really IS true in his head... ignorance and faith is pretty hard to fix, but there are increasingly better solutions for mental illness. And unlike the woo who are sure they have something to teach and nothing to learn, Brendy sounds like he could teach us a lot as well as being open to learning. That makes the forum and him and good match.

I read some of the sites jmonticello linked and these people say it's an illness they wouldn't wish on anyone. I agree. Woo beliefs tend to be egotistical... they make the believer feel special, chosen, "in on" secret knowledge. Brendy feels the world "knows" something that he doesn't. He feels "on the outside"-- like everyone else has special knowledge or is "normal" or something. And he is reading and responding to others... when does a woo do that... ?

I think most of us start out nice to woos... until they start that pedantic "I'm skeptic of the skeptics" thing... It's true that many of our woos could also be mentally ill or have a brain problem and not know it... we all could-- and I am known to engage in some pretty rough "woo-liganism"-- But not everybody who sounds "off" is a woo. Skepticgriggsy, for example, has a neurological disorder that affects his communication--but he understands all that is written. I feel bad when people presume he's a woo. And he doesn't know to ask for people to look beyond the words. The same is true of Brendy. I think the site that jmonticello linked was a really good peek into how hard it is to have mental illness or aberrancies. I thought the video I linked was compelling. The woo imagine themselves understood... they already feel "chosen" and "wise". But those in the links just want to feel understood... their brain makes them feel like an outsider... like they aren't "getting something". They can't help being the way they are.

The woo often seem willfully ignorant to me. We only have these words to judge... sometimes I've been harsh only to learn it was a kid online. I don't expect kids to be like me, and I don't think I'd have made a good impression on this forum when I was a teenager either. I think maybe I should be a little more careful.

 

[Miss Whiplash]

Call me jaded. It's hard to for me to embrace the passing sniper on any internet forum. After 18 years, I've seen it all, including serial trolls who pose as someone mentally ill/dying/suicidal/having a chronic disease/ et al. Said troll will then take the honest outpouring of sympathy from a forum, run somewhere else and ridicule those dispensing sincere support. To them it's a game and a source of amusement.

Remember on the internet, we never know exactly who is on the other side of the screen. Those good intentions may be wasted on some bored individual who could care less. I may seem very hard hearted. In fact, I am very hard hearted. Sometimes it pays to get in touch with your inner brick, before dispensing cyber hugs to an anonymous poster.

Just my opinion...

 

[AnotherSillyAlias]

Call me jaded. It's hard to for me to embrace the passing sniper on any internet forum. After 18 years, I've seen it all, including serial trolls who pose as someone mentally ill/dying/suicidal/having a chronic disease/ et al. Said troll will then take the honest outpouring of sympathy from a forum, run somewhere else and ridicule those dispensing sincere support. To them it's a game and a source of amusement.

Remember on the internet, we never know exactly who is on the other side of the screen. Those good intentions may be wasted on some bored individual who could care less. I may seem very hard hearted. In fact, I am very hard hearted. Sometimes it pays to get in touch with your inner brick, before dispensing cyber hugs to an anonymous poster.

Just my opinion...

Sounds like I've travelled a similar road to you. I've been around since the days of posting to a bulletin board via an acoustic coupler, (remember those anyone?), and I think I've pretty much seen it all. I don't mind giving somebody the benefit of the doubt, but that little bit of doubt always remains in my mind. I need to know a person pretty well before I'll fully trust anything I read in a forum.

 

[Miss Whiplash]

Sounds like I've travelled a similar road to you. I've been around since the days of posting to a bulletin board via an acoustic coupler, (remember those anyone?), and I think I've pretty much seen it all. I don't mind giving somebody the benefit of the doubt, but that little bit of doubt always remains in my mind. I need to know a person pretty well before I'll fully trust anything I read in a forum.

Ahh, those acoustic couplers! I once thought those were so high tech. Remember Delphi and Genie?

I once watched one voracious troll dupe people for the better part of the 1990s. Some victims went so far as sending it flowers and trying to travel to see the person. Over the course of the decade the person posed on Usenet as:

A battered wife
Dying of Cancer
Paraplegic
Bi-polar
Threats of suicide
Pregnant
Pregnant and dying
Pregnant and homeless
Having MS
Had MS, pregnant and dying
Depressed and having menopause
Created a sock puppet and said she was dead

And so it went. All the time the person was laughing at the "dumb people" offering him/her genuine support. It was sad someone got their jollies abusing good natured people who were kind to a stranger.

 

[Pup]

This thread reminds me:

Is it not peculiar, the way we categorize people, in semi-discreet units?

I was thinking the same thing, especially when reading Dancing David's post:

perhaps they should read more Fred Frese as well.
Especially the part where he carries a card that read
"I am living with an emotional cognitive disability. Your expression of hostility and current behavior is making my symptoms worse. please stop."

What I wouldn't have given to have a card like that to hand to my father, that would have actually worked, so he'd stop his endless ranting at me when I was a child. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and I was "normal" then, but thanks to years of living with him before I was old enough to leave home, I've had a lifetime of post-traumatic stress disorder to cope with.

So who in that situation was the person needing compassion? Who was the perpetrator and who the innocent victim? Now, thirty-some years later, if a schizophrenic's rant triggered me, who would hand the card to who? Who would be responsible for controlling his behavior at all costs and exercising compassion toward the other?

As much as I'd like to believe in a compassionate world, where begging politely for relief would get results, my experience has led me to believe that life just doesn't work that way.

 

[DRBUZZ0]

You know I don't know if this person was a troll or not and perhaps (probably) they were, but considering that the alternative possibility is that they came to find this forum because they actually do believe what they say and that they were actually looking for some kind of advice or help or something, then in that case the reception which was given really does not reflect very well on the skeptical movement's receptiveness to those who inquire about something nor does it reflect well on the foundation membership. Granted this is an open forum and not controlled by the JREF but it's still something associated with it.

It would be one thing if it were somebody who came and started to pick fights. However, assuming this person is what they make themselves out to be (which they very well may not be), then I'm not sure how very many here can state that they actually have any desire to spread the message of skepticism or to encourage critical thinking and solving problems with logic. Rather, the immediate writing off of this individual and complete lack of believing from the getgo is entirely in line with the cynical/angry/mean spirited image that skeptics are often portrayed with by detractors.

Good job.

 

[nzric]

, the immediate writing off of this individual and complete lack of believing from the getgo is entirely in line with the cynical/angry/mean spirited image that skeptics are often portrayed with by detractors.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Brendy. Take the test. If you're 100% positive of telepathy then of course you'll pass. Everyone in JREF will sincerely congratulate you and apologise for their doubts, and you and the friend in your head can enjoy the $1,000,000.