Why are you all pretending?

[thaiboxerken]

You know I don't know if this person was a troll

I'd have to say that I am 99.9% sure Brendy is a troll based on the fact that he made all of his claims unfalsifiable.

 

[DRBUZZ0]

I'd have to say that I am 99.9% sure Brendy is a troll based on the fact that he made all of his claims unfalsifiable.

Yeah good point. The more I re-read it the more troll it seems.

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

Why are you all pretending?


Because it's exquisitely fun.

Now go fetch me some more lard! Go!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Locknar]

I'd have to say that I am 99.9% sure Brendy is a troll based on the fact that he made all of his claims unfalsifiable.

That is a good way of putting it *lol*; that is what I was trying to get at with the "Mayday like" comment earlier.

 

[Linda777NJ]

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.

Anyone that would spend almost a decade lying about their predicaments and ailments had some real serious issues. Perhaps not the ones they claimed but that person is seriously twisted without a doubt!

 

[tsig]

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...

If it looks like a nail hit it with a hammer.

 

[Dancing David]

Attack the argument, not the arguer. I think Brendy is insincere at best and a troll at worst and said why. You are welcome to refute but really....the "dressing down"?

Of course, perhaps I (and others) have overlooked your vast medical and/or psychological background? Upon review, I think not.

What argument, what data and how do you interpret IT , you know Locknar you made some bold statements about potential diagnosis. And they were just that bold statements made on very little information.

Have you ever talked to someone in the first year of a schizophrenic disease, they show much higher levels of agitation than they do ten years later, they have hyperkinesis, flight of ideas and generaly appear to be manic.

I can review your post but i think you made some bold claims about schizophrenia and perhaps you don't know much about it?

I can pssi along with you if you want, weekly mental health assesments for nine years minus 4 weeks vacation means, 48x9=432 mental health assements, except there were weeks where I did two or three, and then for a year and a half I did aminimum of 15 assements a wekk minus the week off, so that would be 16x3=48x15=720, so add 432+720=1,152. And then there were the weeks I did crisis intervention, we will just loiok athe the ones wehere I was primary (not the back up ones) on average I did 7 crisis assesments during a primarary week, so 16x7=112 crisis asseesment in an ED or the jail.

Is that enough volume of urine for you?

 

[Dancing David]

Obviously, we could have thrown any number of those terms, besides schizophrenia, at poor Brendy. But what would be the point? Not being qualified to make such a diagnosis to begin with, and hoping only to point Brendy in the direction of considering the possibility that medical help might be of benefit, I still don't see the point in bringing all of that up. I don't believe Brendy is open to considering any of that at this time. There are several possibilities, most of which have been considered here - Brendy is trolling, Brendy is in fact being telepathically controlled, or Brendy's perception of being telepathically controlled, hearing negative voices and suicidal ideation are pointing in the direction of Brendy needing to seek medical attention so someone qualified to help can help. I have been leaning toward the latter. Others have been leaning toward the first. None of us believe the second, except Brendy, who posted his claims on a paranormal forum, inviting the comments from the resident skeptics who should not be expected to be able to diagnose him with a mental illness, regardless, and are responding to his claims just the same way they do to the unfounded paranormal claims of others.

Many people ran to a judgement of schizophrenia and then some even argued that there was a trolling by pretending to have schizophrenia , while others were just abusive.

I called them on it, if Brendy is a person with a mental illness, they are wrong for getting thier sport out of it.

 

[Dancing David]

Dancing David, I don't think anyone here has done any actual diagnosing--at least not without urging Brendy to get some help.

In fact, what I've seen mostly is a reluctance to take these things at face value.

If you take Brendy at face value, there are two options: Brendy is delusional and needs some kind of help or Brendy is not delusional and these things are all real. Which would you think is most likely?

Admit it, D.D., you're in the vast conspiracy with the rest of us to pretend that telepathy isn't real, aren't you?

Ooops--I'm not supposed to mention that in an open forum where AmyWilson can see it. Now she's got PROOF!

That does not excuse the abusive behavior. there was a lot of real poop being slung around, and there are people who were claiming that it was schizophrenia and other who were claiming Brendy was faking. others were abusive.

That is what i called them on, and some may have evn made light of suicidal ideation, even better.


If Brendy had been more assertive and pushy than a like response would have been warranted, but abusive behavior is not.

Believe me I like to make fun of woo (especially BeAChooser) as well, but when someone has a major mental illness I tend to be a little more cautios, I tried to talk to the Minister of Truth until they used the 'poor abused vistimstance' and then i let him have it as well.

 

[Dancing David]

DDavid - I'm feeling left out. Pls "shame full" me as I still think Brendy is a troll.

If he's sincere he sounds like he has enough intelligence to know that he won't get any more help by posting stuff about mental telepathy in a skeptic forum. Brendy - if you're actually hearing voices (which I truly doubt), do what many of the posts have been suggesting and get help.

If you want , sigh, I suppose I could , :mutter mutter:
Shame full.




is that better were you one of the ones engaged in schizophrenia diagnosis and certain that they knew what it was enough to make a claim of faking it?

here is the deal people with a major mental illness (or alzheimers) are very good at 'fakining it to making it' they are very very good at covering what they know other people might react to, so usually you have to get to knwo a person and spend a considerable amount of time before you can judge thier symptamology or validity.

 

[Dancing David]

I didn't want to comment in this thread, because I thought Brendy was either 1) a believer/troll or 2) suffering from some kind of mental illness. If 1, then ignoring is the best plan. But if 2, then how to respond? I think DancingDavid is partially right - lay people (like me) shouldn't try diagnosing. But should we at least try to empathize, and say, "Hey man (or woman). I think you have problems. Maybe you should see a psychiatrist." And I am convinced that mocking is almost never helpful.

So... How to respond? I'm not sure. My personal feeling is that Brendy might have mental problems. And I'll say, "Get help". In a nice way.

But DancingDavid, I think you might be a little over-sensitive, and harsh. Condemn the mockers, sure. But how else should we react if Brendy has some mental problem(s)? Ignore? Sympathize/empathize?

Only empathy, never sympathy and not mocking.

I hardly got going on this one, read some of the VTM threads if you want to see me acting crazy and foolish.

Um here is the deal, people are stigmatizing mental illness, why not abuse cancer patients as well, or heart pateints, does that make sense?

Read some of the stuff by E. Fuller Torey Surviving Scizophrenia (while not always biologically accurate it presents the stigma issue rather well), there is also NAMI National Alliance Mental Illness and other groups that talk about stigma of mental illness. Fred Frese at Case Western is good.

yes i over react, especially when people are abusive.

 

[Dancing David]

Not only that, I wax the steps at the old peoples home.

That's a wonderfully big hearted argument and all, but I grant you Brendy will vanish like Mayday, now that Amy Wilson has put in an appearance.

That may well be.

I worked as a case manager for ten years and did crisis line for five of that. I also have been a crisis intervention counselor.

Sometimes things are funny but abusing people with a mental illness is not. Just like when people tell people to go ahead and commit suicide, some things are abusive.

 

[Dancing David]

As is your misspelling of the word "shameful".

the devil made me do it.

 

[Dancing David]

Hiya Caleb.

Two possibilities, trolling or mental illness. Let's cut the crap about telepathy being possible.

I lean toward thinking it's mental illness.

The same response in either case, because it's adequate for the ill and not that much fun for the troll: get help.

I don't see so much of a manic component, but if there's evidence of no sleep, grandiosity, irritability, recent onset, maybe cyclical nature, I'm convincible.

Once, DD, you were a little harsh with Minister of Truth (you called him on his self-pity, which may have been justified) but I agree with you here.

Yes I lost it with MoT , as I recall he was saying that people didn't accept his ideas because he was labeled a schizophrenic and I tore into him for not doing the work to prove his theories, certainly not a better moment.

Could be lots of things, but it seems like schizophrenia or a darn good imitation of it.

(I have a schizophrenic sibling, although for many (40+) years, he/she was diagnosed as manic-depressive with a personality disorder.)

 

[Dancing David]

Whoa, alot of people responded. Thanks. I don't know if I can respond to them all. I am a he, by the way. Brendy's just a nickname, long story.

Well I think this thread has done what was needed. So for closure,

I am seeing someone for this, but nothing really changes. I can see the symptoms and everything, but when you have someone's voice in your head tell you, as you read this thread, "you're not crazy, it's real, here i'll prove it by itching your nose" my mind believes telepathy is real. With all these people telling me i'm wrong and all the signs, I still can't even conseed .001%.

I am 100% sure it's real. But I understand that you are 100% sure it's not real.

I completely understand how all of you feel because one year ago I felt the same way as you. I still feel that way RIGHT NOW about stuff like god and spoon bending. I even get offended when people group telepathy with ideas such as telling the future.

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?

Hi Brendy!

I really think that if you are not overwhelmed all the time that some cognitive behavioral therapy might help you. If you hear the voices as though they were next to you, then sometimes humming helps.

There are many strategies to take care of yourself, along with the medication. If the medication is not effective, I am sorry, either there wasn't a long enough trial (at least six weeks) or it was the wrong medicine. And not all people will be traeted with medication effectively, it can be a real effeort to chang ethe whole picture that works the best.

Good luck.

 

[Dancing David]

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.

I have been there too, many people do not know that the people around them are suffering, until they do something drastic, I have tried suicide, fortunately not lethal, but have seen friends not come back. It is very sad and makes some people here who laugh at mental illness and act abusive really sadistic.

 

[Miss Whiplash]

That may well be.

I worked as a case manager for ten years and did crisis line for five of that. I also have been a crisis intervention counselor.

Sometimes things are funny but abusing people with a mental illness is not. Just like when people tell people to go ahead and commit suicide, some things are abusive.

Please read my posts about serial trolls and how they abuse kind people. We still do not know if Brendy is sincere and actually mentally ill or a teenager laughing his ass off at your impassioned speeches and righteous anger.

Any passing troll can go to any website listing the signs of schizophrenia and then work the symptoms into a convincing online persona. Try reading some of the archives of alt.troll on usenet. It pays to have a bit of credulity on the internet as 99% of the time we have no idea who is on the other end of the keyboard.

BTW-I don't buy magazines from unknown high school students raising money for a class trip to Vegas either.

 

[Locknar]

What argument, what data and how do you interpret IT , you know Locknar you made some bold statements about potential diagnosis. And they were just that bold statements made on very little information.

Holy flaming leaping lizards....bold statments you say? Let's see...there was post #115 where I said I think Brendy is a troll and why...and then of course there is post....er.....umm.....

I can review your post but i think you made some bold claims about schizophrenia and perhaps you don't know much about it?

No no...by all means, continue to rant....

I can pssi along with you if you want, weekly mental health assesments for nine years minus 4 weeks vacation means, 48x9=432 mental health assements, except there were weeks where I did two or three, and then for a year and a half I did aminimum of 15 assements a wekk minus the week off, so that would be 16x3=48x15=720, so add 432+720=1,152. And then there were the weeks I did crisis intervention, we will just loiok athe the ones wehere I was primary (not the back up ones) on average I did 7 crisis assesments during a primarary week, so 16x7=112 crisis asseesment in an ED or the jail.

I'm going to assume there was education that went along with all that...good thing reading comprehension was heavily emphasized.

Safe to say you have convinced me as to your expertise in this area, and I ask that everyone else refrain from further comment as obviously we (or at least I) are not worthy.

Is that enough volume of urine for you?

Er.....yeah, thats fine. Just bring us the check.

 

[Miss Whiplash]

Anyone that would spend almost a decade lying about their predicaments and ailments had some real serious issues. Perhaps not the ones they claimed but that person is seriously twisted without a doubt!

There are some weird people on the internet. Because of the anonymity many people will act out in ways they would never consider in the real 3-D world. It's the high tech equivalent of writing on a bathroom wall or calling some store late at night and asking if they have Prince Albert in a can.

On one usenet group where I once posted, a woman became a target of a troll/stalker for no reason at all. As she used her real name, she soon began receiving threats in the real world. Email, reportedly from a 32 year old man, started filling up her email box. Soon she started getting harassing phone calls in the middle of the night. It escalated to threating letters in the mails, then to cars full of shouting people driving by her house. She was completely terrified. This was before stalking laws so there was little the law could do. When the harassment finally escalated to someone ringing doorbells and throwing things through the windows, the culprit was finally caught. The 32 year old man was actually a 14 year old boy who lived in a nearby town. He posted her name on alt.trolls and enlisted the aid of other trolls to harass the woman. To them it was all a game and they were laughing themselves silly over the woman's terror.

 

[Moochie]

Well, I told him to get help. That's all I said. That's all I could say in the face of that preposterous OP.


M.