[Deebo]

Didnt want to "jack" a fellow members thread, so I start this one.
I feel like America has this hidden secret of mental health issue, people are afraid to seek help..
We feel like we have to be strong and stoic all the time. We politically correctly stopped joking about severe issue like retardation and the like, but still, everyone laughs and giggles about the "crazy person", we all know at least one- right?
I dont know the answer, it's not about gun control and mental issues, that is a whole nother can of worms, its about our attitude of hiding mental issues, guys will ask each other at the gym "how they managed to get their hamstrings bigger" and talk to Dr's about prostates and tumors, (all serious bussiness), but it is so hard to talk about mental issues. I know.. Ive been down that road.

 

[Montana Rancher]

America: #1 In Fear, Stress, Anger, Divorce, Obesity, Anti-Depressants, Etc. // Current TV

1 out of 4 women are taking antidepressants, doesn't sound like they have a problem seeking treatments.

I actually have a couple ideas why this is all happening and how to solve it, but it is so completely politically incorrect I will never publish it.

 

[Kidzthinkimahoarder]

I've never been accused of being politically correct.

But IMO, I think there is less crazy out there than what we think. I think to many are out to get a "legal" high off xanax or other drug they can abuse or sell. And our government is so willing to produce "crazy checks" and label them "disabled" and unable to work that it's a wonder more don't come out as "crazy".

And quite frankly, I think alot of the "crazy" we know amounts to the fact they just never got their asses beat as children and were made to mind. Some parents fail to teach consquences for their actions, so they are just free to seek all the thrills they want without any regards to the welfare or well being of others before they set off. So what if they went on a thrill seeking joy ride and killed a family of 5, it wasn't thier fault, the government saw fit to label them "crazy"...they just couldn't help themselves.

If they'd start pulling DL's, or Government handouts for those that are labeled as "crazy" and aren't...you'd see alot of people straightening up and flying right. If your'e crazy, you can partically get away with murder....

But like I said, that's just my opinion....

And also been there and had to deal with a niece that pulled that "crazy" card. Ohh, the quack that diagnosed her gave her a RX for 120 Xanax bars with 2 refills. She was selling them on the street corner so she could go shopping at TJ Maxx and hit the mall. All the while my husband and I were supporting her and thinking she was going without and needed help, till I got a tip off of what she was doing. (She was hiding her purchases) I immediately took her xanax and all other "crazy" drugs away from her (made her hand them to me) and threatened to beat her ass like a child, while my husband was picking up the phone threatening for the law to come and get her. 21 years old mind you...and used "I'm crazy" for a dope fix, money and pity. There was nothing wrong with her, except she wasn't discliplined. Cause funny to me now, she's working a full time job w/ a child, and doing just fine. She still has her moments where she makes the wrong decisions, but thats something we all do. She sure got rid of the "crazy" label the minute she figured out we wouldn't put up with it, and it got her no where in this whole family.

I also have an EX brother in law that liked to pull that crazy card. It finally landed him in the pen where he needs to stay. His whole problem is he's just mean and was never discliplined while growing up. He honestly thought he could do whatever he wanted and would blame it on anyone else but he who made the decision. And I'm telling you, he pulled some good ones which were mostly pulled just for the giggles of doing it. He once walked into a convenient store and laid a pen on the counter, put his finger up in front of his lips and whispered, "Shhh, now ya'll listen up. That pen is a bomb..."(plus whatever else he said) and walked out. Thought it was funny how they abandoned the convenient store and SWAT showed up...till they tried to arrest him.

So, I don't fall for CRAZY to easily.......

 

[Lucky Jim]

We live in a worldwide global Idiocracy run by idiot politicians and their idiotic followers, so maybe it's time we handed it over to so-called "retarded" people to run it, they could hardly make a worser job!
In my view the only insanity is to regard the world as sane..
If you let yourself get sucked into the world and take it seriously, you're like a wagon without springs, jolted by every pebble on the road..

Backup-
Jesus said:- "The world wants you to dance to its tune" (Matt 11:16/17)
"Jesus saved you from the empty way of life handed you by your forefathers" (1 Pet 1:18 )
"Don't conform to the pattern of this world" (Rom 12:2)
"As a soldier of Christ, please only God and not the world" (2 Tim 2:3/4)
"Don't love the world or the things in it, otherwise the love of God is not in you" (1 John 2:15-17)
"Set your mind on things above,not on things on the earth" (Col 3:2)
"You were bought at a price, don't serve men" (1 Cor 7:23)
"A friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4)
"You were dead when you followed the ways of the world" (Eph 2:1/2)
"You died with Christ from this world, so don't keep submitting to its rules" (Col 2:20)
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.." (Eph 6:12)

"Jesus's family and friends tried to take charge of him, saying he's out of his mind" (Mark 3:21)
"Many of them said, "Jesus is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?"(John 10:20)

 

[paraquack]

I've never been accused of being politically correct.

But IMO, I think there is less crazy out there than what we think. I think to many are out to get a "legal" high off xanax or other drug they can abuse or sell. And our government is so willing to produce "crazy checks" and label them "disabled" and unable to work that it's a wonder more don't come out as "crazy".

And quite frankly, I think alot of the "crazy" we know amounts to the fact they just never got their asses beat as children and were made to mind. Some parents fail to teach consquences for their actions, so they are just free to seek all the thrills they want without any regards to the welfare or well being of others before they set off. So what if they went on a thrill seeking joy ride and killed a family of 5, it wasn't thier fault, the government saw fit to label them "crazy"...they just couldn't help themselves.

If they'd start pulling DL's, or Government handouts for those that are labeled as "crazy" and aren't...you'd see alot of people straightening up and flying right. If your'e crazy, you can partically get away with murder....

But like I said, that's just my opinion....

And also been there and had to deal with a niece that pulled that "crazy" card. Ohh, the quack that diagnosed her gave her a RX for 120 Xanax bars with 2 refills. She was selling them on the street corner so she could go shopping at TJ Maxx and hit the mall. All the while my husband and I were supporting her and thinking she was going without and needed help, till I got a tip off of what she was doing. (She was hiding her purchases) I immediately took her xanax and all other "crazy" drugs away from her (made her hand them to me) and threatened to beat her ass like a child, while my husband was picking up the phone threatening for the law to come and get her. 21 years old mind you...and used "I'm crazy" for a dope fix, money and pity. There was nothing wrong with her, except she wasn't discliplined. Cause funny to me now, she's working a full time job w/ a child, and doing just fine. She still has her moments where she makes the wrong decisions, but thats something we all do. She sure got rid of the "crazy" label the minute she figured out we wouldn't put up with it, and it got her no where in this whole family.

I also have an EX brother in law that liked to pull that crazy card. It finally landed him in the pen where he needs to stay. His whole problem is he's just mean and was never discliplined while growing up. He honestly thought he could do whatever he wanted and would blame it on anyone else but he who made the decision. And I'm telling you, he pulled some good ones which were mostly pulled just for the giggles of doing it. He once walked into a convenient store and laid a pen on the counter, put his finger up in front of his lips and whispered, "Shhh, now ya'll listen up. That pen is a bomb..."(plus whatever else he said) and walked out. Thought it was funny how they abandoned the convenient store and SWAT showed up...till they tried to arrest him.

So, I don't fall for CRAZY to easily.......

You got my vote.

 

[Ripon]

My wife works as a VA counselor. She knows I follow gun control in a big way of course. She is documenting a number of vets openly telling her they are refusing care / mental health services over the direct fear of losing their gun rights. Some, she said, really have nothing to fear as a PTSD problem does not warrant one losing their rights, but yet a US Senator recently advocated it should or at least be questioned - thus making it harder for her to offer these people services they need and have earned.

The left is on a mission to gut HIPPA privacy laws as a means of gun control. Very sad.

 

[SARGE7402]

Problems start much earlier in life than most are willing to admit. We've been told since DR Spock that we shouldn't spank our children, that in most cases it will be treated as child abuse so we'll go to jail and the kid will get what they want. In that frame of reference, how do you treat a child that is weedles what they want by throwing tantrums and acting up? Well the schools - who also can't discipline a child - have figured that riddalin works real well at dampning down kids so that they can deal with them with a minimum of fuss. Trouble is it turns the kids into zombies. So when they graduate from HS and get out on their own they've never been disciplined or taught how to deal with conflits (and that's what the deal is between wanting something and the reality of your actually getting it when you want it) they turn to even more powerful and weirder drugs to alter the real world to suit their desires.

I'm not one to advocate we go back to beating a child with a leather belt, but a spanking - open handed - every now and again isn't a bad thing. Also it's aboout time to let everyone know that the adults are in charge and that "No!" is an acceptable answer to almost all situations.

 

[Deebo]

Alot of valid points made, so maybe it was "my fear of talking about mental health issue's".I wasn't referrring to the people that get a 3 dollar medicaid prescription of zannax and sell them, and yes the market for pharmacutical drugs is way better than the street drug market. I was referring to the stigma of us men being strong, stable, solid rocks, that everyone depends on, thats how I was raised.
I guess my point was lost, and I cant make it without writing a long list of things that make me feel this way, some of it very heartbreaking..
I hope none of you ever have to go "check in" a loved one that was normal one day and "bat shit crazy" the next...

 

[Kidzthinkimahoarder]

Deebo, I don't know what to say to that.....write your list and lets go from there. Maybe I misunderstood the first post.....

 

[IngaLisa]

Yes, Deebo, the brain can malfunction just like any other organ. Yes, people can become psychotic. That's different than people with sociopathy, or snotty kid syndrome. I do think we turn a lot of behaviors into 'illness', which is nothing but money for Big Pharma, when the people behaving badly just need some tough love, but, that isn't the same as when the brain malfunctions totally, and people can become psychotic. Mental illness has no lab test. There are many reasons for disturbed behavior, from brain injury, to degenerative brain disorders to biochemical disorders such as schizophrenia. I think we tend to feel there is more mental illness, because as some posters said, everything gets diagnosed. It has to be for insurance to reimburse for it. The insurance industry spawned the Diagnostic Manual of Psychiatric Disorders. You need a label, so the doc can get paid for seeing you, and so the drug he/she gives you can be billed for too. Unfortunately, most of the people who get labeled are not really mentally ill...and those that really are, are left on the streets to rot with no care. It's very hard to get mental health care for those with severe and chronic mental illness.

 

[Kidzthinkimahoarder]

Yes, Deebo, the brain can malfunction just like any other organ. Yes, people can become psychotic. That's different than people with sociopathy, or snotty kid syndrome. I do think we turn a lot of behaviors into 'illness', which is nothing but money for Big Pharma, when the people behaving badly just need some tough love, but, that isn't the same as when the brain malfunctions totally, and people can become psychotic. Mental illness has no lab test. There are many reasons for disturbed behavior, from brain injury, to degenerative brain disorders to biochemical disorders such as schizophrenia. I think we tend to feel there is more mental illness, because as some posters said, everything gets diagnosed. It has to be for insurance to reimburse for it. The insurance industry spawned the Diagnostic Manual of Psychiatric Disorders. You need a label, so the doc can get paid for seeing you, and so the drug he/she gives you can be billed for too. Unfortunately, most of the people who get labeled are not really mentally ill...and those that really are, are left on the streets to rot with no care. It's very hard to get mental health care for those with severe and chronic mental illness.

Well said....

Deebo, its deep rooted in you men to be the strong one...and after re-reading your post, I see what you're saying. (or think I do)

Men tend to hide any mental or emotional flaws and are hushed over it because of the stigma attached to it. Its a shame, cause it doesn't make men weaker in my eyes, but it does thier own.

But your right, its easier to discuss Viagra over an anti-depressent or a anti-physcotic.

 

[Deebo]

The reason I am personally scared to death of mental illness.
1. Checking my mother in to a hospital after she fell off the deep end.
2. Sitting in a quiet room at the E.R. beccouse my girlfriend decided she was about to drink herself to death, and when the staff asked her if she "had a plan or made plans to end her life" and she said yes, and they checked her into a 72 mental hold...I feel like she just needed a break from work and stuff, but I am no doctor..
3. walking into same E.R. and same upstairs mental facility that my girlfriend had recently got out of, to visit my sister..
4. my other sister is more scared than me, becouse she thinks she's next.
5. all these women were "normal", except my sister, she has always been "a little over the edge", but when she went off, she could say the most hateful tghings about a person, like she was a devil, looking into your soul and knew just what to say to hurt you the most.
6. In the end, I guess it is mostly "on me", the way I was braught up, I remember seeing my Grandfather, (THE GREATEST MAN I EVER KNEW), cry, onetime, he had got laid off from a propane delivery company.. I remember seeing him cut up a credit card, telling my grandma that everything would be ok. I have been told i couldn't be old enough to remember that, probably one or two, but I remember....Being raised strict, always had love, but my uncles would terrorize and kick my butt, I remember swimming all the way across a lake, climbing a cliff, and chickening out, only to be told, jump or were throwing you off. never was mistreated, just raised tough i guess.

 

[Lucky Jim]

Much mental illness is caused by the pressures heaped on people by society to "conform", we all get it from an early age from parents and teachers so no wonder some people develop problems. For example I hear the Sandy Hook shooter's mother and teachers were always on at him to "conform" and get good grades blah blah and he eventually cracked up.
Me I was always a tough-minded rebellious s.o.b and rejected the world in my early teens so I've always been immune to pressure.
For example my schizophrenic workaholic dad used to hammer on my door at the crack of dawn after I left school shouting "Get out of bed and look for a job, they're crying out for people at the glue factory!", but I just thought "Oh stick it", and turned over and went back to sleep.
Later I found out the bible contains a truckload of verses backing me up by urging us NOT to conform, so Jesus became my main man and "gang leader" and I string with him..
For example his young cousin John was a world-rejecter living a self-sufficient life out in the wilderness, sometimes going in town to yell insults at the snooty priests and corrupt rulers.
Jesus's verdict on him?- "John is the greatest man ever to be born" (Matt 11:11)

 

[Kidzthinkimahoarder]

The reason I am personally scared to death of mental illness.
1. Checking my mother in to a hospital after she fell off the deep end.
2. Sitting in a quiet room at the E.R. beccouse my girlfriend decided she was about to drink herself to death, and when the staff asked her if she "had a plan or made plans to end her life" and she said yes, and they checked her into a 72 mental hold...I feel like she just needed a break from work and stuff, but I am no doctor..
3. walking into same E.R. and same upstairs mental facility that my girlfriend had recently got out of, to visit my sister..
4. my other sister is more scared than me, becouse she thinks she's next.
5. all these women were "normal", except my sister, she has always been "a little over the edge", but when she went off, she could say the most hateful tghings about a person, like she was a devil, looking into your soul and knew just what to say to hurt you the most.
6. In the end, I guess it is mostly "on me", the way I was braught up, I remember seeing my Grandfather, (THE GREATEST MAN I EVER KNEW), cry, onetime, he had got laid off from a propane delivery company.. I remember seeing him cut up a credit card, telling my grandma that everything would be ok. I have been told i couldn't be old enough to remember that, probably one or two, but I remember....Being raised strict, always had love, but my uncles would terrorize and kick my butt, I remember swimming all the way across a lake, climbing a cliff, and chickening out, only to be told, jump or were throwing you off. never was mistreated, just raised tough i guess.

I would be scared too, but it doesn't mean you will "crack". Like you said, you were raised strong and you are aware of the other situations in your close family and loved ones and haven't turned a blind eye to it.

We all have a little crazy in us, I know I do from time to time...like you, I was raised tough. My dad had the philosophy that I had to be able to do all things he or my brothers did, but I had to do them lady-like. Do you have any idea how hard that is? The only thing I couldn't do was stand up and pee. (you're soppose to smile there) Does the words "Tom Boy" with a farmers tan come to mind? BUT...I've been through alot of situations similiar to yours, and maybe I'm the one that needs help cause I find myself being very umsympathetic at times when sympathy is needed. I find that I cut my feelings off ALOT to hide emotions....

 

[Deebo]

I would be scared too, but it doesn't mean you will "crack". Like you said, you were raised strong and you are aware of the other situations in your close family and loved ones and haven't turned a blind eye to it.

We all have a little crazy in us, I know I do from time to time...like you, I was raised tough. My dad had the philosophy that I had to be able to do all things he or my brothers did, but I had to do them lady-like. Do you have any idea how hard that is? The only thing I couldn't do was stand up and pee. (you're soppose to smile there) Does the words "Tom Boy" with a farmers tan come to mind? BUT...I've been through alot of situations similiar to yours, and maybe I'm the one that needs help cause I find myself being very umsympathetic at times when sympathy is needed. I find that I cut my feelings off ALOT to hide emotions....

Well said, and Im just the opposite, too symphatehitic at times..And yes, we all do have a little crazy in us...My "voices" keep telling me I'm crazy, but I don't feel like argueing with them....Hope all is well...

 

[Lucky Jim]

The world itself is crazy because politicians everywhere couldn't run a lemonade stand let alone a world, so it beats me why anybody should want to conform and "fit into" the world in the first place.
The only foolishness is to regard the world as rational, so I'd much rather be a fool..
"Become a fool by the worlds standards in order to become wise, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight." (1 Corinthians 3:18/19 )
"The secret of the successful fool is that he's no fool at all"- Isaac Asimov

A woman in a chatroom a few years ago said "I'm at my wits end with my young autistic son, he's going through a Bob the Builder phase and is wanting Bob the Builder books, Bob the Builder videos, Bob the Builder toys and merchandise", so I said to her "Oh stop nagging him and leave him alone" and she went all quiet, I don't think anybody had said that to her before, I hope it made her think.

 

[Deebo]

The world itself is crazy because politicians everywhere couldn't run a lemonade stand let alone a world, so it beats me why anybody should want to conform and "fit into" the world in the first place.
The only foolishness is to regard the world as rational, so I'd much rather be a fool..
"Become a fool by the worlds standards in order to become wise, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight." (1 Corinthians 3:18/19 )
"The secret of the successful fool is that he's no fool at all"- Isaac Asimov

A woman in a chatroom a few years ago said "I'm at my wits end with my young autistic son, he's going through a Bob the Builder phase and is wanting Bob the Builder books, Bob the Builder videos, Bob the Builder toys and merchandise", so I said to her "Oh stop nagging him and leave him alone" and she went all quiet, I don't think anybody had said that to her before, I hope it made her think.

So true LJ, one of my favorite stickers says" they laugh at me becouse Im different, I laugh at them becouse they are all the same"
Being a 418 pound 6 foot tall man, you quickly learn how different you really are..

 

[Lucky Jim]

Yes who the hell wants to be so-called "normal" anyway ha ha! I've always had an eccentric streak and wouldn't have it any other way..
Incidentally I used to be a helper at the Scope cerebral palsy charity and I'm absolutely totally convinced they've got a free pass through the pearly gates, whereas the rest of us have to work at it..

 

[PaulS]

If "everyone in the world is crazy, except you?" then you may have a problem.
For the first 18 years of my life I thought I was crazy. My whole personality and mood would change when I was around other people. When I was off alone I was fine. It seemed that I "felt" the emotions of others without being able to tell they weren't my own. When I was 18 I met a woman who was the same way and she taught me how to keep from feeling the emotions of those around me. I can still do it, but I can control it and tell when it is someone else and not me.
Along the way I also learned (the hard way) that people don't like to admit what they are feeling - it is best to keep it to yourself.

 

[Lucky Jim]

....For the first 18 years of my life I thought I was crazy. My whole personality and mood would change when I was around other people. When I was off alone I was fine...

Yeah most people are pains in the ass giving off bad negative vibes that weaken us like kryptonite weakens Superman, I always avoid 'em like the plague, it's not rocket science..-
"If you hang around with losers you become a loser"- Donald Trump
"Bad company corrupts good character" (Bible:1 Corinthians 15:33)
"The main thing in life is to be surrounded by good men" -Fieldmarshal Friedrich von Paulus
"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those be well-tried before you give them your confidence" -George Washington
"He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm" (Bible: Proverbs 13:20)
"Associate yourself with men of good quality,for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company"- George Washington