Got a new diagnosis

[Mr. Ed]

I am an anomy among crazy people, but aren't we all?

Back in the 70s when I was first diagnosed they labeled me Borderline Schizophrenic as having combined personality disorder symptoms with schizophrenic tendencies. Then is was just plain Schizoaffective Disorder, next came Schizophrenia-Depressive Disorder. Now with this new psychiatrist I am labeled Schizoaffective Bipolar.
How is it that a person can have so many labels yet no one knows for certain how to treat crazy? I can use the word as freely as an African American affectionately calls himself and others like the N-word. I assure you crazy is not that bad, we come in all flavors of distinctive symptoms, shapes and sizes. Crazy can be inherited or caused by trauma. They say schizophrenia has a tendency to skip generations but I feel my mental was awoken by severe childhood trauma and depression.

How do you rectify the abuse and negligence of a parent who abandons his family the feed his narcissistic desire for community recognition? The question is who had the better life? Success first appeared in my Junior year of high school, then went dormant after parental trauma and my quest for enlightenment through psychedelic drugs and marijuana. It was marijuana THC that put me over the edge.

Strangely, I craved the madness of Pink Floyd and Sid Barrett and the absurdity of where it might lead my mind. How far before I inflict permanent damage to my brain and process of thought? MDA and LSD were the tools for reaching my inner self until psychosis took over my brain and shut it down to prevent further damage.

My idea of enlightenment was power to compensate for my inadequacies as a human being. I confused enlightenment with intelligence with a desire to outsmart and dominant others, I was wrong. Enlightenment is not taking from others, but giving yourself to others so they might benefit from the lesson in life you have learned.

I want to help the young man who crashed into my house 3 months ago. My wife found somethings of his in yard yesterday, he reached to me on messenger a couple of weeks ago, apologizing for his actions that led to the crash. I contacted him about his belongings and he came over. He said he was working at the dollar store to payoff his fine. I don't know much about him but my heart goes out to him and I want help him get an education at a local community college.
First I need to find out how much education he has, if he has previous college experience and if he wants my help.

 

[Pepper]

You're a remarkable man (((Mr. Ed)))

 

[VintageBetter]

I am an anomy among crazy people, but aren't we all?

Back in the 70s when I was first diagnosed they labeled me Borderline Schizophrenic as having combined personality disorder symptoms with schizophrenic tendencies. Then is was just plain Schizoaffective Disorder, next came Schizophrenia-Depressive Disorder. Now with this new psychiatrist I am labeled Schizoaffective Bipolar.
How is it that a person can have so many labels yet no one knows for certain how to treat crazy? I can use the word as freely as an African American affectionately calls himself and others like the N-word. I assure you crazy is not that bad, we come in all flavors of distinctive symptoms, shapes and sizes. Crazy can be inherited or caused by trauma. They say schizophrenia has a tendency to skip generations but I feel my mental was awoken by severe childhood trauma and depression.

How do you rectify the abuse and negligence of a parent who abandons his family the feed his narcissistic desire for community recognition? The question is who had the better life? Success first appeared in my Junior year of high school, then went dormant after parental trauma and my quest for enlightenment through psychedelic drugs and marijuana. It was marijuana THC that put me over the edge.

Strangely, I craved the madness of Pink Floyd and Sid Barrett and the absurdity of where it might lead my mind. How far before I inflict permanent damage to my brain and process of thought? MDA and LSD were the tools for reaching my inner self until psychosis took over my brain and shut it down to prevent further damage.

My idea of enlightenment was power to compensate for my inadequacies as a human being. I confused enlightenment with intelligence with a desire to outsmart and dominant others, I was wrong. Enlightenment is not taking from others, but giving yourself to others so they might benefit from the lesson in life you have learned.

I want to help the young man who crashed into my house 3 months ago. My wife found somethings of his in yard yesterday, he reached to me on messenger a couple of weeks ago, apologizing for his actions that led to the crash. I contacted him about his belongings and he came over. He said he was working at the dollar store to payoff his fine. I don't know much about him but my heart goes out to him and I want help him get an education at a local community college.
First I need to find out how much education he has, if he has previous college experience and if he wants my help.

How is it that a person can have so many labels yet no one knows for certain how to treat crazy?

Because the human brain, masterpiece that it is, is the most complex “computer” ever known. I don’t care what NASA puts in its flying machines, the human brain is more clever and complex because it created those metal and plastic computers AND kept the creators walking and talking and breathing simultaneously while they created it! Do you know how many processes go on every second of each day in our brains just to keep us ALIVE? That is a super-duper-mega-impressive processor just to do that.

It’s hard for them to figure out crazy because the brain is hard to figure out.

It was marijuana THC that put me over the edge

And unfortunately, unbeknownst to you in your teen years, marijuana use in the child and teen years can cause developmental damage. Marijuana and Teens

Many people liked Pink Floyd. I doubt if that qualifies as madness.

I don't know much about him but my heart goes out to him and I want help him get an education at a local community college.

This is very noble. My only advice would be to proceed with EXTREME caution. Don’t go it alone. Always have your wife or a friend with you if you invite him over or meet him for coffee. NEVER transfer cash directly to him with Zelle or Venmo (those have both been hacked often). If you choose to give him school supplies, like if he needs a laptop to help him get through college, buy it yourself (there are many terrific used deals online) and get an Apple laptop not a PC because Windows sucks.

Whatever he tells you about the college or traning program, call the college and verify it because by calling to verify you can find out if he is overall a truth-teller. If you find he’s lied about the college cost or why he got a low grade and the professor says otherwise, then you know you are going to either take on a much more parental roll with him (teach him right from wrong, which he may not listen to) or you’re going to have to rethink how much you EXPECT from him.

The TRAP in this, emotionally, is for you and your wife to EXPECT him to love and appreciate you. Funny example: if you have seen “Groundhog Day” there is the scene in which Bill Murray’s character knows a kid climbing a tree is going to fall out of that tree, so he goes there every day at the same time to catch the kid and prevent him from busting his arm or head.

After EACH catch Murray says something like, “You NEVER thank me!” and the kid runs off as if what Murray has done is nothing special. But Murray still shows up every day, on time, to catch him. He says, “See you tomorrow”, dripping with sarcasm as the kid runs off.

So, keep this in mind. You might feel like a hero, but you might not be thanked. But if you can help simply because you would like to make this troubled world a little bit better than it was yesterday, that is, I think, the best way to look at it.

 

[VaughanJB]

I am an anomy among crazy people, but aren't we all?

Back in the 70s when I was first diagnosed they labeled me Borderline Schizophrenic as having combined personality disorder symptoms with schizophrenic tendencies. Then is was just plain Schizoaffective Disorder, next came Schizophrenia-Depressive Disorder. Now with this new psychiatrist I am labeled Schizoaffective Bipolar.
How is it that a person can have so many labels yet no one knows for certain how to treat crazy? I can use the word as freely as an African American affectionately calls himself and others like the N-word. I assure you crazy is not that bad, we come in all flavors of distinctive symptoms, shapes and sizes. Crazy can be inherited or caused by trauma. They say schizophrenia has a tendency to skip generations but I feel my mental was awoken by severe childhood trauma and depression.

How do you rectify the abuse and negligence of a parent who abandons his family the feed his narcissistic desire for community recognition? The question is who had the better life? Success first appeared in my Junior year of high school, then went dormant after parental trauma and my quest for enlightenment through psychedelic drugs and marijuana. It was marijuana THC that put me over the edge.

Strangely, I craved the madness of Pink Floyd and Sid Barrett and the absurdity of where it might lead my mind. How far before I inflict permanent damage to my brain and process of thought? MDA and LSD were the tools for reaching my inner self until psychosis took over my brain and shut it down to prevent further damage.

My idea of enlightenment was power to compensate for my inadequacies as a human being. I confused enlightenment with intelligence with a desire to outsmart and dominant others, I was wrong. Enlightenment is not taking from others, but giving yourself to others so they might benefit from the lesson in life you have learned.

I want to help the young man who crashed into my house 3 months ago. My wife found somethings of his in yard yesterday, he reached to me on messenger a couple of weeks ago, apologizing for his actions that led to the crash. I contacted him about his belongings and he came over. He said he was working at the dollar store to payoff his fine. I don't know much about him but my heart goes out to him and I want help him get an education at a local community college.
First I need to find out how much education he has, if he has previous college experience and if he wants my help.

Definitions change, we learn more, and we correct errors from the past. So, diagnosis may change, but likely you have not.

Same is true of treatment regimes. We still have much to learn about depression and the brain, we can only go along with the best ideas at the time.

We should also guard against self-medication. The usual fall backs in the modern age being weed and/or alcohol. Temporary fixes to long term problems just kicks the can down the road.

As for families..... you can't fix others unless they're seeking help. Another way of saying if someone doesn't want to change you can't change them. There are chunks of our history that we simply can't go back and fix, and that's one of the life lessons we all have to absorb and deal with. Sadly, some as so damaged they never truly recover. You seem to be the other kind.

So roll on, Mr. Ed.

The ghost of Manhattoes
Shrieking as they fall from AT&T
Someone sees it all

Goodbye Mr. Ed, Andy's skull enshrined
In a shopping mall near Queens
Someone sees it all

Icarus takes his pratfall
Bruegel on his head
Goodbye Mr. Ed

Four and twenty black kids
Some of them are blind
Someone sees it all

Tolerance of violence
By the fellows with no heads
Goodbye Mr. Ed

Some things are so big
They make no sense
Histories so small
People are so dense
Someone sees it all
Goodbye Mr. Ed

Never mind the Pistols
They laid the Golem eggs
Others came to hatch them

Outside the pale
Someone sees it all
Goodbye Mr. Ed

 

[KathyB1968]

I feel like a lot of mental health diagnosis are just professionals making their best guesses.

Certain symptoms tend to occur on individuals more often than they would by chance. So these are grouped together and given a diagnosis.

But some symptoms occur in multiple diagnosis, so it get confusing.

Diagnosis keep changing which shows the groups and criteria are somewhat arbitrary.

And sometimes I think people struggle but don't fit into any of the official boxes. Maybe they would have something if you grouped symptoms differently. Or maybe they have something we don't have a label for yet.