Okay so wow, you might be thinking about all the people who deserve to take the title of crazy, or give the excuse to a bad falling-out you once had with your neighbor, your boss, your family, or your friend. Knowing that one in four Americans has a mental disorder makes it very easy to label someone, call them crazy, and be done with it – but, my friend, that is not “dealing” with the matter. That is excusing the matter. Crazy people are everywhere, my family is plagued with them, and so is your local super market.
My goal is to give you everyday examples of people with mental disorders. I want to show you that people with mental disorders walk, and talk, and interact. They function probably better than myself in normal society. They are not on the other side of the world, and are not living in their own world (unless they are narcissistic, and then an argument can be made). People with mental disorders are exactly like you and me except they are born with a different twist, a perception disturbance.
From these examples, I hope to educate, and in a way equip the public with information on how to “deal” with the everyday interactions of the mentally unstable.
Meet Joe
Joe works as an architect at a well-established company in Philadelphia. He does not miss a day of work. Joe has a wife and kid. On the outside looking in, he appears to be a stand-up individual. Actually, Joe seems to be somewhat more than a stand-up individual. His words and his actions go above and beyond any social standard. Joe goes to church, and is sure to be seen volunteering at the local hospital.
He is very charming. Joe uses this charm as a way to gain importance and position in his field. This charm also makes it easy for Joe’s eyes to wonder at the ladies who laugh so merely at his jokes in the office. Joe is not loyal to his wife, although no one, not even his best friend is aware. Every once in a while, when Joe lets his guard down, a sense of aggressiveness comes through his voice, and the words seem very uncharacteristic. Joe is an everyday example of a sociopath.
Article comments
1 - flawedplan
This is an education in stereotyping, stigma and what is, for lack of a better term, biobabble. People with psychiatric diagnoses are capable of speaking for themselves, all else is hubris.
2 - Douglas Mays
Geez, glad you brought up the subject in this modern day and age. Christ, the world of psychiatry and therapy is so cro-mag. OK, let me say that there are a few good people in the current industry, but for the most part it is criminal.
I say that because hhhmmm...I guess it comes down to the ego of the people surrounding the so-called mentally ill person. Psychiatry sure seems like a cottage industry of the pharmacy world. You will find that a lot of therapists are just messed up people that get into the industry to 'help' people. Sociopaths like Joe mentioned above, will target environmentally damaged people, whose mental illness is actually not that bad, to be a friend. As you mentioned, Joe's sociopathy prevents him from having real friends (for good reason). So by shoving the targeted person further and further into the mental illness label, a very sick control is created....ugh! The targeted person only becomes worse in a reactive way, therefore validating the 'mental illness' false label.
Anyway, mental illness has to do with the mind. Very few in the industry actually know anything about the flow of the mind of the individual. A generic paint brush of assessment is usually the result.
The misuse of knowledge and law as a tool of oppression.
OK, I could go on, but that is enuf for now...
Stand Up!!
DM
3 - Marcia L. Neil
Modern public schools provide extracurricular sports programs so that individuals demonstrating such competence can move directly into a physical education teaching career path. However, those chosen often believe that they can instead do anything they want, forming elite influence networks to do exactly that--such beliefs and activities cause mental illness among the general populace.