Sanity

[Arius]

Would being insane really be that bad?

I mean in the completely deluded sense. Where you think you're married to Megan Fox and have Alicia Day as a second wife and they're both cool with it. That kind of insane.

Because, even if you're strapped to a bed and on all sorts of meds, in your mind, you've got it pretty good.

People always pity the insane, but if you're living in a dream world where nothing bad happens, you've got it better than those of us out here.

What if we are insane? What if this is all a mass delusion and the real world is better or worse? I mean, there are large groups of people out there who share delusions. Entire societies have been built on mass delusions. So, what if all we know is a delusion? We can't really prove or disprove it, because any evidence would be part of it.

Hell, maybe you're completely insane and imagining all of your life, including LRR. One day, you'll become lucid, and realize you've spent the last year of your life undergoing electroshock therapy. Maybe this entire post is your mind starting to realize the truth.

[Alja-Markir]

Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is an illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and I am content.

-Conan The Cimmerian

[Master Gunner]

Insanity is a legal term, not a clinical one. Also, do not expect all delusions to be bright, cheery, fantasies (much less entirely separate from humanity, you're describing dreaming far more than, for example, schizophrenia (or, a particular type of schizophrenia that I can't remember the name of, anyways)). As I understand, they rarely are.

Also, what Conan said.

[Arius]

That's why I qualified it.

And rarely? Not so much. A lot of people may not be completely insane, but delusions of grandeur is pretty much par for the course in humanity.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Legally, I'm insane. I don't vote anyway and I've not tried to get my drivers license so it hasn't stopped me doing anything on any kind of legal basis I can imagine it being involved with.

But what I realised a long time ago? Life is more fun when the everyday experience is a little crazy.

Yeah, sanity and mixed up perceptions are rarely things that go in a pleasant direction for people. But I'm autistic, which means my brain doesn't quite work the way most peoples' do.

For me, the world is full of tiny little details, all of which my brain is highlighting. And my brain keeps a log of everything it encounters (Granted, not a very well-organised log, more a keyword database), and references everything it sees.

And this is what I love, because what this lets me see is the varied and wonderous complexity of the world we live in, is entirely built upon simple things. Gravity alone, for example, makes stellar dust form into planets and solar systems, makes atoms form into molecules into protein chains into cells and into life. Chemistry and electricity tells our food how to taste and our TVs how to run and our bodies how to keep us alive and do all the things we do.

My brain, which is so very messed up, lets me see a very beautiful world, because it won't let me shut out all the little things most people ignore to get by.

But, because it does that, because it doesn't let me shut out the little things, I have a lot of issues with change, like reorganising furnitre, quitting habits, even just sitting in a different seat, is something seriously tricky for me.

[Master Gunner]

Legally, I'm insane. I don't vote anyway and I've not tried to get my drivers license so it hasn't stopped me doing anything on any kind of legal basis I can imagine it being involved with.

You've being found not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity in a court of law?


Huh. I suppose you really are a stalker, congratulations.

[Theremin]

People always pity the insane, but if you're living in a dream world where nothing bad happens, you've got it better than those of us out here.

Living in a total delusion like that is, to my eyes, much the same as being dead. Even if the delusion is, like Gunner pointed out, a pleasant dreamscape rather than a nightmarish one, it's still a dreamscape. In such a state, the person is not interacting with the real world in any meaningful way, and not having any experiences of life, good or bad. Someone so removed from reality like that can't be said to be enjoying life any more than someone in a deep coma does.

[epocalypse]

As someone who was raised by psychiatrists, has deep seeded emotional issues and lives their life trying to avoid the precarious edge to becoming delusional manic, I'd say yes. Delusional Madness is pretty high on my things to fear list, and it leads to the only things I'm more afraid of.

Crazy is fine, even disordered thinking, as long as we're able to maintain some awareness of the world around us and ourselves. When we cross that line, it's pretty much a path to oblivion. I know my mind works differently than other people's, I know I'm at risk for certain things more than others (talking in a solely psychiatric sense) and I know that I'm not always right, and I take solace in maintaining that awareness, that ability to know what it is that I am doing. I've said it before and I'll say it again:

"The fact that I know I'm crazy is the only thing that keeps me sane."

[NachoManLance]

Sanity is so 20th century. The merriment of living in a dream world where everything is just the way you want it would be pretty rad. "Weird Al" would be my dad and there would be fresh, tasty nachos in every room I walk in.

[Evil Jim]

"Ohmygod ohmygod is he nuts?!"

"He no nuts. He crazy!"

[iamafish]

"are you like a crazy person?"

"i'm quite sure that they will say so"

just saying

[epocalypse]

Sanity is so 20th century. The merriment of living in a dream world where everything is just the way you want it would be pretty rad. "Weird Al" would be my dad and there would be fresh, tasty nachos in every room I walk in.

You and I have very differently structured dreamworlds, sir. Also, I've invested my future in sanity!
hah, get it?

[Bananafish]

After my friend tried to kill himself I visited him in the mental asylum where he was staying for a few days.

We were in the room where the patients visit families, or play cards and games and all that stuff. So I'm sitting there and across from me there's this woman and this guy, and we exchange a casual glance. Suddenly this GIGANTIC women in pink comes out of nowhere and I look at the people across from me and we all burst out laughing.

Earlier I saw a woman walking around the halls, my friend told me she would go into random rooms throughout the day and when the orderlies put her back into her own room she'd just walk out.

A day earlier my friend told me his roommate attempted to escape and actually went into the vents.

I don't think anyone can honestly envy these people, I felt terrible for them. Their family members were visiting and while they looked hopeful they had that look of visiting a relative in prison. When I was younger my dad was actually committed to a mental asylum for a short while, I believe he was dealing with PTSD from the war.

He was on some meds that they later discovered may cause suicidal thoughts in some people. He was extremely impatient when he came home, he would always argue with everyone and finally he has achieved some semblance of normality.

Having actually lived with and seen these people it really irritates me when people say they'd prefer to be insane, or deranged, or just doped up for the rest of their lives. It's not happiness, it's not even close.

e:

People always pity the insane, but if you're living in a dream world where nothing bad happens, you've got it better than those of us out here.

Jesus Christ.

If you really want to live in a childish care-free fantasy world where you're exempt from having any responsiblity for your actions then go drink a bucket of mercury and remember that there are millions of people who would trade places with you in a second.

[Bananafish]

I wanna be fair so let me explain: if this was just a discussion on perception/what is real/what defines life/how do we know what reality really is when our view of reality depends on a perception that may be flawed then I'd be all for it.

But, throughout history the mentally ill have been dangerously ostracized. They've been tortured, thought to be infected by demons, and locked away in institution for lifetimes either because society gave no fuck or because of ashamed families. This isn't the first time I've seen this opinion given so I'd like to expand, the mental health care system in the united states has been a running joke and part of it, albeit a small part, is because of attitudes like this. In 2000 about 200,000 schizophrenics were homeless, constituting about 1/3 of the homeless population. A THIRD. This is the level of mental care we are providing, but I digress.

Imagine living with a mental illness and having people like this say that it isn't real and that your 'illness' is only a stressful sympton as a response to societal norms. Try to conceive of a life where you are 'blessed' with an incredibly low IQ, while still maintaining the intellect necessary to understand just how stupid you are. Being unable to grasp the simplest idea while being painfully aware of the fact that others can.

Even if such a mental state existed where you were constantly happy, you would be missing out on a wide range of other emotions that humans have the privilege of experiencing. Would you ever be proud of an achievement? Would you ever feel the thrill of excitement or scope the depths of imagination?

No. And when your family is caring for you in your diseased state will they look upon that drooling meat rotting away with envy? Would they gladly take your place and experience the comfort of pure simplistic moronity?

No one would consciously trade this wide array of what actually makes them human in order to indulge themselves in mindless joy for the rest of their lives, with full knowledge that they will be living a lie in every sense.

I can't even begin to go into the biochemical reasons against this as your mind would more than likely become increasingly desenscitized to the serotonin (if that is actually the 'joy chemical') and eventually be unable to feel happiness at all. When a man loses his ability to make decisions, he ceases to be a man, and while emotion is not necessarily a choice it is the human faucet of existence. If you forsake all your thoughts and emotions in exchange for one, and that one deserts you then you are nothing in every sense but the literal.

e; When talking about the actual logistics of something like that, you should remember that the brains main source of energy is sugar. If the 'joy' part of your brain was constantly active it would use up a large portion of these sugar reserves and would either cease activity or drain the reserves from other, possibly more necessary parts of the brain. The neurons in the part of the brain would in that case probably burn out from constant overuse and die.

[Evil Jim]

Funny the topic of sanity should come up on the day I first played Call of Cthulhu: the Living Card Game.

[Bananafish]

What is it with you and cthulhu.

I played this Sherlock Holmes game for a bit that had something to do with cthulhu, you'd go around looking for clues and solving puzzles, it was p rad.

Watson would follow you but he would never move. You'd walk somewhere and if you looked at Watson while you walked he wouldn't move, then all of sudden you'd turn around and he'd be right there.

[Lord Chrusher]

Legally, I'm insane. I don't vote anyway and I've not tried to get my drivers license so it hasn't stopped me doing anything on any kind of legal basis I can imagine it being involved with.

But what I realised a long time ago? Life is more fun when the everyday experience is a little crazy.

Yeah, sanity and mixed up perceptions are rarely things that go in a pleasant direction for people. But I'm autistic, which means my brain doesn't quite work the way most peoples' do.

For me, the world is full of tiny little details, all of which my brain is highlighting. And my brain keeps a log of everything it encounters (Granted, not a very well-organised log, more a keyword database), and references everything it sees.

And this is what I love, because what this lets me see is the varied and wonderous complexity of the world we live in, is entirely built upon simple things. Gravity alone, for example, makes stellar dust form into planets and solar systems, makes atoms form into molecules into protein chains into cells and into life. Chemistry and electricity tells our food how to taste and our TVs how to run and our bodies how to keep us alive and do all the things we do.

My brain, which is so very messed up, lets me see a very beautiful world, because it won't let me shut out all the little things most people ignore to get by.

But, because it does that, because it doesn't let me shut out the little things, I have a lot of issues with change, like reorganising furnitre, quitting habits, even just sitting in a different seat, is something seriously tricky for me.

Wait being autistic legally prevents you from voting?

[Master Gunner]

Only if he was deemed incapable of making a reasoned judgment. Which I highly doubt he has. He is also not insane, despite what he claims (as one can only be declared insane if they are found Not Guilty of a crime by reason of Insanity). Having autism, to the best of my knowledge, has absolutely no legal ramifications.

[epocalypse]

Legally, I'm insane. I don't vote anyway and I've not tried to get my drivers license so it hasn't stopped me doing anything on any kind of legal basis I can imagine it being involved with.

But what I realised a long time ago? Life is more fun when the everyday experience is a little crazy.

Yeah, sanity and mixed up perceptions are rarely things that go in a pleasant direction for people. But I'm autistic, which means my brain doesn't quite work the way most peoples' do.

For me, the world is full of tiny little details, all of which my brain is highlighting. And my brain keeps a log of everything it encounters (Granted, not a very well-organised log, more a keyword database), and references everything it sees.

And this is what I love, because what this lets me see is the varied and wonderous complexity of the world we live in, is entirely built upon simple things. Gravity alone, for example, makes stellar dust form into planets and solar systems, makes atoms form into molecules into protein chains into cells and into life. Chemistry and electricity tells our food how to taste and our TVs how to run and our bodies how to keep us alive and do all the things we do.

My brain, which is so very messed up, lets me see a very beautiful world, because it won't let me shut out all the little things most people ignore to get by.

But, because it does that, because it doesn't let me shut out the little things, I have a lot of issues with change, like reorganising furnitre, quitting habits, even just sitting in a different seat, is something seriously tricky for me.

well, you're not insane, per say, or at least not fully delusional. You have a mental disorder, that's different. It's kind of an area of clustered terms. Speaking as someone who has bipolar II (latent high chance but as of yet no conclusive diagnosis) and ADHD, it's not that people with mental disorders are Insane, It's that, like you said, our minds work in a different way. Sanity is self awareness and Lucidity. Insanity is Psychosis and Delusion to the point of being effectively out of your own control. Insanity is scary.

Edit: I'd add that both my parents are psychiatrists, and the reason that I have not been diagnosed is that my combination of being a trained artisted (and therefore prone to very lyric, sometimes exaggerating language) and a life time of being surrounded by psychoanalytical language make it next to impossible for me to be diagnosed outside of episode, and I've never sought help while in epsisode, so we can't confirm hypomania or mania, I might just have cyclothemia, and best case scenario, I'm in control enough now that I remain at risk bipolar but it never becomes a disorder. Over share complete.

[Nomadic]

I have am pretty severely bipolar.


No, it's not fun to be insane. If you really want horror stories (and believe me, they're depressingly horrifying), I have a few.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Clearly the dispute regarding my sanity is a problem of definition.

According to traditional law, I'm sane. Legal rule however is very much definition-based.
Psychiatrically you have lucidity, self-awareness, psychosis and delusion. By this rule again, I'm sane, but it's again definitions.

What I define as "sane" is "how people think on average", which is assuredly not how I think, therefore I am not "sane". One can only be sane or insane, therefore I am insane.

Hmm..."legally" may not have been the most accurate term in hindsight. Autism however has been used in legal defences as arguments of insanity.

[Theremin]

So what you're saying is that you're insane...according to you.

Therfore it's perfectly accurate for me to claim I'm a pink elephant, depending on what my personal definition of a pink elephant is.

[Lyinginbedmon]

So what you're saying is that you're insane...according to you.

Therfore it's perfectly accurate for me to claim I'm a pink elephant, depending on what my personal definition of a pink elephant is.

Not quite.

A pink elephant is something that can be clarified visually, audibly, and through a whole number of manners available to everyone, thereby meaning consensus.

The notion of sanity however is different, because everyone's mind is different and everyone's perceptions are different. Academia merely defines the average as "sane".

[Theremin]

The average what?

Way problems are solved? Views? How we process information?

[Lyinginbedmon]

The average what?

Way problems are solved? Views? How we process information?

Assume a species of tree grows a whole bunch of different heights, but on average is 35 feet tall.

Academia would say that the average, 35 feet, is normal. A tree of that species that instead grows only 10 feet or 40 feet tall is an aberration.

Same here. Everyone thinks differently, but the average is called "sane" and the alternatives "insane"