"Do 'crazy' people know they are crazy?"

Once as I was talking to one of my doctors because I was going to have myself commited, I asked the question: "Do crazy people know that they are crazy?" It took her a while to come up with an answer.

My question is still the same. If one is crazy, could he/she realize that he/she is crazy? If you can see that you are crazy, does that make you sane or not crazy?

My doctor finally said that it depended on the intellegence of the individual. I'm still stumped by the question. What are your thoughts?

Hey Cowboy,

Let me rephrase your question: when someone is experiencing mania as a result of Bipolar Disorder are they aware that they are really unwell?

The answer is a bit divided.

Some times people have the insight that something is going wrong. This is usually because the psychosis that comes with their mania is both painful and disables normal thinking. It can feel like your brain is a rusty machine and that by trying to think with it you are grinding the rusted parts together which produces a form of psychic anguish which assists you of understanding why people commit suicide.

Othertimes the persons thinking is impaired in a different way. The euphoria can make them feel so high that they become delusional. Their capacity to think is intact but the thoughts that they still are motivated to do really bizarre things like move to Vienna to become an opera singer with no training as a singer.

I think when people experience the first type of psychosis they are more likely to know that something is wrong. People who are feeling real good with their mania lack insight really bad.

Hope that helped. Take care.

I think it is a tricky question.

Because I have learnt early warning signs I am able to better pick up when I am high, low or psychotic. But not always. However I am better able to identify this now than I used to be, even when I am really unwell. So yes I guess on the whole when I am crazy I at least have an inkling that I am. Tho I have had times where I have totally lost insight.

Cracked

Looking back at the situation I make more sense of the whole thing. At the time I had been in full blown mania for almost two months and to the point that I could hardly function. I felt like I was going crazy because I couldn't think or speak coherently. I was seeing things and hearing things, and I was going on weeks without sleep. I thought I was going crazy, but the fact that I could see that I was crazy made me think I wasn't.

My doctor said that some people in that kind of state can recognize that they have a problem and try to get it fixed, and others don't even recognize that there is even a problem with them.

She loaded me up on some new drugs that brought me down quickly, but they made me violently ill. She still makes me keep them on hand in case I ever get that bad again. Luckily I don't have to take them regularly.

So back to my original question: what is it that allows some people to recognize their problem and not others? Is it the depth of the manic state or just the fact that people are different? I don't believe the statement that it is based on intelligence.

Cowboy wrote:So back to my original question: what is it that allows some people to recognize their problem and not others? Is it the depth of the manic state or just the fact that people are different? I don't believe the statement that it is based on intelligence.

There are many factors here. I think the biggest is denial and fear of getting treatment. Both have the ability to make someone continue to believe that they are fine when the evidence, both personal and interpersonal, keeps adding up.

Take care Cowboy or *reverse howdy*

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH IT ALSO INVOLVES INSIGHT AND SELF AWARENESS. PEOPLE ARE DIFFERNT AND THE THE MOODS SWING IN VARYING DEGREES. KNOWING YOUR WARNING SIGNS GOES A LONG WAY IN DOING DAMAGE CONTROL. HOWEVER, SOMETIMES THE SHIFT COMES ON SO QUICKLY ONE GETS LOST IN THE TURMOIL. THEN IT'S PRETTY "CRAZY" (PSYCHOSIS). HOPE THAT HELPS.

I've asked myself the same question many many times actually. One of my counselors told me that I was surprisingly insightful compared to many patients who had no idea. It seemed as though she knew I had a problem but did not know what to do for me after I told her everything. My mind is full of dualities that drive me nuts. I always wonder if other people have these dualities (like me) which keep them from going crazy making them uncrazy. Perhaps everyone can see themselves from the inside and also see themselves from the outside? So they just hold it together?

AKA. Well, all these evil spirits are talking to me and keeping me up all night. I get the feeling that that is happening. Perhaps there is a spiritual problem. Perhaps it is a delusion. Perhaps the sleeplessness is causing me secondary symptoms. Perhaps this, perhaps that. If I have the capacity towards all these thoughts, is it truly a delusion? Is it truly an illness? Am I thinking too much?

I think I have higher intelligence than most. Is that grandiosity or is it reality? Is it a self esteem problem? Is it a problem? Is it intelligent that I'm able to see my own illness or do I have an illness at all? Should I learn humility or should I go test and join MENSA? What will become of my identity if my (true) IQ was say, 98 and it was all the mania afterall? Am I intelligent for having these thoughts or am I crazy for even thinking about this?

Do I think too much?
I will go hang out with my friends and exercise so that I can shut it all off for a minute and take myself outside of myself.
Am I crazy if I have good problem solving skills like this?
Does it matter as long as I can make myself functional and happy?
Am I functional and happy if I keep thinking like this?
Do I need to get laid?
(Drinks a fifth of vodka)
Am I an alcoholic?
Is it mandatory to be treated for alcoholism once you make that admission?
Do I have alcoholism if I'm so willing to admit it?
Shall I be treated for the things that are driving me to drink?
Will the drinking ruin my profound intelligence?
Am I unintelligent to drink so much and have such poor problem solving skills?
Am I highly intelligent to be able to see that in myself?
Is that a grandiose thought or just me thinking too much again?
Can a therapist outsmart me anyway?
Does some subconscious part of me want me to be crazy?
Should I go on vacation?
Do I have a multivitamin deficiency?
Shall I help someone in greater need?
The psych people will just lead me through this, I'm three steps ahead of them.
Maybe my problem is that I'm three steps ahead of them. I need to relax.
Do I need help to relax?

etc.... .


Conclusion: None.

Anyone,

Are you reading my mind? That is exactly what runs through my mind!

Cowboy

Cowboy wrote:Anyone,

Are you reading my mind? That is exactly what runs through my mind!

Cowboy

With all that thinking, you must have guessed that someone else was going through the same thing!

I guess it all depends on what one deems as crazy???