[arkades]

There’s a guy on my psych floor right now that, at his best, is too psychotic and paranoid to hold a job for more than a few days. At his worst - where he usually is, because his paranoia includes medications, and he believes he’s completely healthy - he’s only loosely tethered to reality. It’s a good day if he’s clothed even vaguely appropriate to the season, and manages to eat actual food. It’s not uncommon for him to eat soap because an archangel tells him this will increase his potency with women. This isn’t funny, nor exaggeration: this is how an actual real person is living and suffering.

He’s not exceptional. Psychotic disorders do that.

That you think that /describing their existence/ is “condescending and elitist” speaks mostly to the ridiculously privileged bubble you live in.

[c22]

This is absolutely blowing my mind right now because 20 years ago during a significant psychotic episode I also ate soap on the advice of a glowing angelic figure who also commanded me to store samples of my own semen in a freezer in my basement. I've long since accepted those experiences as crazy edge cases in a complex brain and tied every supernatural interpretation I had to actual rational events, and I'm sure this is just an insane coincidence, but damn if it doesn't make me pause for a second. I wonder if there's some strange cultural artifact I've forgotten that both I and this fellow were exposed to that would explain this synchronicity.

[maxpupmax]

Yeah thank you for your comment -- there are tons of people out there who need that kind of help, I have known some of them as well (maybe not as closely as in your profession!) and the us mental health system is not adequate

My point wasn't articulated well in my first comment. I am worried more about painting homeless people with such a broad stroke. Getting a roof over someone's head is entirely different from getting them mental health services -- we need to fix both to actually solve the problem. And the specific language around "ruiners" in the post really struck a nerve with me... I think that everyone is deserving of some degree of help and shouldn't be thrown in prison like OP suggested.

That said, I don't appreciate the personal attack. While I did find reading about your experience helpful and appreciate you sharing, I think your comment at the end is part of what makes the internet bad. Look to some of the other comments critical of my post for some better examples.