[drhodes]

It seems clear to me that the author was experiencing an unmedicated psychotic disorder and gallantly owning the preposterous outlook he had at the time. So, not bragging, just plainly stating the sort of bigger than life delusions that come with the territory.

[viraptor]

Which parts do you think were the delusions?

[nothrabannosir]

> It reaffirmed a delusion that had previously gripped my mind and begun my psychosis; I must be dead. This place, purgatory. I prayed for a quest or that my retribution was almost over, so that I could go back to land of the living.

...

> The old lady’s came marching in, and fed us pasta and bread and cake and cookies. There was Coca Cola. I ate because I had no choice, but suspicious of the sugar they forced on us. We slept on green mats. Most of the folks, drenched theirs in Industrial Clorox. I thought they had it wrong. Embrace the filth. Do you trust the chemicals?

...

> Some of the people around me drenched theirs in mountains of maple syrup. Is sugar the enemy?

...

> My paranoia of the place had dissipated slightly as the idea of having my own room felt pretty nice.

...

> I had refused to steal, convinced I was in purgatory and doing the “right thing” was the only way to pass the test. But standing there, the rules dissolved.

This article is dripping with psychosis. It's a story about a failing health care system.

Reading some of these comments, I'm starting to understand how the system could be the way it is, and just how far we have left yet to go.

[viraptor]

I see how it could be an actual psychosis, but I read it as full of rhetorical questions / observations / figurative speech. For example "is sugar the enemy?" could easily be a commentary on having to choose between unhealthy calories and having not enough when offered free meal. Paranoia and purgatory is phrasing often used by people for more fancy descriptions rather than literal.

[nothrabannosir]

"It begun my psychosis" is a literal statement.

Maybe if you miss that sentence, the rest can fly under the radar. Assuming one also ignores the commonly reported correlation between homelessness and mental illness. But try and have those two elements front of mind, and re-read the article: it should be abundantly clear that this is in no way a healthy person down on his luck--this is a story of someone going through a mental break.