Post by Anton on Jun 16, 2013 13:34:19 GMT
Who hasn’t at least once in their life asked the question, “Am I going crazy?”
But what does it really mean to be crazy? What are the signs of being crazy? Can someone be crazy and not know it? If one were to look in the psychiatric manuals for a description of crazy it would not be there. The word crazy is not a clinical term in the world of psychology or psychiatry. Insanity is not a clinical term either. Insanity is a legal term used by the justice system to describe a defendant who is "incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong at the time of his offense.”
The dictionary defines “crazy” in a number of ways. Sometimes crazy means nothing more than “different”, “unusual”, “out of the ordinary”, or “eccentric”. So what may be very ordinary and normal for one might seem bizarre, unusual, or crazy” to another. Often this is what is meant by our use of the word “crazy”. So for example if you saw someone in a hospital gown at the intersection attempting to direct traffic, you might think, “he’s crazy!”.
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
There is a term in psychiatry that comes close to what people usually mean by crazy and that word is psychotic. The best way to describe the term psychotic is “a state of losing touch with reality”. An individual who is psychotic no longer experiences the world as it is. He experiences the world in a very unique subjective way that is based on what’s happening inside of his mind and that often differs dramatically from what’s happening in the real world. The hallmark symptoms of being psychotic are hallucinations and delusions. A hallucination is “a sensory perception in the absence of any stimulus”. Hallucinations can be visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), olfactory (smelling), tactile (feel or touch) and even gustatory (taste). Visual and auditory are by far the most common types of psychotic hallucinations. Someone who sees something that is not present is experiencing a visual hallucination. Someone who hears a voice where none exists is experiencing an auditory hallucination.
Auditory hallucinations such as “hearing voices” are common in disorders such as schizophrenia and certain mood disorders like bipolar. Auditory hallucinations can be either benign or quite malicious and almost “evil” in nature. In psychiatry, a delusion is a “false belief” or a belief that is held by a person despite evidence to the contrary. There are many categories of delusions in psychiatry (grandiose delusions, religious delusions, delusions of control, erotic delusions, paranoid delusions,
etc.) Grandiose delusions are when a person believes they are famous or notorious in some way or that they possess special abilities or talents. A person with religious delusions may believe that he talks to God or that he is God. A person with delusions of control believes that his thoughts or actions are under the control of some outside force or entity. Erotic delusions involve the false belief that someone is in love with you despite evidence to the contrary. Paranoid delusions, perhaps the most common type of delusion, involve the belief that someone is following you, listening to you, or out to get you in some way.
There are a number of disorders in psychiatry that produce hallucinations and/or delusions. These include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, brief psychotic disorder, delusional disorder, psychotic depression, and others. These disorders are
normally treated with some type of antipsychotic medication (Thorazine, Haldol, Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Abilify are a few examples.) Therefore, the next time you think that you might be going crazy chances are that unless you’re hearing voices or you believe that everyone is out to get you, then YOU’RE NOT.
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness. And they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy... or they become legend." Jim Harrison
Source material: Psychology Today online, Wikipedia, Mentalhealth.com, APA 2000
But what does it really mean to be crazy? What are the signs of being crazy? Can someone be crazy and not know it? If one were to look in the psychiatric manuals for a description of crazy it would not be there. The word crazy is not a clinical term in the world of psychology or psychiatry. Insanity is not a clinical term either. Insanity is a legal term used by the justice system to describe a defendant who is "incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong at the time of his offense.”
The dictionary defines “crazy” in a number of ways. Sometimes crazy means nothing more than “different”, “unusual”, “out of the ordinary”, or “eccentric”. So what may be very ordinary and normal for one might seem bizarre, unusual, or crazy” to another. Often this is what is meant by our use of the word “crazy”. So for example if you saw someone in a hospital gown at the intersection attempting to direct traffic, you might think, “he’s crazy!”.
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
There is a term in psychiatry that comes close to what people usually mean by crazy and that word is psychotic. The best way to describe the term psychotic is “a state of losing touch with reality”. An individual who is psychotic no longer experiences the world as it is. He experiences the world in a very unique subjective way that is based on what’s happening inside of his mind and that often differs dramatically from what’s happening in the real world. The hallmark symptoms of being psychotic are hallucinations and delusions. A hallucination is “a sensory perception in the absence of any stimulus”. Hallucinations can be visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), olfactory (smelling), tactile (feel or touch) and even gustatory (taste). Visual and auditory are by far the most common types of psychotic hallucinations. Someone who sees something that is not present is experiencing a visual hallucination. Someone who hears a voice where none exists is experiencing an auditory hallucination.
Auditory hallucinations such as “hearing voices” are common in disorders such as schizophrenia and certain mood disorders like bipolar. Auditory hallucinations can be either benign or quite malicious and almost “evil” in nature. In psychiatry, a delusion is a “false belief” or a belief that is held by a person despite evidence to the contrary. There are many categories of delusions in psychiatry (grandiose delusions, religious delusions, delusions of control, erotic delusions, paranoid delusions,
etc.) Grandiose delusions are when a person believes they are famous or notorious in some way or that they possess special abilities or talents. A person with religious delusions may believe that he talks to God or that he is God. A person with delusions of control believes that his thoughts or actions are under the control of some outside force or entity. Erotic delusions involve the false belief that someone is in love with you despite evidence to the contrary. Paranoid delusions, perhaps the most common type of delusion, involve the belief that someone is following you, listening to you, or out to get you in some way.
There are a number of disorders in psychiatry that produce hallucinations and/or delusions. These include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, brief psychotic disorder, delusional disorder, psychotic depression, and others. These disorders are
normally treated with some type of antipsychotic medication (Thorazine, Haldol, Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Abilify are a few examples.) Therefore, the next time you think that you might be going crazy chances are that unless you’re hearing voices or you believe that everyone is out to get you, then YOU’RE NOT.
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness. And they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy... or they become legend." Jim Harrison
Source material: Psychology Today online, Wikipedia, Mentalhealth.com, APA 2000
