Is it normal most mental illness symptoms seem normal to me?

66% Normal
45 Comments

Whenever I see a list of symptoms of some mental disorder most if not all seem like normal behavior that could describe almost anyone.
What made me think of this topic just now is a friend called and wanted the number for where his bro was commited and I read the page that has symptoms listed as a warning for inpatient. I will list some symptoms they used.

-excessive talking
-desire to hurt others
-bizarre dress
-inability to concentrate
-confused thinking
-irritability

These seem like normal human behaviors to me. I do weirder stuff than this every day and I'm not in the loony bin although I have been diagnosed with a collection of mental disorders, which I see more as eccentricities.

I also visited a friend in the psych ward before and I thought most of them seemed normal.

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66% Normal
Based on 44 votes (29 yes)
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Comments ( 45 )
  • dirtybirdy
    10 years ago | pl

    "Our society tends to regard as a sickness any mode of thought or behavior that is inconvenient for the system and this is plausible because when an individual doesn't fit into the system it causes pain to the individual as well as problems for the system. Thus the manipulation of an individual to adjust him to the system is seen as a cure for a sickness and therefore as good."

    -Kaczynski

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      Ted why?! Why you blow them up?! Birdy why?! Why you suck my cock?! I'm most glad I can influence your reading habits I see, now BLOW ME whore.

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      • Kaczynski
        10 years ago

        Shhh.

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        • [Old Memory]
          10 years ago

          Suck my cock you slutty slut! You like my jizz in your throat

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          • [Old Memory]
            10 years ago

            I knew every guy liked butt sluts.

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      I want to have sex with a cat.

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      • dirtybirdy
        10 years ago

        I've got connections.

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        • [Old Memory]
          10 years ago

          Have you ever gotten a yeast infection from your own butthole?

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        • [Old Memory]
          10 years ago

          ...ok....

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    • RomeoDeMontague
      10 years ago

      This

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  • KeddersPrincess
    10 years ago

    I don't think it's the symptoms itself that decides whether a diagnosis is necessary or not. Technically, everyone does have a certain amount of one or two of the symptoms. I think it's the level that they have it. For example, OCD. Most people have a few symptoms of that may seem like OCD, but people who really have the disorder can barely go about their day because of it. Or like the one you listed "the desire to hurt others"; yes, we are a violent species but it's the ones who desire to hurt someone so much that they actually go and do it. I do believe that certain disorders and diagnosis are real because some disorders effect the person's life to the point that it really does separate them or the way their mind functions from other people.

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    • charli.m
      10 years ago

      This. When a mix of behaviours become something that interferes with day to day life, that's when they would be looked into as possible symptoms of a mental illness.

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  • Hugh*Janus
    10 years ago

    I agree with Mr Kaczynski.

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      Yes we all do, it doesn't change the fact that he didn't blow up enough stuff, and that's what matters.

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      • Hugh*Janus
        10 years ago

        He's a smart kid but he just didn't apply himself.

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        • [Old Memory]
          10 years ago

          "It is not enough to say he was smart", said George Piranian, another of his Michigan math professors. Kaczynski earned his PhD with his thesis entitled "Boundary Functions" by solving a problem so difficult that Piranian could not figure it out. Maxwell Reade, a retired math professor who served on Kaczynski's dissertation committee, also commented on his thesis by noting, "I would guess that maybe 10 or 12 men in the country understood or appreciated it."

          A bit beyond "smart" it sounds like.

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          • Hugh*Janus
            10 years ago

            Yes, but he's not very good at basketball so it all evens out.

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            • [Old Memory]
              10 years ago

              Exactly!

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          • [Old Memory]
            10 years ago

            **Kicks tommythecat in his pompous balls**

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  • pacinoharmon
    10 years ago

    I agree, I mean everybody is only human and we all have flaws. Urges to hurt people for no reason doesn't seem normal to me, but I get urges to punch rude people and I'm sure I'm not alone there.

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  • Geldsmaggen
    10 years ago

    They should just be honest and say the problem isn't the mind, the problem is they don't like your behavior. Instead of being condescending and telling people they are ill.

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      Ah yeah really well thought out genius. Just give the paranoid schizophrenic a hammer and send him out the door. Some mental illness causes people to be dangerous to themselves and others. Others are just totally disruptive to all around. And it is the mind. You can literally see the differences on a brain scan.

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      • Geldsmaggen
        10 years ago

        I never said to just let them go. If someone is guilty of behavior showing they are dangerous, charge them, convict them, and if it seems unlikely they are about to behave themselves deny them parole.

        How do you know the brain doesn't confiureg according to the energy demands people place upon it with their behavior? At least for some cases this could be the reason for the difference and if the person changed their behavior the chemistry would change along with itthugh o even then that's not the point. The behavior's all of relevance. If a person had brain chemistry that looked like a "disorder" but never behaved dangerously or even like any symptoms it would be absurd to say they were still ill. Thus, it really does come down to behavior. Mind alteration should be offered to inmates hoping for parole and wanting to show they will behave. But it should be made about the behavior.

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        • Geldsmaggen
          10 years ago

          Extraversion and introversion look differently on brain scans but neither is considered a disorder. Hence social disapproval is necessary for something to be a disorder. There are definitely things society should disapprove of but a person is more likely to change if they focus on changing their behavior and not obsessing over their thoughts. If you focus on what needs to be done that is more productive than trying to change your thoughts and then change behavior indirectly.
          Criminals should be treated as criminals and not mollycoddled and told they are ill.

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      • RoseIsabella
        10 years ago

        I'd love to get a brain scan!

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        • [Old Memory]
          10 years ago

          I had one and there were faces in my brain.

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          • RoseIsabella
            10 years ago

            What kinda faces?

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            • [Old Memory]
              10 years ago

              There were different faces as you scan through the frames. It morph's from a happy face to a mad face. Here are some clips from my CT scan.

              replace "slash" with / and replace "dot" with .

              HAPPY BRAIN
              tinypic dot com slash r/34ff7lh/5

              MAD BRAIN
              tinypic dot com slash r/wmmcsg/5

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        • [Old Memory]
          10 years ago

          MRI? And what will be the point by that time, theres not going to be a brain lol.

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          • RoseIsabella
            10 years ago

            Gosh, I don't know much about MRIs. I just want to know what my brain looks like; curious as to whether or not it resembles the brain of an insane person and if so what sort of mad woman.

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  • Smackdatho
    10 years ago

    fuck labels.

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      You're the kind of poop jockey that becomes cliche by trying to avoid it.

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