Can you be insane and yet think you're fairly normal?

[Ambivalent1]

?

 

[Unending]

I find myself wondering the same thing most days.

 

[scarecrowbubu]

It seems that that could be one "symptom". But what if you are the normal one and the others crazy? What we define insane and what we define fairly normal?

 

[RoundaboutResolved]

Yes

 

[Deo volente]

To a savage, any civilized person probably seems insane. To a genius, normal people probably seem insane and vice versa. Sanity seems like a relatively defined state to me. That also means you can think you are both insane and normal, if you think normality implies insanity. In my case, I believe I am both.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Yes. My neighbour told me that he had some sort of mental breakdown (he was trying to get people to look after his possessions while he went to live in a nearby park.) Yet, at the time- he said it felt like absolute clarity- that he had finally seen the light.

I guess it just depends. I have seen dementia affect people different ways. Some seem aware that they are losing their faculties, whereas others are caught up in whatever they are experiencing. It can change too. They can experience more lucid days than others. It's so sad to see.

I guess it depends on what you call insanity too- there's probably a very wide spectrum. I guess the simplest explanation would be a change in the brain that makes us think in a way we don't have control over. Where does depression sit in this though? I suspect most of us here would be diagnosed with depression- yet some would be displeased to be classed as mentally ill.

I'm not sure if I have any mental illness. I'd say only slightly- if I do- mild-moderate depression maybe but who really knows? It doesn't seem to be as straight forward to diagnose as physical illness.