shot dead in DC

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I think most of the people I meet are mentally ill, so how to we select which need help, as opposed to the ones that are self pitying attention whores?

Also, how do we help the ones that are so crazy they think they're fine? I sure as hell don't trust Dr Phil, and the courts have ruled you can't force institutionalize them unless they are a danger. There again, a judgment call unless they've harmed someone.

Self-pitying attention whores are just that. I'm talking about major mental illness, the kind that kills - major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar 1 disorder. Not the personality or anxiety disorders or the urbanites who can't decide what they think about anything until they see a therapist.

Psychotic people are completely immersed in their delusions or hallucinations. That IS their reality. They live in fear more often than not. If you hear your furniture whispering bad things about you at night and plotting to kill you, you act to try to prevent that and you live in fear, as the next place you stay has furniture that whispers about you, too. The danger comes when command hallucinations start, or delusions become so overwhelming or terrifying that the person acts on them.

Dr. Phil doesn't do psychiatry, he does family therapy.