Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

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Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby octoberpumpkin » Thu Jun 23, 2016 9:27 pm

So I have a friend who has some problems and won't go to therapy. I guess he isn't ready. But I was hoping to get a bit of a better understanding as to what's going on and I don't know if anyone else here has some experience with these issues, either with themselves or others, who might be able to offer some help. Either as to how to approach him in these situations or other such things.

So here's some of the issues:
-Extreme black and white thinking. Everything is either wrong or right. No inbetweens. Ever.
-Grandiose thinking about himself. He thinks he has this special mission to prevent the world from turning in to literal hell. He often calls himself the "last moral stand." He believes he has much more influence over situations than he does (like the situation below).
-Very extreme thinking in general. He thinks with the whole Brexit thing going on, that if they don't leave, the world will literally end and we will be in a post-apocalyptic wasteland type of situation. I am not exaggerating. It is causing him considerable stress and anxiety.
-Anger issues and trouble controlling those anger issues. Will lash out at anyone who doesn't agree with him.
-Thinks most people in the world are hedonists, something which upsets him greatly and he believes he needs to "save them".
-Mood swings. Will be angry, lash out and insult, and then become very ashamed and apologize but cannot stop himself from lashing out again.

He has literally said thing like this:
"It really feels, all the time, like it's me against the world. That all I can do is just sit by and watch while civilization is destroyed around me. And I live in fear of the day where they'll come with guns and tanks to silence my voice of dissent. It'll happen."

And he 100% completely believes them. He believes he will be literally killed because he disagrees with certain opinions like abortion.

"I'll have to watch as my children have to live in a society where Christian values are outlawed, where stealing from your neighbor is a way of life, where sex and vulgarity are common virtues, and where murder and rape are as commonplace as air and water."
"Where I see that enmity to life, to freedom, to human rights, I must do whatever in my limited power to cut it out."

It's getting very extreme and I don't know how far he's going to end up taking this. It's delusional and he's so scared of all of these end of world scenarios and I just... don't even know what to do with this. Any idea what could be going on? Any advice?

Thank you!
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby sunglasses » Thu Jun 23, 2016 9:39 pm

Here's an educational slideshow for ER staff that might help.
http://www.suttermedicalcenter.org/psyc ... tation.pdf

But my first thought was upon seeing the extreme black and white was "borderline." There are other d/o that have splitting.
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby octoberpumpkin » Thu Jun 23, 2016 9:51 pm

Thank you, that's very helpful! BPD was my first thought too but I'm by no means an expert so that's why I was hoping others might have some more insight. He was diagnosed before with autism but that doesn't necessarily seem accurate from what I understand?
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby Tesseracts » Thu Jun 23, 2016 10:15 pm

This isn't the "autism" guy is it?

It sounds like he doesn't want help. People with grandiose thinking probably won't get help unless something drastic happens.

Seems a huge part of the issue is his moral and political framework. The best way to calm this down is through example. So next time he says society is falling apart because there are no Christian values, you can say something like "my husband is atheist and a moral person." You could also try discussing things which make him feel safe not paranoid. Surely there must be something positive about his religion left in his mind, it can't all be about persecution.
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby octoberpumpkin » Thu Jun 23, 2016 10:17 pm

Different guy! Thank you for the advice!
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby Kivutar » Thu Jun 23, 2016 10:34 pm

He sounds like an absolute clone of one of my family members. That fellow was actually diagnosed as manic, as in manic depressive but without the depressive bit. I actually didn't know that was a thing before his diagnosis, but there it is. Would it be a possibility?
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby octoberpumpkin » Thu Jun 23, 2016 11:44 pm

I would say he has enough depression that if anything it would be manic depression or bipolar, but that could be possible.

I'm just worried because he's sending off some bad red flags like how it's his job to stop the hedonists and thinking he has a bigger role in things than he does...
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby sunglasses » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:12 am

Then maybe it hurt to call the local mental health office about him
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby octoberpumpkin » Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:20 am

Well hey at least with the UK voting to leave the European Union, we won't have to live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, apparently.

Image
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby Grimstone » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:53 am

A lot of mental disorders are very similar and so they require that you go through a certain order of elimination to make a specific diagnosis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoid_ ... y_disorder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusional_disorder
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby DomaDoma » Sun Jun 26, 2016 7:55 pm

I think it may be that he's just discovered some strain of traditionalist Steynian politics and he's scared so shitless by it that he's ceased to have any sense of proportion. Because that's pretty close to my own mindset around the time of Obama's re-election.

In that case, the way to bring him around is to join him in compassionate activities operating off the Starfish Principle. Of course one person can't save the world. But they can do a heck of a lot for individual people, all the same, and it adds up.
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby 52xMax » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:17 am

Sounds like your friend has an extreme case of being a douchebag.

I would know, since I happen to be one myself.




In all seriousness, he probably is dealing with one or many mental issues that require professional attention, among them narcissistic personality disorder, which might be what keeps him from looking for help or even realizing he's got a problem in the first place. But short of pointing him out towards people who can help, and showing your support as a friend, there's not much you can do about it. The ball's entirely in his court... unless you actually think his situation is serious and/or getting worse, in which case, depending on how serious, you may want to reach out to a close family members, or even the proper authorities if you believe he might become a danger to himself or others.
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Re: Perhaps serious mental health issue, need advice?

Postby octoberpumpkin » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:39 am

Thanks for the advice guys! He had another swing towards the positive and that's when I and another friend had a serious talk with him about how concerned we are and why and he has agreed that he should see help. He's also tired of his moods and how he alienates people and loses friends over it and stresses, etc. So hopefully that will work for him.

Side note: I love the starfish thing, we've talked a lot about it in my human services program!
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