The Sentence.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

23

[Trinity]

There may well be only certain people vulnerable to such, people who's pasts were ropey to start with. However since we all know how easy it is to provoke a person into a rage (especially if we know them well) why is it so hard to think we could potentially provoke madness?

I've often wondered what exactly it is (or what combination of things) actually "flip" someone from sanity to madness, or is it sometimes a gradual deterioration? I have witnessed someone completely losing the plot and being taken away by ambulance and committed to a mental institution. I have also been in such states of mind where I feel like I could step over that edge myself but it's never happened. I have had severe depression and anxiety and plenty of suicidal thoughts but the closest I got to feeling like I was going insane was when I was suffering from severe hormonal imbalances, was seriously depressed and my OCD symptoms were so bad I wanted to kill myself but I knew that I wouldn't because I wouldn't abandon my children. This left me feeling like there was nowhere else "to go" in my mind and this lasted for a few days. It was a truly frightening experience, but I was always aware that I was in that state. Madness, I think is when there is no such lucidity. It fascinates me, anyway, the fine line that is apparent between sanity and insanity.

[Audley Strange]

There may well be only certain people vulnerable to such, people who's pasts were ropey to start with. However since we all know how easy it is to provoke a person into a rage (especially if we know them well) why is it so hard to think we could potentially provoke madness?

I've often wondered what exactly it is (or what combination of things) actually "flip" someone from sanity to madness, or is it sometimes a gradual deterioration? I have witnessed someone completely losing the plot and being taken away by ambulance and committed to a mental institution. I have also been in such states of mind where I feel like I could step over that edge myself but it's never happened. I have had severe depression and anxiety and plenty of suicidal thoughts but the closest I got to feeling like I was going insane was when I was suffering from severe hormonal imbalances, was seriously depressed and my OCD symptoms were so bad I wanted to kill myself but I knew that I wouldn't because I wouldn't abandon my children. This left me feeling like there was nowhere else "to go" in my mind and this lasted for a few days. It was a truly frightening experience, but I was always aware that I was in that state. Madness, I think is when there is no such lucidity. It fascinates me, anyway, the fine line that is apparent between sanity and insanity.

Well I've worked with patients with acute and chronic mental illness and the causes are varied. Certainly childhood fucks up a lot of people but I think there is both gradual transition and rapid onset (something we seen a lot with druggies and alcoholics). Actually I think madness is when the bizarre and unearthly do seem lucid, commonplace. If you know your hallucinating a talking dog, there's hope for you, if you are following it's instructions then there is a problem.

Your post gets to the crux of it I suppose, in so far as, how easy would it be to break someone, is it a matter of words and phrases or something else?

[Trinity]

There may well be only certain people vulnerable to such, people who's pasts were ropey to start with. However since we all know how easy it is to provoke a person into a rage (especially if we know them well) why is it so hard to think we could potentially provoke madness?

I've often wondered what exactly it is (or what combination of things) actually "flip" someone from sanity to madness, or is it sometimes a gradual deterioration? I have witnessed someone completely losing the plot and being taken away by ambulance and committed to a mental institution. I have also been in such states of mind where I feel like I could step over that edge myself but it's never happened. I have had severe depression and anxiety and plenty of suicidal thoughts but the closest I got to feeling like I was going insane was when I was suffering from severe hormonal imbalances, was seriously depressed and my OCD symptoms were so bad I wanted to kill myself but I knew that I wouldn't because I wouldn't abandon my children. This left me feeling like there was nowhere else "to go" in my mind and this lasted for a few days. It was a truly frightening experience, but I was always aware that I was in that state. Madness, I think is when there is no such lucidity. It fascinates me, anyway, the fine line that is apparent between sanity and insanity.

Well I've worked with patients with acute and chronic mental illness and the causes are varied. Certainly childhood fucks up a lot of people but I think there is both gradual transition and rapid onset (something we seen a lot with druggies and alcoholics). Actually I think madness is when the bizarre and unearthly do seem lucid, commonplace. If you know your hallucinating a talking dog, there's hope for you, if you are following it's instructions then there is a problem.

Your post gets to the crux of it I suppose, in so far as, how easy would it be to break someone, is it a matter of words and phrases or something else?

I had a neighbour a few houses down the lane and his wife had died years ago; he had three kids, the middle one used to be friends with my son. Anyhoo, the father was pretty reclusive, very private man (his kids were always in my house but mine were not allowed at his) which didn't bother me so I guess I just respected his need for privacy. One day the kids told me that their dad was "buying" a Thai lady who he had been having an online "relationship" with and was organising to bring her over to live here. She moved in and after a few months, all shit hit the fan and the police arrived at the door with the three children traumatised. Their dad had stabbed this Thai lady 40 times in a frenzy. We took care of the kids for a couple of days and had police all over the place. It turned out that the father "lost it" after finding out (allegedly) that his new Thai bride was flirting with other men. He was jailed, but was found out to have been mentally unstable so got a reduced sentence and I guess, rehabilitation. The Thai woman survived and moved back to Thailand so he came back to his house a couple of years ago. He saw me one day and thanked me for looking after his kids (who went into foster homes afterwards) and seemed completely fine. It was surreal to see him again, imagining him doing what he did. Quite unnerving and to be honest, I didn't know how to tell if he was "sane" again or whether he could very well do the same thing again. One of his children disowned him as he couldn't believe his father could have done such a thing. That boy then became a fanatical Christian. Ripples....

[Audley Strange]

Your post gets to the crux of it I suppose, in so far as, how easy would it be to break someone, is it a matter of words and phrases or something else?

I had a neighbour a few houses down the lane and his wife had died years ago; he had three kids, the middle one used to be friends with my son. Anyhoo, the father was pretty reclusive, very private man (his kids were always in my house but mine were not allowed at his) which didn't bother me so I guess I just respected his need for privacy. One day the kids told me that their dad was "buying" a Thai lady who he had been having an online "relationship" with and was organising to bring her over to live here. She moved in and after a few months, all shit hit the fan and the police arrived at the door with the three children traumatised. Their dad had stabbed this Thai lady 40 times in a frenzy. We took care of the kids for a couple of days and had police all over the place. It turned out that the father "lost it" after finding out (allegedly) that his new Thai bride was flirting with other men. He was jailed, but was found out to have been mentally unstable so got a reduced sentence and I guess, rehabilitation. The Thai woman survived and moved back to Thailand so he came back to his house a couple of years ago. He saw me one day and thanked me for looking after his kids (who went into foster homes afterwards) and seemed completely fine. It was surreal to see him again, imagining him doing what he did. Quite unnerving and to be honest, I didn't know how to tell if he was "sane" again or whether he could very well do the same thing again. One of his children disowned him as he couldn't believe his father could have done such a thing. That boy then became a fanatical Christian. Ripples....

By the big blue balls of Buddha, that's terrible. Ripples indeed.

[mistermack]

I initially thought, there's no chance that one sentence could make me flip.

But one just occurred to me.

In certain specific circumstances, the phrase " I used to be a man " could very well do me permanent damage.
I don't know how I'd handle it.

[John_fi_Skye]

"Oh, look! It's just like a penis....only smaller!"

[Robert_S]

I initially thought, there's no chance that one sentence could make me flip.

But one just occurred to me.

In certain specific circumstances, the phrase " I used to be a man " could very well do me permanent damage.
I don't know how I'd handle it.

Odid. I mean, if I had what tasted like a great cup of coffee but found out later it was actually genetically modified tea, I think I'd be ok after a brief adjustment period.
Sent from my LG-VM696 using Tapatalk 2

[mistermack]

I initially thought, there's no chance that one sentence could make me flip.

But one just occurred to me.

In certain specific circumstances, the phrase " I used to be a man " could very well do me permanent damage.
I don't know how I'd handle it.

Odid. I mean, if I had what tasted like a great cup of coffee but found out later it was actually genetically modified tea, I think I'd be ok after a brief adjustment period.
Sent from my LG-VM696 using Tapatalk 2

Yeh, coffee and tea aren't much of a challenge. I don't mind either in my mouth.

That principle doesn't carry over to men/women though. Not for me, anyway.

[Daedalus]

There may well be only certain people vulnerable to such, people who's pasts were ropey to start with. However since we all know how easy it is to provoke a person into a rage (especially if we know them well) why is it so hard to think we could potentially provoke madness?

I've often wondered what exactly it is (or what combination of things) actually "flip" someone from sanity to madness, or is it sometimes a gradual deterioration? I have witnessed someone completely losing the plot and being taken away by ambulance and committed to a mental institution. I have also been in such states of mind where I feel like I could step over that edge myself but it's never happened. I have had severe depression and anxiety and plenty of suicidal thoughts but the closest I got to feeling like I was going insane was when I was suffering from severe hormonal imbalances, was seriously depressed and my OCD symptoms were so bad I wanted to kill myself but I knew that I wouldn't because I wouldn't abandon my children. This left me feeling like there was nowhere else "to go" in my mind and this lasted for a few days. It was a truly frightening experience, but I was always aware that I was in that state. Madness, I think is when there is no such lucidity. It fascinates me, anyway, the fine line that is apparent between sanity and insanity.

Well I've worked with patients with acute and chronic mental illness and the causes are varied. Certainly childhood fucks up a lot of people but I think there is both gradual transition and rapid onset (something we seen a lot with druggies and alcoholics). Actually I think madness is when the bizarre and unearthly do seem lucid, commonplace. If you know your hallucinating a talking dog, there's hope for you, if you are following it's instructions then there is a problem.

Your post gets to the crux of it I suppose, in so far as, how easy would it be to break someone, is it a matter of words and phrases or something else?

I think it depends how you want to break someone, and to what end. There are certainly shortcuts, but I don't believe words in isolation are it.

The most expedient shortcut to breaking someone's mind is profound, lengthy, and uninterrupted sensory deprivation. You're exploiting the nature of the human brain, but if you're doing it because you want a specific result other than something like psychosis... eh. I'd guess that a combination of dissociative drugs and disturbing images, sounds, and personally upsetting monologue would be effective over a much longer time-scale.

The issue is not really breaking a person after all, but breaking people in such a way that you get a specific outcome. Torture, for example, is not so much about the challenge of making people talk, but the challenge of making them say what you need to hear from them. The former is easy, the latter can be impossible.

[Coito ergo sum]

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. Remember. Miles to go before I sleep." - Nicolai Dalchimsky