Have you ever had a strange encounter with an OBVIOUSLY mentally ill person ?

Not a split personality. He is hearing voices and is probably schizophrenic. Most schizophrenics are not dangerous. I worked in the mental health field for two decades, so I've had lots of contact with mentally ill. The schizophrenics are the most interesting, believe me. I worked in a prison setting and for a time in the psychiatric unit in a prison. There most of the inmates were locked down much of the time. And, of course, all were locked inside the prison gates all the time. One of my favorite memories is of the guy who believed he was a well-known country singer and that he went out on the weekends to perform! Somehow there was no way to convince him otherwise. He also said he could predict what song was going to be on the radio before it played. A song would come on and he'd say, "See! I knew that was going to play." Psychiatric inmates are people who became psychotic after they were incarcerated or they were not considered legally insane even though they had a mental illness. Some were quite pitiable. They, for the most part, had no family left who visited or sent them things. And if they were ever released they had no where to go but on the street. Usually they'd end up back in prison because they couldn't function in the community. The only psychotic inmates that I found to be dangerous were the ones who were very paranoid and feeling threatened. When that happened the guards, for the most part, didn't accept our training of them to back off and let the inmate settle down. The guards adrenalin would start pumping and they would agitate the inmates even more, often resulting in violence. Actually, I've seen then torment mentally ill inmates just for the fun of it to see if they could get them into trouble. How can people be that way?

I'm engaged to a lovely, sweet, kind, affectionate paranoid schizophrenic. sadly it only happened because of some very poor medication choices on the part of his doctors. I still love him. to be fair though, if you met him I think you'd just think he was a bit shy and introverted. if you didn't know him well you wouldn't know there was anything not right about him.

yeah all the time I live In canada, There alots of crazy ppl out there but there still normal... like ppl with disability there still normal.. i think u need to lossen up a bit and if u just lisen ppl will tell u who they are. Its just up to u.... i think your old and dont need to look Like a child hinddin in the bathrooms. imagine how That persoN feels... U never Know maybe U made his day just but asking how his doing.

I have been meaning to get to this discussion all day, but there have been a couple I have been involved in, so I have watched them every time I had a chance to sit down. I have a sister that has been diagnosed with Schizophrenia, I fist started noticing changes in her when she was about 27, I am not sure really how long she had been grappling with her thoughts before that. For many years she was able to take care of her kids and keep a job. But eventually it got to a point she would have a job and a few months in she would be fired because people could not take her anymore. Every one was out to get her, had surveillance on her, worked for the CIA and government. They were all after her millions of dollars, on top of which the government owned her 2.4 million for work she had personally done. I have to tell you as her sister it was horrendous, she has three beautiful daughters, it was even worse. She spent 2.5 years in a mental health rehab, just getting her thinking straighten out with meds. She got out and lived in a half way house for about year after that. Then she went to school for radiology graduated this past July. I was soooooo proud of her. She was my sister again. I guess months before graduation she stopped taking her meds. It creeped up so slowly again we hardly saw it coming I started noticing that she was talking about how her instructors were sabotaging her efforts. Nothing big mind you. A C when at least a B was clearly indicated. After graduation she stopped paying her rent on the condo she had a land contract on. Then She stopped calling me, I called her out of concern and right away I knew. She got into an argument with her daughter and stormed out of the house. She called the police and had her arrested for assault, when Candy did nothing to her. This was the kind of things she would do, call the police on some kind of trumped up charges against us that only happened in her mind. Each one of us has been to court or arrested, then charges dismissed after she has stood in the court room and talked, Which was what happened to Candy. Yes Sugar I have had this experience and it is unpleasant at the very least.

I'm bipolar and have never had an insane moment in my life. A lot of people think someone needs to have something odd about them to be mentally ill. I know what you are talking about though, and yes, I have been around people like that. One man repeatedly asked me if I would stand up so he could see if I had a big booty. It was soon apparent he wasn't all there. Another woman came up to talk to me one day and was in her mid forties, but she talked about and related as if she were twelve years old. That one took me longer to figure out because all I knew of her was that she was a sister of a person I knew. It took me awhile, but once I figured it out I was able to relate to her on the level she was thinking.

Thats funny, we live in halifax and just down the street there are 2 or them that live together. He cross dresses and she has another man come to there place all the time...CRAZY. And they live by themselves....I don't know what to do when I see them...I try to cross the street

i experienced it before. i was sitting in our little church back home and while waiting for the mass (because i came early), i read the latest issue of the church's newspaper and after a while there's a woman who sat near me. minutes after she asked me. "Is that the pope?" and i said "yes". She looks okay, not so neat-not so dirty and has slippers. And again she asked, "Where does he live?". For a second i pause, then answer her, "Rome." Right after, she asked me one last thing that confirms me that she's mentally ill. She asked, "How much it'll cost me to get there?". Hehehe..

yes, and it is scary because you dont know what they will do next its like walking on egg shells.....................

no I have not myself but my sister married one of them now she is divorced from him

We are all crazy to some degree, and anyone can get mental illness, no-one is inept. Really stats are that mental illness is the next biggest thing in healthcare bieng treated next to heart disease. Where do i get my facts, I work for the Canadian Mental Health Assoctiation. Someday when you are walking around like that, think that about 1 in ten have a mental illness. I myself have bi-polar disorder, and enjoy my job very much. Sometimes it just scares us around strangers when unusual behavior we don't understand is happening. It is no excuse or it is easy to make fun of something we do not understand. Obviously that individual is suffering from schizophrenia more than likely, but that diagnosis is not a "split personality" it is a mental as well as neurologial disorder which can be treated somewhat with meds, counselling and ongoing support. Don't worry, it is a common fact that only 10% of people with mental illness are actually violent. He probably appreciated you helping him with the machine! Somebaody taking to themselves is absolutely harmless to you because they are not aware that they are doing this at the time. I encounter this everyday at work and live with bipolar, but with help and treatment and support from the community, i wouldn't have it any other way.

He probably was harmless, but what you did was wise because you never know. When we did live in the city and I had my two oldest ones, they were 4 & 2 at the time, we were sitting on the front porch because it was hot and this guy was walking down the sidewalk and was talking to himself in a way that looked like he was fighting with himself. I just took my kids and went inside until he was gone.. It can be scary, so it is better to be safe...

i had someone who regularly fed me medication. later, i had the good fortune to rip of my 'jacket' and kill a taxi driver or 2. later i was cornered by armed police in a hall of mirrors. then i knew i was surrounded by a pack of numpties.

Hey Lil Sis, I was raised by an aggressive schizophrenic and my brother was a paranoid schizophrenic. And, now I live in Public Housing. It just so happens that the buildings that I live in are set aside for the elderly and disabled. By disabled they mean any kind of disability, and we do have all kinds. I could write a book about the folks who like to talk to walls and doors and washing machines. Some are harmless and some just seem that way for awhile. Since the weather is fairly warm year around here, we have our compliment of interesting homeless folks too. We have one gentleman that likes to talk to the wall outside the 7-11. Well the deputies did not like that and hauled him off. He is totally harmless so all the boaters at the Marina collected money for his bail and we bailed him out of jail because we knew how claustraphobic he was. Two of us even went to court with him and helped get the charges dropped and the Judge even gave him permission to talk to the wall of 7-11 as long as that is all he did there. First time I ever liked a Judge. Shalom~Adoniah

I have met a strange man , when I was in junior high school. One day after school, I was on my way home, a middle age man stop me by asking for a book store.He took out a note with bawdry on it . At that moment ,I was confused thinking if he is a father worried about his children or a abnormal man. I wanted to escape.I told him I really don't know and walk away from him in a hurry. Thanks godness,he did't come on.

I dont blame you for hiding in the bathroom.LOL When I was younger and still living at home there was a lady that looked like she didnt have a home. She was real dirty looking and she would talk to her self too.LOL She would walk all over town talking away. I felt so sorry for her. But I never went up to her. I was afraid of her.

There was this one time last summer we driving down a street down town and their was this guy that looked elmer fudd. He would walk and talk to himself and then stop and start yelling at himself!

I was once in a store. Some guys walks in with no shoes and wearing some Flannel Pajamas. I didn;t think nothing of it, Just figured he was a little out of it. Iw was just finishing up my shopping. I was going to walk out the front door when all of a sudden everything went black and I felt such pain in the face. I had no clue what was going on at first. I was 19 years old and was holding my new born son. My mom was also shopping with me. Than suddenly I came back to reality because like I said I had my son in my hands. Still not knowing what was happening I heard mom screaming that man just punched my daughter in the face someone go call the cops. It still amazes me to this day that I did not drop my son. To think what would have happened if I would have dropped him when this guy punched me. So the cops were called and the cops new right away who he was. They said they had been looking for him all day, that he somehow Escaped from a mental institution and that I was not the only one he had hit that day.The cops in turn made me go to the hospital. Had a mid concussion and had a headache for weeks, besides the ugly bruising on my face. My point is though some are harmless and some are, If you don;t know the mental person or think someone your walking by could have some mental disabilities just take some caution.

There are some mentally-ill people here in our city and I had a strange encounter on one of them. There was a day when me and my friends are just walking around the city. Then here comes a man that is holding a big stick. Suddenly he asked one of my friends - Where are you going? Without warning he attacked him with the stick. It's a good thing my friend wasn't hurt and he got away. Another is that a young man climbed on our national hero's statue and he started dirty dancing with it. That young man really is a good dancer - in fact that is the only thing he is doing - dance.