Personality Disorders and Mental Illness's

[BlessYourCottonSocks]

I've become intrigued about the human mind after watching the relatively new season of "Hannibal". It's a mind stimulating show that makes me wonder a lot about human psychology and what people are capable of. The miraculous detail of the murders and the explicit well arranged display put forward for the viewers is anything but comfortable. In fact, after watching the whole entire first season in 2 days, it was hard for my mind to stop spinning and to snap out of the dazey depression of the possible reality that these human monsters are among us. Our friends, our neighbors, coworkers and even family. 20% of the population...

 

The main character who is a dreading empath can feel and kidnap the mind of a killer for an uncomfortable, frightening moment. It's in this experience he thinks like the killer so he can began to understand the mind of someone who is able to perform such diabolical acts. Which makes me wonder what he is capable of...is it really empathy?

 

So with that said, has anyone experienced mental illness's, from Borderline Personality Disorder to Psychosis? Schizophrenia (which I believe Will Graham, the main character, has developed) or bipolar disorder? What goes on in the mind of a killer?

 

And the shocking revelation that it's all in our brain. On the outside we all look normal, but if only we could see the mental illness's lurking in our brains...

[mammasita]

Love that show!

 

I feel like you have to have the mind of a killer to figure the killer out.

[BlessYourCottonSocks]

Love that show!

 

I feel like you have to have the mind of a killer to figure the killer out.

 

I agree. Which is why I think psychologists are all a little mental themselves. You can study psychology, but to really understand your patient, you must be a little crazy yourself. I think in the show they mentioned that psychologists and doctors are one of the groups more likely to be killers/psychotic.

[carhill]

Yeah, I took care of a psychotic person (diagnosed paraphrenia with psychosis) for about eight years, one year live-in, two years independent and the rest managing care in a locked institutional environment. What do you want to know? The short version is one minute she could kick me in the balls and the next be fondling them. Not exactly the picture a child should have of their parent, eh?

 

Trust me, you really don't want to know about such mental illnesses, up close and personal. Far better to read about them in a book or online. The good news is that I can more easily suss out symptoms and/or manage the behaviors of those mentally ill people I encounter or happen to interact with in my social circle.

 

If you watched Anthony Hopkins in the original 'Silence of the Lambs', the one thing I could identify with completely is not knowing what was coming next. Little was predictable or consistent. Perhaps it is more so with some mental illnesses but not what I dealt with. Glad that's over.

[BlessYourCottonSocks]

Thanks Carhill. I'm sorry that was something you had to go through, I can't imagine. How do you think that affected you mentally?

 

I'd love to learn everything about mental illness, hear experiences and even see it first hand. The human mind fascinates me.

 

I'm curious to know what happened to these people to make them so different, to make them act this way. What generated the mind to react in such a way?

 

I've tried to read it about it online, but I can't find much. It seems like not many people talk about it.

 

I haven't watched Silence of the Lambs yet, I plan to rent it soon.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

Yeah, I took care of a psychotic person (diagnosed paraphrenia with psychosis) for about eight years, one year live-in, two years independent and the rest managing care in a locked institutional environment. What do you want to know? The short version is one minute she could kick me in the balls and the next be fondling them. Not exactly the picture a child should have of their parent, eh?

 

Trust me, you really don't want to know about such mental illnesses, up close and personal. Far better to read about them in a book or online. The good news is that I can more easily suss out symptoms and/or manage the behaviors of those mentally ill people I encounter or happen to interact with in my social circle.

 

If you watched Anthony Hopkins in the original 'Silence of the Lambs', the one thing I could identify with completely is not knowing what was coming next. Little was predictable or consistent. Perhaps it is more so with some mental illnesses but not what I dealt with. Glad that's over.

[carhill]

Mentally? I went through my own version of 'crazy', as I didn't have proper training in dealing with a psychotic person. Fortunately, as part of the diagnostic process, the team turned me on to resources and professional assistance, which helped. The main 'killer' was lack of sleep.

 

I'm curious to know what happened to these people to make them so different, to make them act this way. What generated the mind to react in such a way?

 

The professionals have a saying: 'When you've seen one mentally ill person, you've seen one mentally ill person'

 

They're all different. In our case, a combination of diminishing oxygen to the brain, along with general synaptic degeneration from age, exacerbated by a couple horrifically placed haematomas which killed off portions of the brain.

 

I was just talking about this to a close female friend about a week ago, as she and her husband were concerned about changes in her speech, as she was 'forgetting' how to put sentences together and her words would occasionally slur. I strongly suggested to them to push aggressively for a brain scan/MRI/PET and get to the bottom of it ASAP. They related that had been requesting such but the insurance company wouldn't approve. Well, a couple days ago I got the news: Stage 4 cancer with brain tumors. One evidently is affecting the speech center of the brain, along with cognitive areas. I don't know the details yet but will soon.

 

For some people, mental illness/psychological disorder is a static, lifelong journey. For others, it comes on over time. For others it can change in a day. Everyone is different.

 

IMO, having worked with a lot of brain professionals, that area of medicine is still in its infancy and can be a very challenging area to work in, since much of our interaction with other humans, perceptions to those interactions, and reaction, is predicated upon the health and function of the brain. If something is or goes wrong, the results can be exceedingly difficult to deal with as the organ doing the interacting is the one which is damaged or deficient. Tough row to hoe.

[salparadise]

I'd love to learn everything about mental illness, hear experiences and even see it first hand. The human mind fascinates me.

 

Sounds like a research psychologist in the making

 

I'm curious to know what happened to these people to make them so different, to make them act this way. What generated the mind to react in such a way?

 

It's not very well understood. Any valid discoveries would earn you a gold star. The current thinking is that it's a combination of biological predisposition and environmental circumstances that cause it to be realized. Of course the vast majority of such mental illnesses do not produce serial killers. They usually exist with lesser degrees of psychosis and impact the families in ways that may be largely invisible to outsiders. Disruption or failure to establish the bond with the mother during early childhood has long been thought to be the key environmental cause of the Cluster B personality disorders such as borderline, hysteria and narcissism. Freud's patients were histrionics and his theories on psycho-sexual development are still relevant, although no longer taken verbatim. Also, Anna Freud (his daughter) developed theories on defense mechanisms that provide a lot of insight into the workings of the human mind.

 

Those are a good starting point, but realize that there have been many movements in psychology, and theories come into and go out of fashion like skirt lengths. It might be good to read an overview of the history of psychology so that you can put things into context rather than taking any one person's theory too seriously.