This question geared more towards those who don’t have a long term mental issue but have once in their life had a period of up to a month where they nearly lost contact with reality ( that wasn’t caused by drugs).
Will 9 moths to a year do?
After my Mother died, I had a terrible breakdown.
Complete turmoil.
Not in the classic sense but I do turn recluse now and then at a cabin way back in the mountains. Its not so much that I lose touch with reality as much as totally ignore its existence for a month or two. I’ve done it maybe three times in my life. I like to think of it more as “intense sanity” but I’ve had others tell me its nucking futs.
Lepidoptera hallucinations will usually indicate it, yes.
I once got so mad at my wife during a fight that I put my foot thru my beautiful Gibson acoustic guitar.
Time passed, I got rid of the wife and got a new Gibson…
I’ve had a few instances of delirium related to high fever or medication. Once, in college, I had the flu and wandered out of my dorm in my underwear, muttering about conspiracies. I wasn’t on any medication at the time, and the emergency room doctor said that my fever had gotten so high that my ear wax melted.
I was involved with my oldest brothers dive into a temporary insane few weeks. His wife and in-laws just dumped him on me with no explanation. Before I got done ‘helping’ him, he was in therapy and divorced. I consider it one my prouder moments. He is now remarried with children and business of his own, and not crazy. Yay, me!
Does bein’ drunk count? If not, no.
Since I’m going to die some day I guess my insanity could be considered temporary.
I once briefly hallucinated. I saw a little guy in a gray suit with a brown briefcase walking in the woods. I call it the time I saw a leprechaun. It was a very well dressed leprechaun. I chalked it up to pretty significant sleep deprivation.
Once I was replacing the starter on a 72 Chevy Impala. Hotter than hell outside. Doing it in the street in front of my house. I took the old starter out, no problem. It took a little maneuvering to get it out because the exhaust pipe was in the way but it came out fairly easy. Put the new one in as a test fit. Went in easy but needed a couple shims to be right.
As I’m doing this, it’s 90+ degrees F. Ants are crawling all over me. Mosquitoes are biting me. I’m sweating like crazy. I tried to take the new starter out but despite going in easy it would not come back out. The exhaust pipe was in the way and I could not get that stupid thing back out. Wrestled with it for a long time before deciding it was time to take a break. As I lay under the car trying to figure out why the stupid starter wouldn’t come back out, it suddenly fell out and hit me in the face. I do not remember anything until I realized I was standing next to the car and kicking the shit out of the driver side door. If there had been a person standing nearby I may very well have killed them and not remembered! :eek:
I had an attack of gout in my knee. I went to the hospital and they wanted to tap the knee and I had an authentic panic attack at the idea of a long needle going into my knee - severe enough that they were bringing in medical students to observe it. I temporarily was, to steal P.J. O’Roarke’s wonderful description of Imelda Marcos “…as crazy as a rat in a coffee can.”
Hey, flesh it out a bit and you’ve got yourself a great country song!
I got peritonitis and kept insisting I was fine and telling people to leave me alone. I just wanted everybody to go away. If they had, I would’ve been dead within a hundred hours. At some point something clicked and I gave up that fight and agreed to surgery, and thereafter have not been able to imagine why I was working so hard against my own interests. It was purely mental malfunction.