# Have you ever experience 'temporary insanity'? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 4, 2018, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274 "2018-07-04T10:25:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EricaRoche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3da27b/32.png) [@EricaRoche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EricaRoche)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/1 "2018-07-04T10:25:59Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/2 "2018-07-04T11:29:35Z")
Will 9 moths to a year do? After my Mother died, I had a terrible breakdown. Complete turmoil. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/3 "2018-07-04T17:33:10Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/4 "2018-07-04T20:04:51Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Will 9 moths to a year do? Lepidoptera hallucinations will usually indicate it, yes. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/5 "2018-07-04T23:13:07Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/6 "2018-07-04T23:26:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/7 "2018-07-04T23:40:22Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/8 "2018-07-05T00:29:20Z")
Does bein’ drunk count? If not, no. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/9 "2018-07-05T00:35:33Z")
Since I’m going to die some day I guess my insanity could be considered temporary. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/10 "2018-07-05T00:39:58Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/11 "2018-07-05T01:04:44Z")
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: ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/12 "2018-07-05T20:29:19Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/13 "2018-07-05T20:41:59Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > 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… Hey, flesh it out a bit and you’ve got yourself a great country song! ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experience-temporary-insanity/817274/14 "2018-07-05T20:54:10Z")
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.