# How reliable is testing for proving people crazy (or not) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 2, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-reliable-is-testing-for-proving-people-crazy-or-not/817185 "2018-07-02T19:52:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-reliable-is-testing-for-proving-people-crazy-or-not/817185/21 "2018-07-05T14:34:10Z")
IME “crazy” usually refers to some manner of schizophrenia or psychosis. Most people can understand depression, and even mania to some extent, and so don’t really regard those conditions as worthy of ostracism. But the real attention-grabbers are the people who have howling debates with walls or fire hydrants (or nobody at all, as they just shamble down the street expounding to the air about the work they did for the government involving scalar weapons and newts back in the 1920s), or will bend your ear for hours as they develop impossibly complex pictures of the world as they see it. With Sheldon being tested, I’d always assumed his adults looked at him and wondered whether he was (schizophrenic) or simply waaayyy smarter than any of them and was legit knowledgeable about stuff beyond their ken; and that the test in question was an I.Q. test. He scored highly, and as a result “crazy” was ruled out. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-reliable-is-testing-for-proving-people-crazy-or-not/817185/22 "2018-07-06T13:30:28Z")
I know from personal experience that all it takes is someone saying they think you are suicidal to have so-called experts forcing you to take anti-depressants which (guess what?) can make you suicidal. No tests, just give you drugs before they even let you have food or even soap. No wonder so many drug abuses are think and dirty. And you now what they think the cure for “situational depression” is? You guessed it–Stay in the same situation and do drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-reliable-is-testing-for-proving-people-crazy-or-not/817185/23 "2018-07-06T18:30:50Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Insanity is a legal term. A shrink can say somebody is legally insane- they do not know right from wrong. > > Speaking as somebody whose been on Tofranil, Trilafon, and Prozac just to name a few, who has been in therapy for decades now, and was a psych major in college before life kicked me in the groin, there is no one test for ‘crazy’. There are all kinds of test that taken as a whole show something not normal. > > Note that whether the patient is attempting to be deceptive and how good they are at being deceptive are big factors. I still remember one year when the battery of psych tests came up, I decided it would be fun to get them to think I was a powder keg of rage. The terrified therapist had a long talk with my parents. My parents had a short chat with me ‘You take those tests again! And you answer honestly this time!’ The therapist was much relieved by the second set of results. \*Off the top of mi hed, most sociopaths are very good at pretending to have morals, empathy and be normal. > > - Yes this actually happened. I’ve suspected you can pretty much get them to diagnose and label you with whatever mental illness you want. My dear friend wasn’t being deceptive with any of her sessions though, she has had some problems with depression that came on late in her life, along with certain anxieties. No doctor or medicine they prescribed her ever helped either. I pointed out Cecil’s column to her about many studies show that drugs treating for depression are a placebo, but might be of some help for those considered clinically depressed. She’s off of meds now. But no label the doctor gave her seem to fit. She eventually self diagnosed herself that she had borderline personality disorder. She ran it by her psychiatrist, and he concurred. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-reliable-is-testing-for-proving-people-crazy-or-not/817185/24 "2018-07-07T13:19:58Z")
Odd that, after being labelled with “situational depressions” and being told to stay in the same situation, get on disability and take medication, I’ve been working, supporting myself and not doing drugs for the past 4 1/2 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-reliable-is-testing-for-proving-people-crazy-or-not/817185.md?page=1)