# Kidnapped by a Schizophrenic (Need Answer Fast) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 27, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488 "2009-07-27T22:16:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Synaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Synaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Synaptics)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/21 "2009-07-28T17:17:01Z")
Not that I’m any type of health professional and that most of my knowledge of psychosis comes from new stories and tv shows, but here’s what I would give a go (even though I’d probably wind up getting myself killed). I’d start writhing around screaming that they’re going to get me! I can see them coming! etc. My sole intention being to get him to believe that I’m in the exact same position he’s in and can help him fight them off. Once I’m a comrade, get him to arm me, then bye bye captor. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/22 "2009-07-28T17:20:01Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Suppose I have been kidnapped by a schizophrenic, who believes that evil demonic forces are persecuting him. He has a gun, we are locked away somewhere, and he is going to sacrifice me at high noon if the mayor doesn’t agree to call off the demons that control City Hall. > > Any mental health workers or other medical types care to chime in with advice? How does one deal with the floridly insane, when escape is not an option. Spike his drink with some [Risperidone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risperdol), problem solved. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/23 "2009-07-30T11:24:14Z")
How about telling him that you don’t see what he is seeing and are afraid that he will hurt you, himself or someone else, and ask him if there is a way out without bad things happening? Except for the first part, just telling someone you are afraid that someone is going to get hurt, and are looking for a way out, has helped me out of a lot of tense situations. I ‘m not sure if it will work with someone who is having a psychotic episode though…… ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/24 "2009-07-30T12:42:04Z")
Without going with the extreme scenario of the OP, I often wondered how to deal with delusional people. A friend of mine was schizophrenic. I could deal with odd conversations or concepts, but I had a harder time when he was talking about the various conspiracies against him. Especially when, in a couple of cases, he thought I was part of said conspiracy. Trying to discuss logically? Letting him talk and listen? Ignoring some blatantly crazy elements of his scenarios while trying to convince him that he was probably wrong about some other part (because acting on this particular element might have more detrimental consequences)? ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/25 "2009-07-31T23:18:00Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > And of course we all know that the mentally ill are so terribly, terribly dangerous… Yes, paranoid schizophrenics who are not taking medication are rather dangerous. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12042226](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12042226) [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17509834](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17509834) ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/26 "2009-08-01T00:06:41Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > OK, not really. However - > > This latest [trainwreck](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=525739), and another thread in the Pit about some poor woman killing her child, to which I will not link, sparked a question in my skeleton brain. > > Suppose I have been kidnapped by a schizophrenic, who believes that evil demonic forces are persecuting him. He has a gun, we are locked away somewhere, and he is going to sacrifice me at high noon if the mayor doesn’t agree to call off the demons that control City Hall. > > I (obviously) would like to talk him out of sacrificing me. What would be the best approach to do this? Should I accept his delusions as real and attempt to convince him that not sacrificing me would be preferred by the demons, or challenge him on his convictions and try to argue him out of it? Or do I just change the subject and talk about how I want to live to see my daughter again, and/or show him pictures of my wife and try to humanize myself so he will pity me? > > Or what? > > I have been sort of in this situation, both with a very senile relative and back when I rode the city buses. There was one guy who was convinced the CIA was showing subliminal messages on his TV set to try to get him to commit suicide, and he always sat next to me. (Okay,I gave him a dollar or two once in a while.) > > Any mental health workers or other medical types care to chime in with advice? How does one deal with the floridly insane, when escape is not an option. > > Regards, > Shodan Your best chance is to agree with him and humanize yourself to him. Try to make him think you are on his side. Ask him questions about what he sees and believes and try to get his confidence. Takes some good acting. I have read more than one story where this worked. One woman being raped by a mass murder talked him into not killing her that way. As soon as he left she called the police, they caught him before he left the building. Then there was this kidnapped kid who showed so much concern for his kidnapper that the napper returned the kid and turned himself in to the police. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/27 "2009-08-01T02:44:11Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > Your best chance is to agree with him and humanize yourself to him. Try to make him think you are on his side. Ask him questions about what he sees and believes and try to get his confidence. Takes some good acting. I have read more than one story where this worked. One woman being raped by a mass murder talked him into not killing her that way. As soon as he left she called the police, they caught him before he left the building. Then there was this kidnapped kid who showed so much concern for his kidnapper that the napper returned the kid and turned himself in to the police. Uh, do you know anything about mental illness, **lekatt**? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/28 "2009-08-01T15:57:15Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Uh, do you know anything about mental illness, **lekatt**? :dubious: Majored in psychology, worked in a hospital, sometimes in the psyche ward, helped many who have been diagnosed mentally ill back to living a normal life. Probably don’t count, you just want to criticize thinking you know more, and maybe you do. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/29 "2009-08-01T16:27:40Z")
Talk to him, earn his confidence, bludgeon him to death at first opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/30 "2009-08-01T16:30:14Z")
The easiest answer is to buy a gun before this happens and carry it around you. Once he’s looking the other way blow his head off. ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2009, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/31 "2009-08-03T08:52:45Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I would expect so, yes. As mentioned, I believe I could understand, and therefore manipulate, the motives of someone who wanted money better than the motives of someone who thought it was demons. > Better than with a schizophrenic? Yes - I’m still worth more as a hostage, Or at least so I would attempt to convince him. What I am interested in is what motives to appeal to with a schizophrenic. Regards, > Shodan I don’t know that I agree. I might feel more confident with a delusiional person who thinks God is speaking to him. Perhaps I could quote scripture with him and convince him I am repentant and deserve to live. Still, I don’t know that I’d have better luck than with your run of the mill kidnapper cum killer. > [@](#): > > What I guess I would try is something I did when my daughter was very young. She had seen a scary movie at her friend’s house, one for which she was way too young, and she couldn’t get to sleep because she was scared of the monsters. My wife tried to convince her there were no monsters, and it didn’t work. I then said, “Hold on - I will get some repellent” and went and put some rubbing alcohol on a piece of toilet paper and gave it to her. I then explained that alcohol was a clean smell, that monsters were dirty and that therefore they were scared of the clean smell and couldn’t come near her. > Maybe I would try something like that with a schizophrenic. LIttle kids are always scared of something and as long as MOm or Dad is there to comfort them they will be fine. I don’t think this type of “magic” is going to work on a deranged person. Kids are dumb. Criminals are dumb and dangerous. Talking people out of doing shit to you only works in the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2009, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/32 "2009-08-03T09:52:25Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > Sometimes they are, but mostly we’re afraid of them because we don’t know what to expect from them. It’s why I’m afraid of aliens and foreign food. Sixty people have been murdered by schizophrenics in the U.K. in the last three years. I’d be scared of them,not because I wouldn’t know what to expect from them but because they might kill me. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2009, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/33 "2009-08-03T09:57:26Z")
For God’s sake, Kenneth—just tell him the damned frequency! ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2009, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488/34 "2009-08-03T10:07:54Z")
Or you could just say “Look, Ninjas!” and then head butt him and run away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidnapped-by-a-schizophrenic-need-answer-fast/504488.md?page=1)