I am betting he is in his late teens or early twenties. He sounds eerily like my cousin did, before he was diagnosed as schizophrenic.
I didn’t do a vanity search, but I ran across this anyway. Thanks Velma.
Anyway, he does indeed sound to be showing signs of some kind of psychotic disorder. These transcripts of conversation sound a lot like something that is known as Stream of Consciousness. It is often related to schitzophrenia, or another similar disorder. Cisco since you didn’t mention how old he is, I am not sure if he falls into the general age group for onset of schizophrenia. It tends to emerge between ages 17-25. Onset may be slow, which might explain why he may have been getting weirder over the last six years.
I do have friends like this, but those I know all at least try to keep up with their medications.
I would not ever pretend to be able to diagnose someone without a complete indepth interview, but if this is a pattern (maybe you could ask some other friends) it may be good to try to bring up the idea with him that he may need some help.
He’s 20.
He has mentioned in the past that he doesn’t like his meds but I haven’t asked him about them in a long time. He gets really uncomfortable and sometimes defensive when they’re mentioned so I try to stay away from the topic unless he brings it up.
Do you have anymore info on Stream Of Consciousness?
Yeah, but, uh, she’s not exactly a “catch” herself, if you know what I mean.
Cisco sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread, but I found some information online that may be able to help you clear up some of your questions. Maybe if this is what is going on, it will help you be able to talk to him in an educated way.
If he is 20, and is resistant to medications, maybe he needs to be more educated in what is going on and what the medications can do for him. If this has come gradually, he may not even really know that there is something wrong, and medications can seem like a sign of loosing control of yourself or weakness. Or if he doesn’t think his medications are helping at all, maybe he needs to suggest to his psychiatrist that he try something else. There are so many meds out there with different results for different people.
To finally answer your question, stream of consciousness is really a nontechnical term that is used to describe when someone just seems to be randomly continuing to talk. It happens when someone,s brain is running very fast and appears to jump from topic to topic. They may not even be able to tell you where the conversation had just gone. One word from a prior sentence may trigger an entire new topic. Such as talking about talking about the weather may lead to flowers may lead to a funeral may lead to death may lead to war talk may lead to government conspiracies etc, etc… This is at times very hard to follow. It is sometimes known as stream of consciousness because it appears that they are just following random subconscious paths, without real understandable links.
An important thing is if he is already defensive about talking about it is to be very sensitive about how you approach any conversation you may have with him about it. Waiting for him to bring it up is a good option. It may allow him to feel more in control and less attacked.
Here are some links to find good information about schizophrenia and be able to help yourself be more informed.
www.mentalhealth.com/book/p42-sc2.html#Head_2
They refer to Talking Nonsense which is very similar to the idea of stream of consciousness.
and
I hope this helps, and if there is any other information I can help you with let me know. Feel free to email me if you wish.
For an example of schizophrenia in typing, take a look at FormerAgent, or FormerFenris parodying him.
Or FreakFreely.
NurseCarmen brought up what I was going to ask about, regarding his age.
Schizophrenia typically manifests within a couple of years of 20, plus or minus. This guy needs serious help, and fast.
Shabadu: thanks. Now that you mention it I have heard the term stream of conciousness before, I don’t know why it didn’t click with me right away. That definitely seems like what’s going on here.
I’m somewhat worried about him but I really feel like there’s nothing I can do. I quit trying to offer him help or advice a long time ago because he gets really defensive and acts like a jerk.
As you can see, the stream of consciousness thing seems to be spot on:
scubasteve: sup
cisc0: hey
scubasteve: i heard you might be working for the marines
cisc0: huh?
scubasteve: or the navy or something…
cisc0: who said that?
scubasteve: how did you move to arizona without a job?
cisc0: got in my car, pointed it west, and stepped on the gas
scubasteve: so you ran from someone
scubasteve: dia chase you away?
cisc0: no
scubasteve: those names are too deceiving for me
cisc0: ?
scubasteve: like first union did a good deal by changing their name to wachovia
scubasteve: they weren’t the first credit union around.
cisc0: first union didn’t change their name to wachovia
cisc0: they’re both still around
scubasteve: thats slow mp
scubasteve: er
scubasteve: not mp
scubasteve: just slow
scubasteve: slower than i’d like to be… i just like to think more than others to kill the time
cisc0: mp?
scubasteve: its slow for me
cisc0: what is mp?
scubasteve: slow for ME
scubasteve: it can mean whatever you want , but i dont think you’d want to belive that MPs are slow
scubasteve: as in military police
scubasteve: during ww2 they might have had some slow people joining though… they are all gone for sure now
scubasteve: its just a statistic, these things hurt everybody and often it works… sometimes it doesnt it kinda forces you to think a little
scubasteve: not too much, thats dangerous
scubasteve: not just for you but me and everyone in the immediate place
scubasteve: immediate freinds or whatever
scubasteve: are you renting a hotel?
scubasteve: that’s probably what i’d do
cisc0: nah
cisc0: apartment
scubasteve: dude theres weird shit going on
scubasteve: i dont know what all of it is for
scubasteve: theres definitely something going on up here
scubasteve: you might have noticed this stuff too before
cisc0: what stuff?
scubasteve: things go missing and reappear
scubasteve: or rearranged
scubasteve: very little gets stolen
cisc0: in your house?
scubasteve: yes
scubasteve: and people seem to know alot more about my house than i do
cisc0: maybe it’s kristen [sorry folks, I did this for my own amusement. Kristen was one of our friend’s girlfriend that he used to have a crush on. He hasn’t seen her in ~2 years though]
scubasteve: she’s suggested it before, she might have i dont know
scubasteve: that does seem her style
cisc0: suggested what?
scubasteve: that she wanted to learn how to pick locks
scubasteve: maybe they got the tools from somewhere i dont know about
scubasteve: they might be on our side still, its hard to tell with josh there
scubasteve: he sabotages things a bit, they might be mistakes
scubasteve: it could be greed too
scubasteve: i was thinking about moving somewhere out of miami
scubasteve: the saying goes once a military always a military person
scubasteve: it appears to be true
scubasteve: out fl completely
cisc0: who was a military person?
scubasteve: basically since WW2 both sides
scubasteve: it may seem hard to tell
scubasteve: but ive seen all the proof about my mom’s entire family except the women being in the navy or marines
scubasteve: im thinking about an uncle in law who was in the navy also, it was only 1 side
scubasteve: hes not related by blood either
scubasteve: my uncle wants me to die for his mistakes in the marines
Auto response from cisc0: not here
scubasteve: sorry for repeating too much bad shit about poindexter
Auto response from cisc0: not here
scubasteve: i think my mom wants me to die also
scubasteve: she sabotages everything
scubasteve: she took my keys away
scubasteve: and the credit card she gave me… took my phone and wallet
scubasteve: gave me my cell back and wanted to make a deal with me
scubasteve: admiral wants me to think of some way to run the dia for him when he retires
scubasteve: thats just not the stuff i think about
scubasteve: not all of it… some of it i do think about
scubasteve: not totally against me
Auto response from cisc0: not here
scubasteve signed off at 1:21:48 PM.
:eek:
It seems scubasteve is acting like a piece of scubash**
If he’s seriously ill, then I apoligize for my snap judgement, but after reading those comments about Jews and “gypsies”…yikes.
“ApolOgize.” Sorry again. Anyone care to teach me the basics of spelling and preview?
I don’t know. But if he starts talking about trying to protect you from the “terrible secret of space”, run.
I mean no dis-respect by this - I am fascinated by your friend. I am fascinated by mental weirdness. It’s why I loved the film A Beautiful Mind. Your friend reminds me of John Nash (the one in the film)
I also love watching almost any film containing loonatic asylums (and the ‘characters’ in them) Am I a closet looney? or a closet psychiatrist?
I don’t know how I would approach a friend, because I do it mostly in a clinical setting, but there may be ways to do it without triggering a defensive side. A good way is to try to lead a stream of consciousness to get information for yourself. You were able to plug in the Kristen thing, maybe you could try this with random suggestions and see where it goes. In a clinical setting, this is done quite often to get into issues with schizophrenics, and it may work in a less formal situation.
Most of all, I wish you luck. I know it is frustrating to see someone who you feel obviously needs help, but not being able to do anything about it. One important thing is to try not to give up on him. He is still young, and he may not see his need for help without others aiding in the process.
Lobsang many of my favorite movies also involve some sort of mental illness connected or at least someone who is going to a psychologist for some reason. I have a deep facination for any sort of mental issues, and that is probably why I went into psychology in the first place. My clients still facinate me in a similar way.