Well, you haven’t given us a good, clear description of what the situation actually is. The article linked in the OP seems like the work of someone suffering from paranoid delusions, and a quick Google suggests that the term “gang stalking” is primarily used by people I’d describe as crazy.
The article does claim that “mobbing” is another term for gang stalking, and mobbing at least is a real thing. This term isn’t common in the US, but it’s a form of bullying that many people will have experience with from school or the workplace. The Wikipedia entry gives more details, but a good fictional example can be seen early in the movie 9 to 5. Most of the women in the office believe that the secretary played by Dolly Parton is having an affair with their married boss. (She is actually being sexually harassed but is afraid she’ll lose her job if she complains.) They gossip about her behind her back and treat her coldly when she’s around. They aren’t deliberately trying to “destroy” the Parton character and never do anything extreme like threaten or attack her, but the Parton character is very unhappy and wonders why she can’t make any friends at work. This sort of thing does happen in real life, and with even less justification.
To be clear, by “this sort of thing” I mean gossip, rudeness, and possibly even passive aggressive behavior like failing to share important information with the bullied person. But if someone claims that their coworkers are spying on them or enlisting people outside work to harass them then this sounds less like real bullying and more like paranoid delusions. Either way, your friend should probably see a therapist. Being the target of bullying can be very stressful and depressing, and having a neutral person to discuss this with and get advice from would likely be helpful. A therapist would also be able to recognize if your friend has developed a more serious mental health problem that needs treatment.
I see the situation as a school-bullying episode, where the teacher suddenly started to hate one student for no reason and decided to sack him/her just because he can as there is no higher authority directly above him. If I follow your thoughts, one may soon allow rape and mobbing just by declaring crazy the one who complain.
Writing on this forum and reading the vastly overwhelming amount of answers instantly judging someone that nobody knows, except from what I said, as schizophrenic or delusional made me choose to believe him and to give him a hand.
In your easy negative words, I recognize the statement of people in my region. As I said, I’m not very educated as I failed in my first year of university, but I do think that I can recognize a good and intelligent person when I see one. I will keep my fears for myself and go talk with him regularly and see what’s all about.
No. From what I’ve read, no one here, would approve of your friend actually being a victim. We are just worried that he’s mentally ill.
It’s not a judgment! It’s a serious illness that causes delusions. No one is saying he’s a bad person or that it’s his fault if he has schizophrenic. In fact, they cannot control their illness at all (except by properly taking their medications), and they are no less ill than someone with diabetes or heart disease.
No one here knows if your friend has schizophrenia, but it’s definitely something to consider.
Your friend may very well be good and intelligent. Being schizophrenic or otherwise mentally ill has nothing to do with the moral qualities or IQ of the sufferer.
There is no judgment. People are just trying to help. Good luck with everything.
I wonder if this is the same guy that posted recently thinking his upstairs neighbor was “following” him around his apartment and mimicking his every move.
Just saying again the key point that made me post and finally why your behaviour finally made up my mind : He has pieces of evidence… (quite a lot actually…)
My “behavior” shouldn’t have anything to do with your decision. That’s just a weird thing to say. People here have offered you basic, pretty compassionate advice with no rudeness or aggression that I can see.
Your friend may very well have been mistreated, whether he’s paranoid or not. I advice simply taking into account what people have said here as you proceed. Best of luck.
Part of the reason I posted about my college friend was that she had “evidence,” too…only it didn’t stand up to any rational analysis, that is when she would even share it with me.
Classic conspiracy theorist thinking – almost certain evidence that it’s not factual.
So he has proof of criminal activity against him but can’t do anything about it? Doesn’t sound very intelligent at all.
I had an aunt who explained to me (about 40 years ago) that when she was younger someone who had a PhD showed her a Negro skull and told her the braincase was smaller than what would be found in a comparable Caucasian skull, thus proving that black people weren’t as smart as white people. And he had a PhD! He had to be right because he had a PhD!
Mercedes says she’s young, simple, and uneducated. Her statements seem to support that description. I hope she learns, sooner rather than later, that intelligent people – including those with PhD’s – are not immune from spouting nonsense.
Cyberbullying and public Internet shaming are real problems. The type of gang stalking being discussed here is a paranoid delusion that exists only in the mind of the victim. The difference is that cyberbullying is a public activity. By its very nature, it seeks to shame the victim in public, and while the perpetrators may be anonymous, their activities are visible for anyone to see. If someone is being cyberbullied, they know it, their friends know it, their entire online community knows it. If someone claims that people are following them, sending them secret messages, and harassing them in ways that no one else can see, that’s a sign of paranoia, not a conspiracy.
This is such a bizarre phenomenon. I understand that auditory hallucinations play a role in the apartment stalker scenarios, but the gang stalking thing seems to go well beyond those.
Chronic depression doesn’t hold a candle to this sort of misery, so I’ll consider myself (relatively) lucky in the mental health department.
Oh, man, the comments on there are something else! Schizophrenia must have a lot higher incidence rate than commonly accepted, judging by the number of “TI’s” responding.
I love this one the best:
It’s people like the author of this article that help perpetuate these atrocious crimes to humanity by brushing the victims off as mentally ill. I would not be surprised if she is a gang stalker herself.
I once had an uncomfortable conversation with a woman who said she was a victim of “siren harassment.” Ever since she complained about some minor issue at a city meeting, whenever an emergency vehicle drove by her house, it would blast its siren, waking her up and annoying her at all hours of the day. She lived on a busy street and could hear them from anywhere in her house, all the time. I asked her, “But what about the times when police cars drive by your house and don’t use their siren? You wouldn’t hear it those times, right? It would sound just like any other car.”
“But they do it every time!”
You see how this stuff goes. Paranoid delusions tend to reinforce themselves. A rational person might consider that there are times when police cars drive by when they don’t use their sirens. A rational person might even try to gather evidence, say by closely watching the road for a few hours and waiting for quiet police cars. But the deluded person requires the delusion to be true, so she decides that the only evidence of a police car’s presence that she will accept is when she can hear the siren. Therefore, they all use their siren all the time.