I have a psychology question. I am now the very unhappy possessor of the neighbour from hell. I think he has psychological problems, and I would be interested in the views of those who might know a little about that subject. This guy has given me a very bad time, which is irrelevent to the question. I see what I think are two symptoms of mental illness. Do you agree, and what illness? 1. He verbally (and later, physically) attacked me, on the basis of something that should not have been an issue. He was with friends, when I was walking, and I talked to a couple of his friends in a friendly way. He interpreted that act as hostile interrogation without any evidence, and reacted vehemently, and with enormous aggression and hostility. 2. He appears to form beliefs which are based on imagination alone. He will envisage something that has not happened, and thereafter he seems to believe that his imagining was, in fact, a real event. Are these symptoms of a real mental illness?
Yes. Psychosis. I know this because I used to be psychotic, but (ongoing) treatment means I haven't had any problems in years. Very sorry to hear of your attack. I was attacked by burglars a couple of years ago and got a broken arm for my trouble. It's not much fun.
Thanks, Ultra, for your good wishes. In fact, the physical attack was not really a problem. He was so hepped up at the time that I had no problem fending him off. He was utterly uncoordinated. I decided not to retaliate, since that might put me, legally, in the wrong. It was easy to passively defend myself, and in due course he gave up and slunk off. I am not looking for advice on how to deal with the solution. We have since involved the police, and they have come down hard on the culprit. Things are pretty quiet right now. What I am looking for is understanding. I have no real knowledge of psychological ills, and hoped someone might enlighten me.
Hi Skeptic, there are so many psycological ills, and each as varied as the patient, it's difficult to know where to start. I'm sloping off to bed now, but if you can think up anything a bit more specific you want to know, I'll be happy to address them as best I can tomorrow. I was confined for 8 months in a psyche ward and have seen quite a bit of irrational, mad and troubled folks. I learned to read some quite tricky people and may be able to throw some light on the subject for you.
He might be psychotic or on meth. Both will do that, but meth causes a malnourished look, brittle hair, scabs...and usually a materialization of a crowd of scrofulous looking people. Good for calling the cops. You might want to get a cheap, concealed pinhole camera unit if you can mount one on the approach to your house/apartment where it can't be seen...never know when that might be 40-50$ well spent.
There is insufficient information here to make that kind of serious judgment call. Some folks have fewer social skills than others, some have bad tempers, some are very insecure and some follow chains of inference to illogical ends. Sometimes a third party states an untruth in order to stir up trouble just for shits and grins. When you are the recipient of the resulting wrath, it seems to just have come at you from out the blue and makes the aggressor seem crazy. "Drugs are just chemicals, some people use them as an excuse to act like assholes." Sullum, from Saying Yes. Most habitual methamphetamine addicts are unable to own a house in a regular neighborhood...tweakers are relatively easy to spot. We don't use the term "psychotic" much anymore. Terms like 'socially maladjusted', 'delusional' and 'sociopathic' are more commonly used these days. Many persons are eccentric in some way such that others of us may well wonder about their sanity.
Hmm...all the peeps on the mental health forum I was hanging at who have psychotic episodes called them psychotic... But by that they generally include meaning that they cannot remember anything they do while in a state of psychosis...or it's very much like a dream. So it's a very strange disjunctive neural state, probably rather unusual... I know somebody in my Mom's hospital was there for pulling out one of his own eyes and eating it... Delusion comes in many more flavors I guess...and is going to cause less extreme behavior.
I have to admit that one of the reasons I think of this guy as "nuts" is from the interview I had with our community constable. It appears that there is a significant file in the police computer. While this file may just refer to troublemaking or criminal activities, the policeman referred to our neighbour from hell in different terms also. He mentioned the 'non-normal' behaviour of being unable to distinguish between reality and his own imaginings. While I realise that everyone has this characteristic to some minor degree, our neighbour appears to have it to an extreme.
first things first one first and probably the only question is. Are you two guys belong to the same culture? I have the following experiences with different cultures, my arabs and latino friends they touch each other a lot when they talk to each other, they do the same with me, at the beginning I found that weird because my anglo friends we could talk to each other without touching. latinos find very rude for you to talk to then looking straight to the eye while talking to them, Anglos finds very rude for you not to look to their eyes while you are talking to them. Maybe you did offended this person because he is from another country...or culture or even another race.
It's probably best to avoid the neighbour, considering there was a murder pressed last year where a Schizophrenic ended up killing their neighbour because they thought they were a witch. What it was down to was the person he thought was a witch took the time to try to get to know him and his difficulties and this is where he conjured up his illusion from. I'm not suggesting that your neighbour will attempt to kill (after all I wouldn't want you thinking that you have to up the ante, become paranoid yourself and have a preplanned course of action etc). In essence, like I mentioned your best just avoiding him, if you do have to talk to him, just keep it short, sweet and make sure it's pleasant.
"Psychotic" = "chaotic" + "psyche" = "disordered thinking". While it does describe a state of mind, it is not specific enough to do much more than that. In this day and age the term is thrown about without any understanding or insight by the lay public. Much like "psychopath" - "sick mind". Most often used as an insult rather than anything practical. "Schizophrenic" or "paranoid", however, describe specific disorders with an accepted treatment set. If your neighbor suffers from delusions and cannot discern those from reality than he is more likely schizophrenic, which may manifest as "psychotic". While the former is a treatable condition the latter is an adjective that may or may not describe the appearance of the former.
