How do you tell if someone is crazy?

Answer

First off, the word "crazy" means different things to different people: there is no one global definition.

"Insane" is a legal term indicating that a person is so impaired mentally that he or she cannot be held legally responsible for his or her actions at the time of a crime.

"Mentally Ill" refers to two kinds of illnesses: those caused by physical problems -- such as Bipolar Disorder, which is caused by imbalances in neurotransmitters such as Serotonin and Dopamine -- and those caused by trauma inflicted upon an otherwise healthy individual OR one with a preexisting mental disorder. The latter include PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), which an otherwise normal person can develop after extreme trauma, and DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), which is much more easily developed by persons with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) when exposed to severe and ongoing abuse and/or trauma.

Although it all seems ponderous, the thing to remember is that a doctor or NP who is qualified to answer these questions regarding a specific individual must closely examine that person before arriving at a conclusion and recommendation.

And know that mental illness hurts, and the mentally ill are as sick as any other sick person. They aren't doing it "on purpose." That said, it doesn't mean that being mentally ill means being legally insane. Not all mentally ill people are legally insane. And most are not violent. And no one would be mentally ill given a choice.

Alone among the mentally ill, psychopaths (sociopaths) stand out because their condition appears to be extremely different from the others. But neuroscience is proving more all the time that there may well be a connection between ASPD (the DSM-IV designation Anti-Social Personality Disorder, sometimes called APD), or psychopathy/sociopathy, and such apparently unrelated conditions as autism and ADD. This does not make them part of the same thing. The bottom line on that is that the brain is the ultimate new frontier in medicine as well as in the sciences of the mind, and that only now in the 21st Century are those whose business it is to study such things finally starting to crack the long-incomprehensible code.

First answer by SabrinaSingularity. Last edit by SabrinaSingularity. Contributor trust: 264 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 15 [recommend question].