• What do you tell someone with a religiously delusional point of view?
    45 replies, posted
I have a friend who recently attempted suicide, who, in the past few months has been coping with their life in what I believe is a religiously delusional way. It started late this summer. You can see him slowly progressing towards this point of view in his posts on social networking sites like facebook. He has always been catholic, but never this crazy. I've known this guy for a good 10 years, but in the past few he has completely isolated himself from friends and family. The last conversation I had with him was very frustrating. I ask him how he's doing and i'll get an answer like "The hand of God is righteous". Anyways, I will be visiting him this Thursday and I'm not really sure how to go about our conversation. I just want to be there for him but also let him know that this radical way of thinking isn't going to help him get any better. He wasn't ever really very social, and I never thought he was depressed, just different. Here's a good example [IMG]http://s24.postimg.org/nd4o05bb9/jf7347273hfh.jpg[/IMG]
call 911, he's sliding into what they can consider harm to himself or others
He sounds crazy, not religious.
Those kinds of delusions are very often the most obvious sign of serious mental illness or breakdown. Even hardcore fundamentalists don't go that far off the deep end.
If he's known to be suicidal, I'd strongly recommend at least trying to get him to go to a professional. If you do nothing, you will be looking back and wondering why these didn't cause you to act.
with attempted suicide on his record i would have already called 911 suicide attempt + admitting to not fearing death = bad combo
Ignore them Unless they're close to you
[QUOTE=Killer900;42613532]Ignore them Unless they're close to you[/QUOTE] Yes let's ignore this person who has a good chance of harming himself yeah, do call the police about it.
Sounds very delusional. He can't [I]seriously[/I] believe he is the new Christ and wish to be crucified for the sins of all man kind without suffering from some sort of personality disorder. On a related note, I'd recommend giving [URL="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2010/05/jesus_jesus_jesus.html"][B]this[/B][/URL] a perusing for some insight. It's an experiment about [I]three[/I] men who were in a delusional state and believing themselves each to be Jesus Christ. They fought and what-not and determined that one of them was a fraud (:v:) but two of them were not. Very interesting. Religious delusions are perplexing because of how specific they are. I've heard of schizophrenics having religious delusions, does he exhibit other symptoms of schizophrenia?
"What do you tell someone with a religiously delusional point of view?" There's not much that you can tell them. The only thing I can say is call the police or whoever is best fitted to help the person. It may not be an easy call to make but just from seeing that post, I can safely say he really does need help.
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;42613621]Yes let's ignore this person who has a good chance of harming himself yeah, do call the police about it.[/QUOTE]You know I figured I was going to catch flak for saying that after I posted it, to be honest it was originally an impulse post that I made before I even read the first sentence (then I started reading it and realized how dumb it sounded), which was dumb to do but I didn't feel like snipping it so I just added the "unless they're close to you" to make it sounds less harsh without later realizing that it obviously didn't matter at that point For admitting that I'm probably going to catch even more flak and even get banned, ooops Let's just rate it as a dumb post and ignore it from here on out yeah?
[QUOTE=Killer900;42613909]You know I figured I was going to catch flak for saying that after I posted it, to be honest it was originally an impulse post that I made before I even read the first sentence (then I started reading it and realized how dumb it sounded), which is stupid but I didn't feel like snipping it so I just added the "unless they're close to you" to make it sounds less harsh without later realizing that it obviously didn't matter For admitting that I'm probably going to catch even more flak, ooops Let's just rate it as a dumb post and ignore it from here on out yeah?[/QUOTE] Nah man, it's cool, we all let a bad one out sometimes.
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;42613926]Nah man, it's cool, we all let a bad one out sometimes.[/QUOTE]Thanks for being understanding, sorry about that wasn't really trying to sound callous, although it was pretty insensitive sounding :/. I'm deserving of the dumbs.
I wouldn't call the police. From reading the Facebook post there's nothing that says he's an imminent danger to himself or others. Key word is imminent. This is important because involuntary psychiatric hold can only be placed on someone who is imminently dangerous, and even then there's a maximum length of time they can be held for and have to constantly be re-evaluated for discharge. Don't take responsibility on yourself to "fix" him as much as you would like to. The best thing to do is try to convince him to seek professional help. Of course you can't force him to do it unless he want's to do it himself. Unless you're a trained professional in clinical psychology I wouldn't try anything.
I'm not sure if this is serious or not but people actually crucifying themselves happens alot. On Good Friday in the Philippines hundreds of Catholics actually dress up like Romans and put eachother up on crosses. In Israel alot of Christians commit suicide this way. You should really just have a conversation with the guy. If that doesn't work you should call a suicide hotline. Trying to de-convert the guy is the last thing you should ever do.
He's experiencing some sort of mania or psychosis. Don't judge him, mental disorders really hi-jack who you are and make you a drone spouting delusions. Message him, and tell him you know a friend (like me) who has been there and he may be experiencing symptoms of something serious.
Hes in a psyche ward currently.
[QUOTE=Chemicals;42615485]Hes in a psyche ward[/QUOTE] as in you called the authorities or what? if he was already there no decent mental hospital allows patients access to facebook
[QUOTE=Chemicals;42615485]Hes in a psyche ward[/QUOTE] Psych wards are rough. I was hospitalized when I first started experiencing symptoms of a mental illness. I was only institutionalized for three days, but I don't regret it. It made me face the fact I had problems. Keep us updated.
[QUOTE=LordCrypto;42615492]as in you called the authorities or what? if he was already there no decent mental hospital allows patients access to facebook[/QUOTE] This was a post leading up to the suicide attempt, I was just giving an example of his state of mind. Sorry If I didn't make that clear. They found him a week ago after his attempt, has been in the hospital since. Edit: Looking at my post I didn't make that obvious at all, sorry. Yeah, his attempt at ending his life was last Tuesday, found him unconscious and rushed him to the hospital. I'm visiting him later this week.
[QUOTE=Chemicals;42615561]This was a post leading up to the suicide attempt, I was just giving an example of his state of mind. Sorry If I didn't make that clear. They found him a week ago after his attempt, has been in the hospital since. Edit: Looking at my post I didn't make that obvious at all, sorry. Yeah, his attempt at ending his life was last Tuesday, found him unconscious and rushed him to the hospital. I'm visiting him later this week.[/QUOTE] You sound like a great person, very caring. Salaam Alaikum.
"I am the Jesus of the gospels" From what I understand, saying stuff like that is a [I]BIIIG nono[/I]
[QUOTE=ScoobyV2;42615623]You sound like a great person, very caring. Salaam Alaikum.[/QUOTE] Alaikum Salam. of topic, but i can't believe that it is my 555th post.
Hopefully therapy will put him back in his right state of mind.
When I read the thread title it sorta sounded like you wanted to bash someone over their faith,but after seeing that facebook post, lordie. I have my faith but Christ when someone thinks their like Jesus they need to be looked at.
[QUOTE=AtomicWaffle;42613345]Those kinds of delusions are very often the most obvious sign of serious mental illness or breakdown. Even hardcore fundamentalists don't go that far off the deep end.[/QUOTE] Might wanna listen to interviews by Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, Billy Graham. Especially Graham
You might really want to watch over him for a while after he will be released, shit like this doesn't go lightly. I had a buddy who tried to off himself by hanging, didn't go well, he ended up in hospital and then had long therapy. After he supposedly got better a year after that, he called me once to meet him, he wanted to catch up on stuff. We were walking around and talking about stuff, he seemed very chill and okay, no sign of trouble. Next morning, the first thing I know, his girlfriend called me and screaming hysterically told me that he hanged himself with more luck this time. She had me investigated all around after that, because why would he suddenly off himself after talking to me when he just got off therapy? So yeah OP, you watch your friend closely.
Tell him he's a waste of good oxygen and carbon and should kill himself before he infects even more of the world with his stupid religious beliefs. Either that or therapy.
Definite signs of psychosis. Glad to see you got him help; what traumatic event was the trigger to all this?
[QUOTE=Meladath;42617322]Tell him he's a waste of good oxygen and carbon and should kill himself before he infects even more of the world with his stupid religious beliefs. Either that or therapy.[/QUOTE] Top lel xD And OP, I think the best thing would be to talk to him in the psyche ward as a friend. I think if you try to confront his religious views, although by the sounds of things it's beyond that, then I doubt you'll get much progress out of it. I think he'd appreciate seeing you at the hospital.
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