Schizophrenia.

[DetlefK]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations, reduced social engagement and emotional expression, and lack of motivation.

...

Individuals with schizophrenia may experience hallucinations (most reported are hearing voices), delusions (often bizarre or persecutory in nature), and disorganized thinking and speech. ... There is often an observable pattern of emotional difficulty, for example lack of responsiveness.[11] Impairment in social cognition is associated with schizophrenia,[12] as are symptoms of paranoia. ... About 30 to 50% of people with schizophrenia fail to accept that they have an illness or their recommended treatment.





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http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016136593

[hunter]

1. I grew up with a mom who has God on Speed dial.

Lucky for me hers is the excruciatingly complex, mysterious, inscrutable God, not the simpleton-mean-drunk-father-god who claims to have created imperfect humans just so he can punish them when they are bad, and occasionally fuck them or fuck them over simply to satisfy his own twisted desires.

Anyways, as a diagnosed "mentally ill" person myself, one who takes powerful meds just to be somewhat functional in this society, I dislike these sorts of comparisons. I own the voices in my head. That's a great gift my parents gave me.

I was very fortunate to grow up as a feral child of artists, a child both inclined and free to seek my own truth. I also learned how to bounce back from beatings, not from my parents, but by my peers, my sick society, and sometimes my own stupidity or various manifestations of my more disturbed mental states, most of which I have turned into funny stories because there is no acceptable alternative.

Some people are not so lucky.

I always feel sorry for the people who feel obligated or forced to accept the religious baggage of their parents, most especially those items of religious baggage that are clearly toxic. Conformity is a terrible thing in my book, and maybe worse when such conformity leads to some kind of "success" in this twisted society. People who are "successful" that way live in horrible self-imposed prisons.

Lucky for me heresy and apostasy is a proud tradition in my family. That's how my ancestors escaped Europe for the Americas.

My mom fled the Catholic Church, hair on fire, for (get this!!!) the Jehovah's Witnesses. In grade school I was the weird kid who didn't stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. My mom got kicked out of the Kingdom Hall later, mostly because she couldn't stay out of secular politics and she ALWAYS says what she thinks, even at inappropriate times. So then we were Quakers. The Quakers would respectfully listen to what my mom had to say and then move on. And I still didn't have to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school.

It seems to me Ben Carson never enjoyed those sorts of freedoms, or worse, he never chose to practice them, which is why he is a Republican, and this has nothing at all to do with his mental status, "sane" or "ill."