He is probably a little crazy, but he probably not DSM-5 crazy.

In any case, there isn't much you are in any position to do. Unless you think he is dangerous to himself or others, I think your only option is to distance yourself from him.

If he is dangerous, call the police. But that is a drastic step.

If this behavior is a total departure from his previous behavior, opinions, upbringing, belief systems, etc it could be a symptom of a late blooming paranoid schizophrenia or a brain tumor (wild ass guess/generalization based on clinical cases from my personal experience).

If this is just him and he's getting less shy about being himself, he may just be an asshole who is tired of keeping quiet.

How do you know when he needs help? You'll know it long before he does, I think, unfortunately.

Tough situation.

Bruce

(I'm behind on the forum and hope that I am not popping up an old wound, but ...)

quote:

Originally posted by gasche:
I'm not saying he's "rub shit in his hair" crazy.
...
Frankly, I don't give a shit if I piss him off. If he attempts suicide or kills somebody then I will look back at this post and know I should have done something now instead of whistling past the graveyard by writing him off as an asshole.

I don't know what the "AC" in your location means, but if your friend is in the state of Washington, it does not matter if your adult friend is outright "crazy" unless he is a fairly imminent threat to himself or someone else. It is pretty much impossible to force mental health treatment on a nonviolent adult in Washington. There are no Baker Act (Florida) type laws here. Your friend must seek treatment voluntarily.

If you continue to want to keep this person as a friend and your friend is in Washington, I found this list of phone numbers that you can call: Crisis Phone Numbers in Washington The "24-hour Crisis intervention counseling: 206-744-9699" at Harborview in Seattle is the number that I would suggest calling first. I would be somewhat surprised if you were told something that has not already been advised / informed of here.

(Sharing the list of phone numbers is why I posted.)

I may have poor delicacies of judgment, but I think that enough time has passed to share this little story. A while back a forum member asked a similar question about his mentally ill son who "for some reason" ran away to Washington. I knew exactly why his son went to Washington, but I didn't post an explanation of why he selected Washington. The mentally ill mingle with the populace, and panhandlers are generally tolerated.

I have had friends who, after years of not connecting, I come to find that (with this one specific friend), he's bought into "the income tax is unconstitutiional," government fiat money is worthless, etc.

He used to be pretty rational and a productive civil engineer. When I got to see him, I just let him talk. I knew there was no talking any sensee into him. And it's not something you can classify as a mental illness but he sure sounded crazy to me.

I think perhaps the only real concern you need have is that he may be having a physical condition (brain tumor, etc.) that is affecting his behavior. Is he seeing a doctor regularly?

flashguy

quote:

smithnsig
We gonna get some
oojima in this house!

posted April 04, 2017 01:44 PM Hide Post
Sounds like more of an asshole than mentally ill.

I think in a lot of cases it's a coin toss.

You might try telling him that hating is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill someone else. If he's not crazy, he might get it.

Yes, the AC stands for Above California.
It appears that a majority that are responding think that I'm asking this question so that I could confidently have him incarcerated. At worse I'll encourage him to seek counseling or talk to his doctor. Someone mentioned that he may be embolden to come out of his shell as an asshole. That may well be. But I'm not basing this on his opinions that diverge from most of us, but rather the inner turmoil, anger and despair that he creates for himself when he brings this up for no reason.
I've decided to stay away from him. He still lives with his ex-wife, so I'll put my faith in her ability to see the larger picture. Just too much pork for my fork. Thank you everybody for your help. It gave me enough to make my decision.