Does a crazy person know they're crazy?

Question

If I were insane, how would I know it?

Answer 1

I think that if you are crazy you would know it . I'm pretty sure I'm crazy , but I try to embrace my insanity and be the best lunatic I can be .

Answer 2

Yes lots of times people are aware that they are "crazy" and feeling funny or different or paranoid or anxious, whatever it may be.
Most disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, schizophrenia appear in episodes. What this means is that a lot of times the person experiences symptoms called by the general public "crazy" such as panic, anxiety, hallucinations, delusions etc. for some time (minutes, hours or days at a time). These epsiodes often alternate with more normal moments in which the person is more lucid and aware. "Crazy" people have families, spouses, children and real jobs. They are elementary school teachers, warehouse workers, managers and many other things...they are not raving stark mad lunatics running around screaming and ripping their hair off their heads as hollywood and the media make them out to be.
Sure some episodes are so severe the person is simply loosing their mind, acting very strangely, saying nonsensical things such as "they tapered my degree" or talking about how they prayed to god and made jesus come back in a test tube, or they may get violent for brief moments...but it is not a 24/7 type of thing. Especially if they are receiving some kind of treatment.
In fact, many psychiatric patients GO THEMSELVES to the emergency room when they feel an episode is coming on or when they start hearing voices or other disturbing things. The second most frequent way they get in the hospital is a family member, but most of the cases they come themselves...obviously pointing to the fact that they are in fact very much AWARE.
Of course, when they are in the middle of a severe episode there is no reasoning with them really and they probably don't know what's going on, which is a very terrifying thing for them. It's not like they go "woohooo i'm crazzzyyy...wwwoooooo crazy crazy crazy i love the voices in my head"...they are indeed suffering from a mental illness and are also very sad because they have to deal with it the best way they can.
Then you also have patients that refuse treatment and refuse meds...and get psychotic (breaking from reality, seeing things, hearing things) and they are truly convinced what they believe and see is true. These are usually the severely schizophrenic.

Answer 3

Rene' Decartes was good at that kind thinking. see The Meditations by Rene' Decartes. 'Crazy' is not an absolute. In law a person is 'crazy' if they do not know right from wrong, but what if I don't know me from Abraham Lincoln. Does a retarded person know they are retarded; intelligence could be educationally differentiated. Most people are insane because they believe they have absolutely no mental problems, are mentally perfect, but there is no such thing. Not knowing it is the essence of insanity. If someone tells me I am insane, is that an incontravertable proof?

Answer 4

Well if a person is "Crazy" or should I say has some kind of disorder such as schizophernia more then likely they aren't going to belive they are "crazy" usually a person when born with a disorder is unable to tell anything is wrong with them only due to the fact that is how they have alway been. Also a person with a disorder usually isn't able to observe true reality and therefore cannot make an obsevation of what their behavior is like.

Answer 5

I am a PSW Personal Support Worker. A crazy person does not know they are crazy. U would know u were insane. I really dont know that one. If family members and doctors told u. I think ever one feels like they are goign insane once and a while.

Answer 6

You don't know you're insane until someone diagnoses you as such. Even then, you may have a hard time believing them because to you, your thoughts are sane and rational. If insane people knew they were insane, don't you think that would make them sane enough to know the difference?

Answer 7

I think not, most crazy people know they're not crazy. A sane person would say, "Why am I like this? Am I crazy?"

Answer 8

A crazy person lacks the ability to ask this question at all.

Answer 9

NO. Because in their crazy world, they are considered norm for being crazy. Maybe they see people outside them is crazy.

Maybe we are the crazy one.

Answer 10

Yes, I'm perfectly capable of diagnosing myself using the DSM-IV. It's just a matter of self-awareness. Maybe once you hit "psychotic" you're no longer aware of your actions?