The "Crazy" Guy In The Garage

What's with the "crazy" guy in the garage?

The question on our mind.

He is a friend of The Stepdad, and we're pretty sure he has mild schizophrenia.

Why mild? He is completely aware that what he is experiencing would sound crazy to medical professionals, to us that seems mild (strong would be thinking everything he is experiencing is believable)

What is he experiencing?

To start this man has learning disabilities (barely graduated high school), but he functions normally (just not socially), working for a business in town that generally employs elderly, developmentally and/or physically challenged people, but not exclusively. It's a very well known business.

So this guy has been working for his employer for 10 years, and recently he's been telling The Stepdad that this company has put a device in his head so that they can hear everything he thinks, says, and knows everything he does, and also something in his head is telling him things. (we don't know the specifics of that)

His belief stems from a conversation he had back months ago with a fellow employee about a computer issue, and from there it unraveled his mind, and apparently there is someone at his work feeding his fears, telling him things, making him paranoid. It sickens us that someone would be doing this.

Weeks ago he started saying he was going to be executed, because of something that popped up on his computer screen. Lately his new thing is he getting life in prison for killing someone years ago, so he says. He believes he's killed someone. 

He's been to talk to mental health professionals, at the encouragement of The Stepdad and The Mother, but he doesn't tell them everything because he doesn't want them to think he's crazy. The Mother & Stepfather talk to the professionals about him (they had his sign a release) and the professional say there is nothing they can do. 

So this guy, who is clearly mentally ill, on top of having mental development problems, is going to work everyday, and he tells some of his co-workers that he's being "put away for life, yep, going to the big house". He doesn't sleep well, he thinks that almost every business in town is getting fed information about him, and his whereabouts, by the company he works for, so that they know he is about to arrive at a place before he even gets there.

The Mother knows his boss, and they discuss his issues, still there's nothing anybody can do about it because the mental health professionals in the area refuse to do anything about it, or take it seriously, which makes The Stepdad pace around the house ranting about them not knowing what they are doing, and mental health professionals being, basically, worthless. [In our option mental health has gotten to the point where, unless they can throw pills at it, they don't really care so much. But that's just from our observation of a country developing a prescription drug problem] Also, despite the fact that his boss knows who is allegedly telling this guy things (the person in question being a higher-up), nothing is being done. It's really wearing The Stepdad thin.

So there's this schizophrenic with learning disabilities sleeping in a chair in the garage because he can't sleep well at home since he thinks the company that employs him is watching and listening to him all the time, and he feels safe here, so The Mother and Stepdad went to a wake and left him in the garage. 


So why are we writing about this? A couple of reasons, and none of them really make us feel good about ourselves. The fact that he is mentally ill shouldn't bother us at all, obviously, but it makes us nervous, despite the fact we have worked around many people with schizophrenia. Most are not dangerous, but we've never had one (knowingly) in our living space...but it made us uncomfortable.

So we made jokes on Twitter a couple of times in regard to him recently, not mean, just matter of fact with a little twist (twists that mainly highlight our anxiety/fear in regard to him), and now we wonder if that makes us...bad (if only in each other's opinion). It's no secret that mental health jokes on Twitter make one of us upset (mostly because they are ignorant, and not accurate), but we're not really making fun of him, or pretending we are ill...and when we write that we feel like we're trying to justify ourselves.

Hmmm...something for us to ponder on, at least.

~et al

[Curious about the difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder? Find more info here: http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2011/05/we-discuss-three-mis-diagnosed-mental.html

or, you know...fucking Google it.]