While civil war continues to unfold in Libya, I'll spend a little time talking about the only thing that's getting more coverage than the various Arab revolts; Charlie Sheen.
Not a whole lot to say, but I couldn't let the recent madness pass without comment. Short version: Charlie's loopy. More specifically, if he's not manic-depressive (most recently REALLY manic) I'll eat my hat. Well-balanced people don't say things like this:
"I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available. If you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body."
I suffer from a milder version of it myself and I've known people with more extreme cases, so it's easy to spot even without psychological training. I enjoy my "up" periods because I have energy and want to do things, and don't care too much about the consequences. That said, on my zaniest days I've never even been close to where he's at right now.
The problem here of course is that he will come crashing down at some point, as has probably happened repeatedly in the past. If his manic phase is worse than it was earlier there is a good chance that his depressive phase will be too. As I'm learning the hard way, as you get older this condition doesn't go away, it gets worse.
If you were to parse my blog posts you could probably tell how I felt when I wrote them. The sample would be skewed however; when I'm really depressed I don't tend to write much, which is a pattern in itself. This is the way it is for a lot of people, but sometimes hard to notice unless you're actively looking. I go contrary to the conventional wisdom on these things, but I'll take the opening that Charlie has made to say this about periodically depressed people: if you know they'll bounce back, don't try too hard to cheer them up when they're down. Some alone time to wallow in the Slough of Despond is occasionally necessary, just don't let them drown in it. Vague I know, but people are highly variable so you should try to understand your friends and family and not worry about generalities.
The brain is very complex, and a bit too much or too little of something can have all sorts of repercussions on one's behaviour. Pharmaceuticals are getting more specific and therefore more helpful, but people still need to reach that point when they realize that they're not handling it well on their own before things will change. Pretty similar to a substance abuse problem, except that you'll need substances (hopefully not self-prescribed) to deal with it.
This is my gut reaction, but to me the difference between crazy and insane is whether or not you realize that you're behaving oddly, or at least that people will perceive your actions that way. If Charlie is just venting all the noise in his head because he needs to get it out but knows that he's not being entirely reasonable (to be charitable) then he's crazy for a while. If he believes it, he's insane, temporarily or otherwise.
To conclude my opportunistic quasi public service spot, you need to be aware (as much as possible, anyway) when people you know are having problems, and if they're saying stupid shit (see above) you need to call them on it. If they acknowledge the ridiculousness of what they're doing or not doing (even if they can't stop it for the time being), they'll probably be OK sooner or later. In Charlie's case, he needs to be confronted in plain language and give his head a shake. I don't care what he says now, I'll be very surprised if he isn't at least privately embarrassed in the future by some of the stuff he's saying today.
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