Any psychologist types out there?

[Apotheosis]

Ok.. got a question for anyone familiar with mental disorders.....

One of the cafe's I frequent has a young male, in his 20's that hangs out and is very disturbing.. He makes everyone feel incredibly uncomfortable in his presence.... he has not been asked to leave by the owners yet, but it's coming up soon....

I am not sure what's wrong with him, but there's a fine line between "mentally disturbed" and "mentally disturbed with a touch of homicidal maniac", and I wonder if anyone can shed light on the situation

1. he will introduce himself to people, and then just stand there and stare at them.

2. socially inept

3. a couple occasions, he claimed a girl hanging out was "his girlfriend" which wasn't true.

4. he can drive/has a liscense.

5. he'll sit there, stare at the floor, or off into the distance, and laugh/giggle for no reason.

6. his hygiene is inconsistent, some days he's dressed well, clean, other's he's a mess.

7. he lies about his life, or is living in a different world.


Beyond that, I don't have much more to go on, but it's not very comfortabel.. it's not like people want to be rude, and push him out, but not knowing what's wrong in his head is unnerving....

[Sean of the Thread]

Step number one) Stop going to emo coffee joints.

Actually I don't know of any more steps but follow step one.


The poor guy has had one fucked up childhood in my opinion. Bottom line stay away from him and if he is that fucked and making people uncomfortable talk the establishment and have them take the proper steps man.

I always feel very bad for people who lack social skills.. maybe he just needs you to be his friend?

[Apotheosis]

not interested in being his friend.. I've hung out at coffee houses since I was young (it's "the thing to do") out here (when not hanging out at a bar or doing something else).. it's been my experience (especially in college towns), that coffee houses always have a few wack jobs around.

[Sean of the Thread]

. it's been my experience (especially in college towns), that coffee houses always have a few wack jobs around.

You're not lying brother. :( seen plenty of that around here as well over the years.

WTF IS UP WITH THE LIBRARY AND COFFEE HOUSES? All the nutjobs converse there.

[Gnomad]

1. he will introduce himself to people, and then just stand there and stare at them.

2. socially inept

3. a couple occasions, he claimed a girl hanging out was "his girlfriend" which wasn't true.

4. he can drive/has a liscense.

5. he'll sit there, stare at the floor, or off into the distance, and laugh/giggle for no reason.

6. his hygiene is inconsistent, some days he's dressed well, clean, other's he's a mess.

7. he lies about his life, or is living in a different world.
1, 2, 4, and 5 would lead me to Asperger Syndrome/Autism/some autism-spectrum disorder.

[Back]

Eh, ask him about his dreams. The only thing I’m good at is interpretation of dreams.

[ElanthianSiren]

I doubt an accurate psychological diagnoses can really be made by through a third party on the internet without meeting the person. If I had to guess, I'd say:

Maybe schitzotypal/autism but it depends how often his episodes are. Is his speech super elaborate when he does speak?

-M

[Stanley Burrell]

You have voyeurism disorder, as by DSM-III :wasntme:

People like this guy are entertaining and cool, or at least able to be laughed at in a healthy regard.

What are his speech patterns like? Are they coherent? How consistently? Does he make classical word salad? Does he have a clinical histrionic personality disorder? Does he pill-roll?

If he has verbal outbursts, are they usually cycling over the same phrase or word or seemingly random?

Try and act even more uncomfortable than you might physically allow yourself to be recognized as portraying if he seems to be seeking your personal attention and check to see, then, if his anti-social behavior element becomes more pronounced. Then try to be as kind as is possible and laugh with his giggles if you are certain he is honing in on you. Deliberately drop an object near him and see if he picks it up. Does he shift around when standing up? If so, is it a forward and backward motion or side-to-side rocking? If you notice pill-rolling or schizophrenic shuffle, is it increased after anti-social behaviors or downtoned?

Prepare and execute conversations with an experimenter that lament upon subjects you have heard about that he seems to be the most infatuated with regard to. Check for a chronic choleric, melancholic, sanguine and/or phlegmatic response to your control.

Post data report.

Non-violent Asperger's syndrome sufferers will usually back the fuck off and take a mild, yet very important social queue to stop immediately if confronted harshly and abruptly. Pussyfooting around the situation can and will only make it worse if that is his particular illness.

(Also, I'm thinking Axis II and not I, and that you've put enough information out to emphasize ASPD and/or histrionic PD and/or borderline PD and/or etc. PD. I'm leaning high-function Asperger's with a twist of positive affective disorder.)

I hope he is doing all of this in a Starbucks :D

[Satira]

With the staring at the floor, the weird introducing and the thinking some girl is his girlfriend, is really sounds like Asperger's syndrome to me. That's a hard diagnosis to make, but people with AS usually have normal intelligence level, sometimes even above average. So if he never was diagnosed that could explain the driver's license

Beyond that it may be some kind of PDD that's not otherwise specified, or a combination of Asperger's and the onset of schizophrenia

So in other words, I'm agreeing with Gnomad and Melissa

[Doyle Hargraves]

Ask him if he calls it a "sling blade" or a "kaiser blade" and you'll find the answer you're looking for.

[Satira]

ROFL.

Mm-hm.

I like the way you talk.

[radamanthys]

Does he shuffle his feet when he walks?

[Alfster]

he's probably just crack-d out

[Goretawn]

In general, I just wanted to say the title of the thread is hilarious. Find one thread that does not have the typical part time psychologist at heart put in on personal behavior.

Oh yeah, holy shit SB. Sounds like you actually know what you are talking about.

[Stanley Burrell]

Thanx, mang. Abnormal psych is my fav'.

[radamanthys]

why a DSM III, and not a revised DSM IV?

[DeV]

Thanx, mang. Abnormal psych is my fav'.Wasn't mine, but it was by far one of my most intense psych clases. Probably the reason I choose to master the industrial organizational sector of psychology rather than clinical or psychotherapy.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

Gonna agree with Coley here on the combination Asperger's and Schizophrenia.

The chronic lying also points to Narcissistic Personality Disorder, however the lies seem to be associated with a disconnect from reality rather than a need to feel important.

[CrystalTears]

Er, if he possessed a narcissistic personality, he wouldn't really be dressing badly, or unkempt, or talk to himself which would make him look badly in public. Not sure what gave you that impression from his description of this poor soul.

[ElanthianSiren]

Avoidant is often confused with anti-social. I agree though -- anti-social people are slick and often narcissistic/willing to screw anyone over. He seemed more afflicted with perception problems, which is why I leant toward schitzotypal disorder. In some ways though, I'm more inclined to accept Stan's prognosis because, while my mom is a shrink, and I didn't mind abnormal psychology (and liked it more than psychology in GENERAL), I quickly found psychology was not the field I wanted to be in.

-M

[Stanley Burrell]

why a DSM III, and not a revised DSM IV?

I made my soopa' wiity jab at the way in which GAF scores were thrown around, especially regarding certain sexual "disorders" in the older manual (which many people in the field still go by.)

The DSM III was not as refined as our updated version.

I.e. You used to have GAF scores flying left and right because the general consensus was to give narrow labels and sedate heavily. Studies in psychology since the olden days of Freudian psychoanalysis (of just about every facet of psychological science whereas the DSM is involved) have helped to downtone and better refine how it (the DSM) is better used.

[Stanley Burrell]

Radium was also used to cure illness back when.

/rando'

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

Avoidant is often confused with anti-social. I agree though -- anti-social people are slick and often narcissistic/willing to screw anyone over. He seemed more afflicted with perception problems, which is why I leant toward schitzotypal disorder. In some ways though, I'm more inclined to accept Stan's prognosis because, while my mom is a shrink, and I didn't mind abnormal psychology (and liked it more than psychology in GENERAL), I quickly found psychology was not the field I wanted to be in.

-M

In response to you, and to CT, I don't think he has Narcissistic personality disorder. I was just typing my thoughts aloud and ruling out a possible mental illness.

[Apathy]

He could be eating those crazy mushrooms.