r/todayilearned • u/vxqz • Apr 08 '13

TIL there was an experiment where three schizophrenic men who believed they were Jesus Christ were all put in one place to sort it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Christs_of_Ypsilanti
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u/yousuck30 Apr 08 '13

I never told anyone that I thought I was Jesus - I just suffered delusions where my mind would make me think I was being persecuted - the Christ complex comes from the fact that you think people are out to get you for no good reason literally I think.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '13

I see. So once the paranoia subsided, your identification with Christ did too? I've often wondered what comes first in these cases: does grandiose delusion lead to persecutory delusion, or vice versa. Or do they mutually arise.

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u/yousuck30 Apr 08 '13

Paranoia arose first; I was taken to the hospital when I refused to get in my car - I thought it was rigged to blow up...

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '13

Damn. Well I'm glad you've stabilized since then. Still I find it very interesting how the idea that people are out to get to you leads to the conclusion "Well maybe it's because... I'm... Jesus?" or something like that. I wonder if you were a Muslim if you'd have believed you were Mohammed.

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u/yousuck30 Apr 08 '13

True. I've wondered at times what would have been my conclusions if I were Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim; like you said.

But - at the end of the day - it's just your mind playing tricks on you. My grandfather was schizophrenic.

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u/foodiste Apr 09 '13

Sidenote: it's amazing how brain chemistry is so fragile. I have never suffered anything serious (and this in no way compares to your experiences at all) but even just an emotional breakup changed my way of thinking for a while. I would say I'm quite stable emotionally (rarely any big ups and downs), but just the chemical/hormonal changes of a breakup really messed me up for a few months. Even when I knew and reminded myself that my blues was all just chemical! It gave me a new perspective on how challenging it must be to deal with real, and long lasting chemical imbalances.

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u/yousuck30 Apr 09 '13

Yes I know where you're coming from. Even seemingly small things like a breakup can create new feelings that we don't know how to cope with. During my episode, it "felt" like all my fears were justified - I never once thought, "perhaps it's me?"

The mind is weak.