Hi Jimi and welcome.

It sounds more like neurosis than psychosis. Neurotics can get comfortable with their tendencies, compulsions, etc. They tend to fall into patterns.

aspects that were created before I was conceived

,

You may find it profitable to think about events you experienced during your upbringing.

what am I doing here in a paranoid and semi delusional state — Jimi

A good question, but were you really paranoid and semi-delusional, you probably would not have been able to composed your interesting post.

I believe that many people labeled as "sick" have just found a comfortable reality they can belong to — Jimi

Is reality a rubber band? Is it so flexible that one can get away with any old delusion that happens to be on hand? Lots of people, including me, have played around with the idea that we are all delusional, everyone in his own way. It doesn't work. Reality intervenes to either jerk us out of our delusional states, or finish us off.

That said, many quite non-delusional people agree that life as we know it is an unsatisfactory arrangement. Clearly the world was not organized for our convenience, and long-lasting happiness just may not be in the cards. With no beasts to be hunted, no frontiers to be explored, we are stuck dealing with ourselves and each other, which is challenge enough.

Welcome!

I believe that many people labeled as "sick" have just found a comfortable reality they can belong to, — Jimi

So you think the mentally ill are happy with their 'illness', that they've made the best bargain with life that they can? :-$

How on Earth do you come to the conclusion that it follows from the fact that one has "made the best bargain with life that they can" that the must, or even would, be "happy with their illness"? :s

How on Earth do you not notice that I put 'happy' in italics to indicate that its meaning was intentionally open to interpretation and conclude that two propositions which I clearly stated as parallel are in a consequential relationship?

I honestly don't know what you are talking about here.

What you wrote seems to me to imply that you think that because Jimi believes the "mentally ill" have made "the best bargain with life that they can" that it follows that Jimi thinks that they are "happy with their illness"?

The italicization of "happy' seems to be there merely for emphasis. (If you wanted to signal that the meaning of 'happy' is open to interpretation then the most common way to do that would be to write it as 'happy', not to italicize it).

In any case, if my interpretation is not what you meant, then explain what it is that you did mean, because it is still far from clear to me.

I am seeking an explanation of the meaning of 'comfortable' in the key statement ...

I believe that many people labeled as "sick" have just found a comfortable reality they can belong to — Jimi

To me it implies both voluntary acceptance and a contentedness with the condition by which they are judged 'sick' societally. Does that mean that there is an underlying belief that mentally ill people are 'happy' with their lot and have no desire to change it? If so then I would be in profound disagreement but it's not an argument I want to start if I've merely misinterpreted.

To me it seems obvious that"comfortable " in this context should not be taken to mean 'happy', but in a very relative sense like 'as happy as possible' or perhaps more appropriately ' as little unhappy as possible'. Hopefully Jimi will clarify.

Hopefully Jimi will clarify. — John

Where'd you go, Jimi? Out hunting?

To me it seems obvious that"comfortable " in this context should not be taken to mean 'happy', but in a very relative sense like 'as happy as possible' or perhaps more appropriately ' as little unhappy as possible'. Hopefully Jimi will clarify. — John

Some people think that "crazy people" -- lost in their own delusions, fantasies, detached realities -- are in "lala land", in some sort of "fun place". Most of the people who experience psychosis and delusions (like, they hear voices, see things that aren't there... you know, hallucinations) are decidedly not happy or comfortable in this state. They are not happy because people (almost as a rule) don't become delusional and psychotic about happy, pleasant things. Voices don't tell them that they are wonderful, they tell them to throw themselves under trucks, jump off bridged, ripe their clothes off--that sort of thing. They feel dreadfully fearful.

People who are merely severely depressed may not have hallucinations or they may not feel dreadfully fearful. They just feel quite bad without any specific external reason. People who are mentally ill often have fairly wretched lives, good medication and excellent psychiatric care notwithstanding.

There are, on the other hand, lots of "deluded people" who think this is the best of all possible worlds. They have not hallucinated this view, they arrived at it by a logical process -- see Candide by Voltaire. "The best of all possible worlds" view doesn't hold water, but this is the world we have -- for better or worse. One can get "comfortable" with this world, or one can change at this gates like Don Quixote, be like your favorite revolutionary, (fill in blank here), or commit hari kari as a statement of your dissatisfaction.

Clear headed and decidedly "not crazy people" can get comfortable with this world while recognizing that it is at once and in actuality the best and worst of places. They see the sparkling clear brooks and brown sewer water, the meadowlarks and the vultures both.

There is a great scene in The Sopranos where the one-legged Russian woman who at one time is a prostitute (at one stage in the series) says to Tony Soprano (the Mafia boss), "You know, people in America expect everything to be perfect and everyone to be happy. People in the rest of the world expect shit and a lot of trouble. They usually get it."

Three different professionals at three different times in my life told me I'm not crazy. So there!

They instead clarified that that was an unfortunate term, and that "lunatic", or "patrick swayze" were more compassionate terms.

Yes, 'no good without evil', is the best of all possible axioms, or the worst of all possible truisms.

I would like to mention that I have a very close friend who suffers from mental illness, that has been in the past debilitating, and I do not even pretend to know what this must be like In reality to suffer.

When I wrote that people may have created a reality that is comfortable, I meant exactly that. Comfort does not always exist with happiness, I have experienced this personally, and I believe there would be others in the same boat. There is a vast spectrum of mental Illness and I do believe many people have undiagnosed mental health issues, that do not affect them in the way society deems necessary before it is an issue. There is also of course many that suffer and cannot function In the society we live in, I hope they find the place for them.

This Is simply my thoughts at a time when I had to much time to think.