Reply #113: To be specific,

[Occam Bandage]

I do not know psychiatry beyond what I've learned as the son of a doctor of psych, the fiancé of a doctor, and someone who's engaged in prolonged study of the mental processes driving language. That is why I am not offering a specific DSM-IV diagnosis with treatment recommendations; while I could sit down with the DSM and give my best guess, that would be irresponsible. That is why I am saying what he is doing, which is engaging in disordered and dissociated thought, speaking word salad, and placing an inordinate degree of importance on personal discoveries of mundane facts, and why I am saying that he is most likely manic. I think he is. "Dude you're giving me a weird vibe" is not as likely to be taken seriously as specific behaviors and their implications that people can then specifically attempt to consider. Obviously I can't check his psychomotor functions, so I'm not going to tell him "you need to take valproate." I'm telling him he needs to go to a doctor.

Which, I note, you are discarding entirely. I am not saying "you need to go on a certain treatment plan because I think you are manic." I am saying, over and over again, that he needs to go to a health professional. I do not believe that when you have reason to believe someone is unwell, you ought simply pat them on the back and walk away.