Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

[dave11]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

If all you are doing is listening then I think he must feel better after the calls. If it get's over frequent then you may have to cut him short. If the conversation ever turns to money then hang up. Right now you are a shoulder for him.

X2 Just listening helps.

 

[hal2814]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

Anyone see the movie " A beautiful mind" with Russel Crow playing the genius John Nash? He is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Something about the movie caught my attention.

Then I saw a BBC documentry about the 4 greatest mathematicians who all worked on the same problem, the continuum hypothesis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw-zNRNcF90

Nash also played with it and became ensnared.

The first 4 all went mad and died in sanitoriums or commited suicide.
They were Georg Kantor, Boltzman, Turing and Godel.
The continuum hypothesis is a fancy term for trying to wrap ones mind around God. Its called mathematical theology. They all suffered schizophrenic breaks with reality.

But Nash recovered..without medication or the help of science.
The movie doesn't touch on how he actually did it but I did a bit of internet research and found he decided to investigate God.

My own conclusion is we don't know squat but we can know truth.

A little more internet research and you could probably work out that the BBC's continuum-theory-driving-people-mad angle is a bunch of crap. Cantor was fine until his wife and son died. Boltzman had bipolar tendencies and suicide attempts his whole life. Turing didn't have any problems with depression until the British government chemically castrated him for being a homosexual. Godel is the only one of that group who really fits the pattern the BBC is going for. Sorry to steer us so far off topic but as a mathematician I couldn't let that one slide.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

A little more internet research and you could probably work out that the BBC's continuum-theory-driving-people-mad angle is a bunch of crap. Cantor was fine until his wife and son died. Boltzman had bipolar tendencies and suicide attempts his whole life. Turing didn't have any problems with depression until the British government chemically castrated him for being a homosexual. Godel is the only one of that group who really fits the pattern the BBC is going for. Sorry to steer us so far off topic but as a mathematician I couldn't let that one slide.

Dangit, your logic is messing up a good story.

 

[jonesg]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

I did research them all, Turing was gay , they don't hide it in the video, its very well done. Theres a deeper underlying story to each of them.

I figured the psychologist they interviewed was correct and he put them all together as having schizophrenic breaks with reality.
It fits with Nash. And Nash finds a solution, not a cure but an answer.

What my shrink told me after my partner died when I asked him about all these maladies is they're often the same stuff at varying degrees of severity. The terms are for insurance purposes.
Everyome goes through various phases of what could be diagnosed on a daily basis but we manage to get by and thrive hopefully.
They played with something that put them over the edge.
Thats the point, not that they didn't have problems.

Point being, this guys wife might improve if he'd let her go , but he sounds like he's not looking for money, he wants something of greater value to him, he wants an enabler.

As a mathematician, are you a platonist?
And greg Chaitin is right, it threatens math to its core.

 

[rosser1]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

PRAYER God will help this man and his wife, but we as Americans and Christains need to lift him and his wife up to the Lord. I know not all of you will agree. Dont judge me!! I will meet my Judge one day!!

 

[jonesg]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

PRAYER God will help this man and his wife, but we as Americans and Christains need to lift him and his wife up to the Lord. I know not all of you will agree. Dont judge me!! I will meet my Judge one day!!

Mention God to him and he'll be sure to call someone else.
And thats not a bad thing.

He's looking for somone to play God for him, those people aren't interested in the God they cannot manipulate.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

I didn't answer his last two calls because my phone was off when he called. He left short messages. He hasn't called back since.

Wish him well.

 

[rosser1]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

Well that isthe only thing I know to do, when all of Mans ways don't work. This is going to sound wrong) But that is when you turn to your god. notice not capitilized!!

 

[DayCruiser]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

Sounds like a normal PMS woman to me. Can I call you when she hits a hot flash again?

 

[lowkee]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

Why not ask him if he would agree to get his wife in-patient treatment if you offered your ear for support. I'd bet he just needs someone to help him through the initial stages of remorse for institutionalizing his wife. Let him know she is most likely to get better if she has access to proper psychiatric care. Beyond that, he is in a better position to help her after he gets his mind back to normalcy as well. You can't help someone out of their personal ditch when you are in there with them.

Call me a sucker for humanity, but I'd never think he was looking for a handout, maybe a hand to hold for support. I guess it just depends on how much time you are willing to give. To me, this is what I would count as true volunteer work, the kind that does real good.

As for some of the comments I've read.. I can't believe how desensitized some people are to humanity.

 

[DayCruiser]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

As for some of the comments I've read.. I can't believe how desensitized some people are to humanity.

Well if we got involved in everybody's problems then we would all be insane.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

I can tell you from experience, that rare is the case where getting involved with someone who has serious problems (be they emotional or drug), it rarely turns out well. More often than not, things go down hill until a critical point is reached where the police or some other authority is involved. Even people at church with problems have not ended well.

That may not be the norm, but its been the experience of my wife and me.

That is why I am now a lot more reluctant to get involved than I was 10 or 15 years ago.

It's that or I'm just turning into a crotchety old fart.

 

[DECK SWABBER 58]

Re: Sorry, but you have a wrong number....

Call me a sucker for humanity, but I'd never think he was looking for a handout, maybe a hand to hold for support. I guess it just depends on how much time you are willing to give. To me, this is what I would count as true volunteer work, the kind that does real good.

As for some of the comments I've read.. I can't believe how desensitized some people are to humanity.

I can tell you from experience, that rare is the case where getting involved with someone who has serious problems (be they emotional or drug), it rarely turns out well. More often than not, things go down hill until a critical point is reached where the police or some other authority is involved. Even people at church with problems have not ended well.

That may not be the norm, but its been the experience of my wife and me.

That is why I am now a lot more reluctant to get involved than I was 10 or 15 years ago.

It's that or I'm just turning into a crotchety old fart.

I've been in the "Buy-Here-Pay-Here" used car business for 25 yrs.

A lot of the people I deal with are down on their luck for various
reasons. I think I have met just about every kind of person and
heard just about every kind of story their is to hear.
I have have been scammed and conned by the most "innocent"
people you have ever seen.

TRUST ME, you have to be REALLY careful with this stuff.
I generally have a really soft heart for my fellow man, but
after getting repeatedly kicked in the n*ts for trying to help
someone less fortunate, you start to get "jaded" after awhile.
Or smarter.

Just my 2 cents.