Are you sane?

[bren.1]

It doesn't hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time.
This little test should get you started.

During a visit to the mental hospital, a visitor asked the Director what is the criterion used to determine if a patient should be institutionalized.

"Well," said the Director, "We fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him/her to empty the bathtub".

OK, here's your test.
1. Would you use the teaspoon?
2. Would you use the teacup?
3. Would you use the bucket?

Make your decision before you continue....



"Oh, I understand" said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or teacup".

................................................................................ ................................................................................ ..............................................



"No" said the Director, "A normal person would pull the plug"!
Do you want a room with or without a view?

 

[kiwideus]

whew im glad im normal, i was thinking of the plug lol

 

[rosehawke]

I don't know about this, giving the person the teaspoon, teacup, and bucket implies that there are "rules" to the exercise. Now if they handed them to me and said something like "...Empty the tub in any way you wish" or some such ...

Cindy

 

[cyberkitten]

Oh brother! lol This reminds me of my psych rotation. A foreign doctor was doing a residency and he classified an intake patient as needing psch attention because he said he "had butterflies in his stomach". (Meaning in our neck of the woods that he was nervous). But English is complicated that way. So is French for that matter. A common French expression is mal au coeur to describe the feeling one has when nasueated. I assume it comes from the fact feeling nauseted affects the area "around" the heart. Not too long ago, an Angophone ER doc, treating a patient - even though he had read the triage nurses's notes, asked a patient what he was here for. And the patient replied that "J'ai mal au coeur". The patient translated for the doctor and well, the doctor of course jumped to the wrong conclusion. No code 99 or anything but oh my!!!

 

[sooz123]

I guess I'm certifiable.

My excuse, of course, is that I have had to empty a bath with a bucket! I left my house during a snow storm with the tub faucet dripping to keep the pipes from freezing. Well, the pipes didn't freeze, the drain did because of poor insulation! By the time I went back home 4 days later, the tub was full to the lip with a firm ball of ice in the drain!

 

[mom of franz]

I'm looking forward to the little test for cancer and heart disease patients. If the mentally ill are so funny, they should be real knee slappers. Go ahead and call me over sensitive, that's a lot better than insensitive.

 

[wellingtoncats]

I was thinking bucket!

 

[yayi]

Originally Posted by WellingtonCats

I was thinking bucket!

Same here!

I mean, you were given 3 choices. Guess you're suppose to think "outside the box" to be sane!

 

[krazy kat2]

I decided to use the teaspoon to pull the plug. What does that make me?

 

[ricalynn]

Originally Posted by krazy kat2

I decided to use the teaspoon to pull the plug. What does that make me?

Crazy like a FOX - you go, girl!!!!

 

[KitEKats4Eva!]

Originally Posted by Mom of Franz

I'm looking forward to the little test for cancer and heart disease patients. If the mentally ill are so funny, they should be real knee slappers. Go ahead and call me over sensitive, that's a lot better than insensitive.

I don't think you're oversensitive - these kinds of things affect different people in different ways. I have a psychiatric illness and I wasn't bothered by this at all, however that is me, and not everyone is going to respond to things in the same way. Perhaps another way to ask would have been `Are you a lateral thinker?' rather than, `Are you sane?'. It can be a very difficult topic for a lot of people

 

[ilovecats]

Originally Posted by WellingtonCats

I was thinking bucket!

Same here! Guess we're crazy..

I thought you had to use ONLY those choices...

 

[wellingtoncats]

Originally Posted by yayi

Same here!

I mean, you were given 3 choices. Guess you're suppose to think "outside the box" to be sane!

Too right!

 

[big-cat-fan]

Originally Posted by RoseHawke

I don't know about this, giving the person the teaspoon, teacup, and bucket implies that there are "rules" to the exercise. Now if they handed them to me and said something like "...Empty the tub in any way you wish" or some such ...

Cindy

Uh huh!! I agree.....

 

[fwan]

i chose bucket also, but i didnt find it funny either because my mother has been in a psycho hospital and the people in there are sad

 

[charcoal]

I was thinking the plug too. You gotta think outside the box.. lol

 

[sharky]

I was thinking bucket but then again most dont think i am all the way sane

 

[mom of franz]

Originally Posted by KitEKats4Eva!

I don't think you're oversensitive - these kinds of things affect different people in different ways. I have a psychiatric illness and I wasn't bothered by this at all, however that is me, and not everyone is going to respond to things in the same way. Perhaps another way to ask would have been `Are you a lateral thinker?' rather than, `Are you sane?'. It can be a very difficult topic for a lot of people

Thanks Eva for understanding. What I am trying to get across to people is that we would never start a joke with "On a visit to the cancer ward..." So why is it okay to say "On a visit to a mental hospital...?"

During the 60s and 70s and maybe before then was a comic whose whole act was acting like a drunk man. People thought he was hysterical, he was all over the tube and played in Vegas. Bit by bit the laughter ceased when MADD (mother against drunk drivers) came on the scene, and suddenly or is seemed liked suddenly, this man no longer had a act; noboby saw drunkeness as funny anymore. Maybe the same thing will eventually happen to mental illness..the funny little jokes will cease.

There was nothing wrong with the joke/quiz that was posted but take out the mental hospital bit and you would still have a fine example of human thinking.

 

[zoe'n'misskitty]

Physical illnesses are easy to understand.
There's something wrong, and here it is on the MRI/CT scan/X-Ray. You can see it, you can define it, you might even be able to touch it. There's your tumor, there's your clogged artery, there's your fractured bone. It's right there for you to understand and define. The doctor can fix it. It isn't going to change your personality, behaviour or how you interact with your loved ones that drastically.
Mental illness isn't something we can't see on a film and it can't be fixed with an operation or chemotherapy. It's hard to diagnose, it changes how you act and how you think, it's hard to treat, and it WILL effect your relationships with others.
Humans have a great need to find humor in things they are uncomfortable with or don't understand, that most of the time it's an effort to become more comfortable and understand more about the subject.
The joke that was told makes you think "oh, maybe I'm crazy" and then it might make you think "well, if I"m crazy maybe the mentally ill aren't that different from me".
JMHO.

BTW, I thought the joke was amusing. And so did my BF, who has seen mental illness up close and personal in his family.

 

[sammie5]

I see the point, and don't want to be insensitive to the important issue of understanding and acceptance of mental illness. A friend who is clinically depressed is tired of hearing her family tell her, "you should just cheer up, don't take things so seriously".

I did find that to be a cute joke.

But the real point of my post is, when my mother was going through chemo, we had a LOT of "today at the cancer ward" jokes. It was the only way we could keep from crying some times.

The very best one (not really a joke, but it was funny). I was with my mom in the chemo clinic waiting room. They called her name, and I got up and walked toward the desk. She said, wait, wait, they're going to think that you are me! And I looked behind me, and said, Don't worry, they'll be able to figure out which one of us has cancer. The whole waiting room cracked up. (Mom was very frail, obviously had lost weight because her clothes were too big, and she had no hair).