Competence - Mental that is.

Canbyte

Time Out
Feb 23, 2011
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How does a lone person calling decide on personal mental competence?
(Posit a caller with the called)


There seem to be 4 possible answers.....
1) Both competent
2) Both incompetent
3) Online competent, lone caller incompetent
4) Online incompetent, lone caller competent


Which?
 

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
17,135
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How does a lone person calling decide on personal mental competence?
(Posit a caller with the called)


There seem to be 4 possible answers.....
1) Both competent
2) Both incompetent
3) Online competent, lone caller incompetent
4) Online incompetent, lone caller competent


Which?

so we could likely benefit here from a link perhaps or deeper explanation because I for one am lost
 

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
29,151
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London, Ontario
Confuscious says: One cannot provide an answer if one does not know the question.

SLM says: WTF? (Same thing, just more succinct. :D)
 

Canbyte

Time Out
Feb 23, 2011
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Southern Ontario
so we could likely benefit here from a link perhaps or deeper explanation because I for one am lost
How does a mentally competent Sal know if Canbytes can provide competent de-mystification? What is mental competence? I have not taken any illegal drugs to alter the mind but one drug that I took for a decade after a stroke was recommended by a medical doctor to thin my blood thus preventing a recurrence. It had side effects that were not known to the medical profession and I had to go into hospital to have my skull drilled and drained after taking this drug regularly for ten years.


Shortly before having my skull drained friends who came to visit later told me that for a short while I became mentally incompetent. Fortunately I slowly and fully recovered.as the side effects dissipated but for a while I was 'skwishy' without knowing it.
 

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
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How does a mentally competent Sal know if Canbytes can provide competent de-mystification? What is mental competence? I have not taken any illegal drugs to alter the mind but one drug that I took for a decade after a stroke was recommended by a medical doctor to thin my blood thus preventing a recurrence. It had side effects that were not known to the medical profession and I had to go into hospital to have my skull drilled and drained after taking this drug regularly for ten years.


Shortly before having my skull drained friends who came to visit later told me that for a short while I became mentally incompetent. Fortunately I slowly and fully recovered.as the side effects dissipated but for a while I was 'skwishy' without knowing it.
Sorry for all of your trouble and glad you have recovered.

An interesting question Canbyte. I am not completely certain of the answer. I would say Cannuck gives a reasonable measure. If someone can care for themselves and make reasonable logical decisions they would be competent.

Sounds like you have some good friends too.
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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so we could likely benefit here from a link perhaps or deeper explanation because I for one am lost


I'm in the dark as much as you are and here I thought I was being stupid! I guess great minds think alike.
 

Canbyte

Time Out
Feb 23, 2011
139
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16
Southern Ontario
Save us from all in the dark. It is clear to me that I should and will stop posting on this thread else I am in real danger (as Cannuck says) of placing 'yourself or others at imminent risk'.
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
75,301
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Vernon, B.C.
Save us from all in the dark. It is clear to me that I should and will stop posting on this thread else I am in real danger (as Cannuck says) of placing 'yourself or others at imminent risk'.


Just hang tough......................there's better authorities! We want to help.
 

Twila

Nanah Potato
Mar 26, 2003
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Save us from all in the dark. It is clear to me that I should and will stop posting on this thread else I am in real danger (as Cannuck says) of placing 'yourself or others at imminent risk'.

don't let the miserable people here keep you from posting what you want. Don't let their misery become your misery.

Can you explain what you meant by squishy without knowing it?

When I was a teenager I had a rather traumatic head injury. Personality changes are one of the things people are told to expect. I, of course, have no idea if I changed after the incident.

Did the Dr.'s tell you if there was likely to be any damage permenant or otherwise to your brain from the fluid buildup and pressure?
 

Cannuck

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Feb 2, 2006
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Alberta
When I was a teenager I had a rather traumatic head injury. Personality changes are one of the things people are told to expect. I, of course, have no idea if I changed after the incident.

What do your friends and family say? A very good friend of mine fell off a roof 20 years ago and landed on his head. His personality changed significantly. We no longer hang around. He's not the same person at all. Even his marriage eventually fell apart. Not that it may not have anyway. His wife said he was no longer a man she could love.
 

Twila

Nanah Potato
Mar 26, 2003
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What do your friends and family say? A very good friend of mine fell off a roof 20 years ago and landed on his head. His personality changed significantly. We no longer hang around. He's not the same person at all. Even his marriage eventually fell apart. Not that it may not have anyway. His wife said he was no longer a man she could love.

oh, that's terrible. Although I guess he doesn't have access or memory to how he use to be?

I was 17 when it happened so I was changing and growing mentally pretty fast and my personality wasn't fully "formed" I wasn't a very nice teenager to begin with and had suffered some other issues before the accident.

I like to think that maybe the head injury slowed down my decent from being a total douchebag to my parents ( I was horrible before the accident) By 21yrs of age I was a parent and had a complete turn around from irresponsible self pleasing at who evers expense to fully responsible, non partying, giving 100% of my time, energy and love to my child. Can't say if it was the head injury or maternal instinct that kicked in.
 

Cannuck

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Feb 2, 2006
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oh, that's terrible. Although I guess he doesn't have access or memory to how he use to be?

I was 17 when it happened so I was changing and growing mentally pretty fast and my personality wasn't fully "formed" I wasn't a very nice teenager to begin with and had suffered some other issues before the accident.

I like to think that maybe the head injury slowed down my decent from being a total douchebag to my parents ( I was horrible before the accident) By 21yrs of age I was a parent and had a complete turn around from irresponsible self pleasing at who evers expense to fully responsible, non partying, giving 100% of my time, energy and love to my child. Can't say if it was the head injury or maternal instinct that kicked in.

My wife had a head injury in a car accident. There were no immediate signs and it went undiagnosed. By the time some of the physical symptoms started to appear she didn't have the mental capacity to deal with it. It's my oldest daughter's life goal to change the law to enable families to intervene when somebody starts having issues. My wife was eventually diagnosed with Korsakoff syndrome. She is now at the point where she doesn't even know her children's names. It's frustrating to know that had I been able to force her to go to the doctor 20 years ago when the symptoms started showing up, she wouldn't be where she is today
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
75,301
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oh, that's terrible. Although I guess he doesn't have access or memory to how he use to be?

I was 17 when it happened so I was changing and growing mentally pretty fast and my personality wasn't fully "formed" I wasn't a very nice teenager to begin with and had suffered some other issues before the accident.

I like to think that maybe the head injury slowed down my decent from being a total douchebag to my parents ( I was horrible before the accident) By 21yrs of age I was a parent and had a complete turn around from irresponsible self pleasing at who evers expense to fully responsible, non partying, giving 100% of my time, energy and love to my child. Can't say if it was the head injury or maternal instinct that kicked in.


I just got to thinking that very good friend of Cannuck's who fell off a roof onto his head may have been Cannuck himself! Anyone else drawing the same conclusion?:)
 

Twila

Nanah Potato
Mar 26, 2003
14,698
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My wife had a head injury in a car accident. There were no immediate signs and it went undiagnosed. By the time some of the physical symptoms started to appear she didn't have the mental capacity to deal with it. It's my oldest daughter's life goal to change the law to enable families to intervene when somebody starts having issues. My wife was eventually diagnosed with Korsakoff syndrome. She is now at the point where she doesn't even know her children's names. It's frustrating to know that had I been able to force her to go to the doctor 20 years ago when the symptoms started showing up, she wouldn't be where she is today

Sorry to hear that, Cannuck. Has your oldest daughter got a business plan sort of thing together? What sort of intervention is she proposing?

I think that head injuries and the repercussion from them is starting to be understood and Dr's are starting assess for such.

I'm concerned about what will happen down the road for me. I've read that sometimes as the brain ages, symptoms become more apparent. I currently sleep walk and I have waking dreams where I'm awake, but "hallucinating". Those we believe to be from the head injury. It's a lot of fun. I've "seen" some pretty fantastical things and it's provided some interesting conversations with my husband. He just loves being woken up in the middle of the night to hear me carrying on about some creature I'm almost certain I've seen. Or have the lights suddenly turned on so I can look for the creature I've just seen. lol. Fun and games. Ought to get super interesting once senility or dementia gets a hold of me.
 

Cannuck

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Feb 2, 2006
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Sorry to hear that, Cannuck. Has your oldest daughter got a business plan sort of thing together? What sort of intervention is she proposing?

I think that head injuries and the repercussion from them is starting to be understood and Dr's are starting assess for such.

She is currently at the University of Lethbridge taking Sociology. She would like to get into social work of some type. She would like to work (probably volunteer) for the Alzheimer's Society or The Canadian Mental Health Association. The problem right now is that the doctors opinions are only important as they relate to imminent threats. My wife engaged in all types of reckless behaviors for years. We knew this what not her normal self. She was seen by a mental health professional as early as 2005 when we tricked her into going (we told her my daughter was having troubles) and after speaking with her for all of 5 minutes, he asked her to leave and told me she was showing clear signs of early onset dementia. It still took 3 years to get her in front of a psychiatrist. She just refused to go.

We think that some lobbying needs to be done to change the law and probably an existing organization is best suited to do it. There must be a better way than sitting back and allowing somebody to spiral down until they try and hurt themselves or others before family, friend or the medical community can step in.