I called him a molester

[little_miss_springfield]

Had a new patron at the library the other day. He asked a few questions and went off to browse. Then he came back and asked for a phone number. I gave him one of the cards with our hours and phone number and he left. It was an unremarkable transaction.

Then one of our teen regulars tells me the man was talking to himself and very upset. What was he upset about? I called him a molester and he's going to call the f****** authorities on me.

[seigus]

What the hell???

[laborcat]

Wow... my brain broke for a couple of seconds.

[protege]

What was he upset about? I called him a molester and he's going to call the f****** authorities on me.

Proof that crack does NOT smoke itself

[crazylegs]

It constantly amazes me what goes on in the heads of the people we interact with. I'll never make sense if it, but it does amaze me.

[sirwired]

Yeah, that is almost certainly a schizophrenic; hearing random people say terrible things about you is a classic symptom.

Read a fascinating article about this recently... Turns out lots of people sub-vocalize their inner thoughts; you may do this yourself and not even notice, because you tune it out. Schizophrenics apparently lack the ability to determine that these sub-vocalized voices are coming from within. (The researchers discovered this by simply taping sensitive mics to the throat of sufferers. They recorded the speech, and it turned out to be exactly what the "voices" were saying, totally verbatim.)

A couple of bouts of cutting remarks at yourself (i.e. saying to yourself, "You are such an idiot"; I do that all the time during head-slapping moments) and the spiral begins...