I thought this was an Onion article at first.

[kandrathe]

That being said, John Nash was schizophrenic. I don't get the impression that schizophrenia gives the brain any useful special powers. It's not his hallucinations were imparting knowledge to him. From what I understand, they just put a lot of pressure on him, and that served as motivation to work hard. But that's saying he already had the potential. I wouldn't want to call that a controlled mental illness so much as a mental illness with a positive externality. "The bad news is you're schizophrenic. The good news is you're REALLY industrious!" I wouldn't be surprised if this was common with schizophrenia, but most of the time the results aren't useful to anyone.

I'd agree. I wouldn't mind being like John Nash without the schizophrenia. I think one thing that helps to confuse people about mental illness is that many of us have what might be described as "mild pathologies", such as "mood swings", or some slightly OCD behaviors, or seasonal affective disorder. The more I look at how brains work, and how varied they are in human behavior, the more I believe that there is really no such thing as "Normal". What we have are more like boundaries that we think describe socially acceptable behavior -- and most of us bounce around inside that fence. In cases like Aurora, or Columbine, no one noticed they were out of the paddock until it was too late.

At the personal, and anecdotal level; Our school has described both our sons as "ADHD", but I'm trying to determine how much of their behavior is "ADHD" and how much of it is being a normal energetic 8 year old boy. Gee! They don't like to sit still for many hours per day couped up in a stuffy old building, whilst dreaming of how much fun they'll have at recess. My boys tests off the charts on everything (99.99%), and the younger one has been considered for the "gifted" program -- however they don't want him because sometimes he is like a squirrel who's just power slammed a Red Bull. Their brain differences are part in parcel of who they are, and as it is my job to socialize them. Our focus has been on helping them to reign in their behaviors that infuriate the people around them. We took them both to a very renowned clinic here in town who specializes in identifying and describing ADHD in children. The very best advice I got from the psychologist was that were we to emphasize what is easy for them, (using their intelligence) they'd definitely fit in with the small top .001% and excel -- quirks and all, but we'd risk them becoming lonely, unhappy, with few real friends. Or, we could ignore their giftedness (that part will take care of itself), and instead invest in the harder parts for them -- in socializing them, in helping them to make good friends, and be a good friend with real empathy and connections.

So here is the bottom line. My sons have all the potential to go down the path that leads to what results in a massacre, and it is our work with them now -- focusing on their social skills, that will prevent it, 10 or 20 years from now.