To worry there is a serious mental health crisis amongst conspiracy theorists?

[BlooperReel]

Maybe it's because I've been online more now due to lockdown, but conspiracy theories seem to have really ramped up, people I know are now peddling some of this nonsense. Adrenochrome, pizzagate, 5G etc all seem to have sucked in people I'd assumed were rational people, and they are almost rabid about it and wil not hear any other viewpoint.

A bbc documentary called Viral - the 5g conspiracy theory interviewed some individuals who quite clearly need help.

I've seen the likes of Bill Gates, Chrissy teigen, Ellen DeGeneres and others get so much appalling abuse on social media over these theories and I can only think that the people who wholeheartedly believe this stuff must have psychological issues, the levels of paranoia are truly astounding. Is this an emerging mental health crisis?

@Rinoachicken what would your husband qualify as behaviour that strayed into the real world? Only interested because I don’t know where to draw the line with my dp. I’m guessing it would be when it starts affecting our children if he withdraws from everyday life but I am worried about his mental health. I feel like he’s putting on an act to appear normal but inside it must be eating away at him with all this ‘knowledge’ he has to keep in.

I saw a message pop up from one of his online buddies saying to stay strong and that the truth will be out soon, but it obviously isn’t so what happens then?

Part of me wants him to say he’s fucking off to America to be with like minded people it I know he won’t because he adores our children.

My brother, who is intelligent, well-educated and has always functioned well has gone down the rabbit hole since lockdown. He has left his job, moved back in with my elderly parents (terrified he'll cause my dad to have a heart attack with the arguments and stress) and seems to swallow most new theories and aspects he comes across. He thinks things like Wayfair, Pizzagate etc are silly distractions from the real issues of Covid Hoax, the rise of the NWO, cashless society etc. I am really scared for him, he is a one subject person now and while that's irritating for everyone around him my real concern is that he's genuinely terrified by the things he's been reading and investigating.

I think for him it's been a perfect storm of what were probably some low level MH issues anyway coupled with the way the world has changed. Could totally subscribe to the idea that he's looking for reasons to understand why to have some control. Like I said, what worries me most isn't the fact that he is reading constantly about these things and going deeper, but the fact that he's so scared and nothing anyone can say is reassuring to him.

I really feel for those of you with similar issues with partners or even friends. It is hard to witness and even harder to know what to do - if there is, indeed, anything to be done.

@Mycatsmellsbad my friend sounds very much like your husband, using the same lines ‘the truth will be out soon’. These exact same quotes used by these people (and they never vary!) are what leads me to suspect the cult-like nature of it. We (friends and family) do need to be worried, as these things so often go very wrong for cults of this nature...when ‘the truth’ isn’t actually ‘revealed’ or when the rest of us don’t ‘wake up’. It can end tragically, unfortunately, as we know with many cults historically 😥

@Mycatsmellsbad I’ve asked him and he said it’s when it starts to interfere with what was their normal live in a negative way - so harassing people in real life (eg trolling or stalking a celebrity or other public figure, or anyone they wouldn’t normally have contact with, based on a belief they are secretly eating babies), withdrawing from friends and family and speaking with only those deemed ‘in’ in the secret knowledge, restricting or otherwise negatively changing what the family do and who they mix with base on what they deem safe or unsafe, any talk of having to ‘save’ loved ones from some unseen or imagined threat, especially if there’s a risk that the ‘saving’ might involve danger to those loved ones etc.

My DH and his colleagues have detained almost the same amount of people under the MH Act (sectioned people) during this pandemic as they normally would in a YEAR and I assumed that was people who were already known to services who were struggling, couldn’t get their meds or normal therapy or whatever, but no, apparently the majority are people who have never been mentally ill before and are experiencing their first ever psychotic episode. They have never been so busy, and finding beds for everyone that needs them is a real problem in a system that’s so long been chronically underfunded.

When I say ‘during this pandemic’ I meant since March.

Acquaintance of mine is spouting this garbage on Facebook - when I finally cracked and challenged her on it I got the exact same wording as PPs have mentioned (you won’t do the research but if you did, etc). She’s now reposting subtly pro Trump posts and videos that say how he knows the truth about Covid and will save everybody from paedos (apparently these two points are related - eyeroll).

What’s really alarming is that this is someone I would fully expect to be left wing, liberal, etc - and she’s buying in to lies clearly peddled by the American right wing.

Thank you @Rinoachicken that’s helpful. Thankfully it seems to be staying on social media at the moment although I’ve no idea if he’s harrassing people, he claims it’s all good natured. It’s the people he’s making friends with I don’t trust. He grew up without a father so is very trusting of any dominant males and has been bullied (as an adult), so I am very wary of these other characters and their influence on him.

@GinWithRosie it’s absolutely like a cult isn’t it? The language they use, even the look that comes over him when he’s talking about it, I likened him to a Jehovah’s Witness that comes to your door - which he really didn’t like - but that’s the only way I could describe it. I’ve yet to hear any positive stories of anyone who’s has come out of something like this unscathed.

Place marking, as I was having a very similar conversation are this with my Mum today.....as in WTAF us going on, how have so many people gone absolutely bananas!!

@MiniMaxi my friend has got increasingly extreme with all this. She too, was probably quite left wing before (voted Labour last election). But now, I couldn't believe it, coming out with pro Trump posts. They think when he said, 'draining the swamp' he meant exposing this peadophile ring. The thing is, they are right wing conspiracies, some originate from a site called 4chan. Some of them were even started as a joke, to see who'd fall for them. Doesn't help that Trump has retweeted some of this bs, but he doesn't care as long as it furthers his cause. To them, it's validation that he's the saviour.

I'd noticed online that these ct's seem to say the same lines, and this seems to be confirmed by what many of you have said. My friend started with being against 5G, then she seemed to obsess with Bill Gates, microchipping and anti vax stuff. Then it was covid is a hoax, at the moment it's anti mask stuff and 'being conyrolled'. As well as stuff about celebrities being pedos.

The comedian Russell Kane did a series of sketches about a character called Terry who was an anti 5G conspiracy theorist. It was obviously taking the piss out of these types, but my friend shared it in a serious manner! I think she thought he was real . Quite a few in the comments were falling for it too. When someone pointed out it was a laugh, she couldn't see it was taking the piss. She shares 90% fake news (I've fact checked most of it) but if anyone challenges her, she calls them trolls and thinks they're stupid for not being enlightened enough.

@Mycatsmellsbad I feel my friend is a bit vulnerable. Her mum died recently, but they didn't really get on.. by the sounds of it, her childhood was a bit crap. She didnt do very well at school. She has had MH issues and has been through a couple of bad relationships. She's currently a SP to a toddler, who doesn't see his dad. They've never been together. I think the whole lockdown thing made things worse for her, because she was probably just on her own in the evenings, previous to the lockdown, she used to see a lot of friends, but of course, she couldn't then. I think she had time to become more isolated and fall down the rabbit hole. It's easier online, whearas if she had had more human interaction during that time, people might've made her think a bit more and discussed what she was saying and given her a reality check. Now I think she's gravitating to people online who think the same or the few people who occasionally'like' her posts.

I’m concerned about a friend who follows these anti vaxers anti government groups. She has sent me a link to someone who was mentioned up thread. She is definitely gravitating towards these groups and I’m really worried for her. According to her, Covid has been used to control us all by making us wear masks,going cashless and Vaccines are poisonous.
How can I gently persuade her away from these views?

It's not as simple as mental illness though some surely are in need of help and nor is it just stupid people. A failure of education is probably a factor. Too many people even if they managed to pass an exam seem to lack an overview of how things work and are unable to evaluate the likelihood of a claim. That makes them vulnerable and easily led.

What it is not is just a difference of opinion and it is not harmless. The flat earthers can be amusing, but there are people firing guns in pizza places because they think they have children locked in the basement and others planning to shoot CERN employees on their way into work.

When someone is killed now in a public shooting they claim it's fake and phone up bereaved relatives to question and accuse them.

A lot of Cell Towers have been destroyed by people who think they are 5G and they are not too good at knowing what is 5G hardware and what isn't.

@blurpityblurp The Way fair story I think I can explain! Years ago I went to buy something at B&Q and at the till its price came up as £10,000. The cashier said that's what they do when something is temporarily barred from sale for whatever reason, as it's easier than removing it from the system. I would expect that's what Wayfair have been doing!

Youtube videos have a lot to answer for. Read an article about the rising number of people who believe the Earth is flat - large numbers said they'd started believing it after watching YouTube videos on the subject.

We live in a post-truth world; something doesn't have to be true to be a fact. If enough people believe something, itistrue, whether or not it's purely fiction.

Just not the case. If I got you all on here to believe I could fly just by flapping my arms, that would not make it any more possible.

Agree with squeekums and midsummar - I think everyone should be free to express an opinion. I notice folk who want to make out they "know the truth" like to say anyone with a differing opinion has a "Conspiracy theory" about a subject. Its emotive language used to down-grade that differing opinion. Free speech and all that is what I say.

It's a bit worrying that anyone who has a differing opinion is considered to have MH problems. This reeks of control a la North Korea - you must all have the same haircut as your leader etc or you are nuts and may be locked up. Just twist it around a mo - say the majority of people said Covid was a made-up lie and anyone who disputes this has MH problems.......... that IS frightening ..........or is it? Or is it not? Ad infinitum.........

Totally agree with the OP. It's really worrying, I know a few people like this and it really saddens me to see how bleak a worldview these people have created for themselves.

I think this has been a problem for a long time, (Brexit anyone?!) but lockdown has made it worse.

I don’t think I’m unwell, but I don’t feel comfortable that I can trust the current incarnation of western democracy. That leaves people looking for explanations.

Chrissy Teigan has posted some very questionable stuff about children. I don't blame people for thinking she's a weirdo.

The problem is that a lot of the stuff does have some basis in fact. A cashless society is a concern and it does mean every transaction can be recorded and monitored. Personal data has been used and sold in this way before. My main issue with it all is that they are very much keyboard warriors, ranting away without actually doing anything about it-none of them ever try to enter politics for example.

@GertyTheGert

Agree with squeekums and midsummar - I think everyone should be free to express an opinion. I notice folk who want to make out they "know the truth" like to say anyone with a differing opinion has a "Conspiracy theory" about a subject. Its emotive language used to down-grade that differing opinion. Free speech and all that is what I say.

Most of the people I've heard go on about how they know the truth are conspiracy theorists.

Agree with squeekums and midsummar - I think everyone should be free to express an opinion.

Even if that opinion is utter and totally provably bullshit? Or dangerous?

Just because I believe something do I have the absolute right to say it? No of course not.

I admit I love a conspiracy - Aliens, Ancient Egypt, Flight MH370, Kennedy, Jill Dando and more. I'm sure many of us do.

When it comes to differing opinions I get told I am a conspiracy theorist, even when proper links are provided, and others agree with the different opinion.

More and more I find that this happens once people learn I have mh.

The two aren't exclusive of each other.

Conspiracies aren't new. The first was reported in the press in the early 1900's. Before that it's possible they were appearing in journals around 1875.

Before the days of the net, I had books about some amazing conspiracies.

Some have also turned out to be true. Years ago there was a conspiracy that Mrs Wilson was running the show at the White House. At the time this was told not to be the case. Turns out Woodrow Wilson was out of office for about a year after having a stroke, and Mrs Wilson was basically president.

Government mind control was another that was deemed a conspiracy. Turns out the CIA were using LSD and other mind altering drugs on people for research.

Used to also be loads of conspiracy theories about the benefits of smoking run by tobacco companies, despite them knowing the serious health issues.

Oh and weed conspiracies have been rampant since before cotton became the popular choice instead of hemp.