Have you ever had a moment of insanity - and do you remember the feeling vividly? Would you want to repeat it?

I wouldn’t say I’ve had a moment of insanity, but I have had a bit of an emotional breakdown before. I definitely don’t want to repeat it.

Mine was a feeling of dis-attachment – almost out-of-body. It wasn’t negative or positive – just weird. Like I could see things clearly about myself for an instant, without all the filters. Is that what actual insanity is? No filters?

@Seaofclouds Sucks when it’s the downer kind. Been there too.

Yes. Without going into too much backstory, I was working from home by myself for several months and only spoke to my mom on the phone once every couple of days. I didn’t go out with friends or interact with anyone online (this was before I discovered q&a sites.)
It was just me in my room, working, working, working.
After two months or so, the lack of human contact began driving me insane. I could literally feel it in my head. I pushed it for a couple more months before I snapped and packed my shit, drove home to visit my parents and stayed there for about a month to ‘recover’. It was horrible. I was so lonely and emotional. Ugh. No, I never want to feel that way again.
I’m naturally very reclusive and anti-social, but I pushed it a little too far. I realized how important human contact is through that experience.

When somebody messes with my kids I go red. I think it’s common. No, I don’t want to revisit that place.

I have had moments where I felt I should bar the door, and stand to the side, gun in hand, ready for when THEY come. I have no idea what triggered it, and blame it on my skewed psyche.
No repeats, thank you.

Define insanity?
Do you mean legal insanity? (“mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.”)
If so, can’t say I have. But I have certainly gone through periods of mental instability where I didn’t think clearly and made some poor choices/thought some weird things.

@le_inferno The latter.

I was just thinking earlier today about something that happens to me kind of frequently. I feel about half a step out of synch with reality. Almost as if I’m a bystander. It’s kind of tough to describe, but I have the most dreadful feeling of unreality wash over me and time seems to slow down for me while the rest of the world seems not to notice. Then sound starts to fade in and out and as I turn around looking at people I almost feel like I’m not there anymore. Noises sound far off or muted, like I’m watching a movie. It’s kind of scary.
I don’t feel insane or wakked out or anything, I’m oriented to time, place, and self. I always check that. It’s more like I almost know something just beyond my grasp.

@Trillian That’s how I felt – what a great description. But mine happened only twice, on separate occasions, and very briefly.

When I was coming out of anesthesia after an operation, I remember briefly feeling like I was in two different worlds, and I thought that for once in my life I had just experienced what my brother lives with all the time. I’ve never felt it again.

Well my insanity, or instability really, stemmed from insecurity.
I pursued men online to get self-validation, and would consequently get myself into a mess when they fell for me… I had to painfully claw my way out of the hole I dug every time. It hurt both me and the guys, more than I would have liked. I got way too involved with some people who I definitely should not have. In more than one instance, I deluded myself into feeling emotions that were not real.
On a similar note, I threw myself into online communities, again to receive validation; I felt like I belonged there while I felt isolated from most of my peers in high school. I saw solace in it. Online, I felt smart, powerful, attractive, well-liked, appreciated. In person, I felt like an overlooked, awkward outcast.

At the time, I thought it was perfectly acceptable that I behaved this way. Even when my friends intervened and told me they were concerned about my “Internet life,” they were aggressive and intimidating about it, which just made me retreat further into my world (this is probably because they read a post of mine which offended them personally).

1 case of insanity, that last semester before student teaching

a couple of out of body experiences

and a couple of those movie scenes

I do feel a strong sychronicity at times too.

Life is an experience, some things only happen once. cherish it.

I’ve had many moments of insanity, being a recovering drug addict… but the most insane moment of my life was before I even started doing drugs. I was abused throughout my entire childhood up until I was a teenager, and I began having hallucinations of my abuser being in my room with me. I cowered in the corner, sobbing, until I got the courage to run by the hallucination of him into my little sister’s room. I exploded into her room and sat on the floor and cried my eyes out. My poor sister was in the process of smoking weed, and I scared the crap out of her.. she thought someone had died. I eventually began to calm down, and once the sniffles were gone I stood up and left her room, without ever having said a word to her.

I never want to relive that again…

In one incredibly surreal moment I learned that, given the right circumstances, all of my preconceived notions of myself could be altered.
I had never been aggressive nor violent in any way. Not physically strong, not at all intimidating. I’m definitely a lover, not a fighter.
I had experienced some quite extreme emotional mistreatment from someone for quite a period of time, and chose, for various cogent reasons, to tolerate it. One day that mistreatment extended to someone else I loved and protected, and seeing the effects on them, something snapped. I lost my sense of reality for a time, and was only aware again of my surroundings as I sat on the floor with handfuls of his hair in my hands, and his skin under my fingernails. It seemed like the adrenaline rush that has been described, where a person has strength and physical abilities they have never before even imagined! He was pretty messed up!
I am a small person, and the “victim” was over a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier, but he was totally unable to defend himself. He was so stunned that he seemed to be stupefied, and apparently he gained a respect for my capacities that hadn’t existed prior to this event.
I guess that was nice, but I was as injured by my actions in some ways as he was. Fortunately, no one else was around to see this. I think it would have frightened others even more than it did me, and my abuser.
That helped me to understand how people commit violent acts which might be completely uncharacteristic. I suppose that is the feeling of “temporary insanity”.
I would never want to have that experience again. Fortunately, that would be very unlikely, because this person is no longer part of my life, nor the lives of anyone I love.