I love my dad. He was probably the kindest person I ever knew. But... well, when his health started going down hill, he'd talk, sometimes nonstop, about all of these crazy conspiracy theories he would see on the history channel, or some that he heard from people with whom he used to work.
Everyone in my family started to acknowledge that he was starting to behave differently - sometimes paranoid, starting to ramble, and on rare occasions, he'd go incoherent.
I know this is not the case for all people, but, it seems to me, often times, buying into really wild conspiracy theories is a sign of mental illness.
In my dad's case, I mean, he was the one who taught me about math and science as a little kid, and he knew his stuff. But, starting around the time he started having health problems, he would occasionally slip into weird conversations. The one that sticks out the most to me, was when he declared at a family dinner one evening that he didn't believe in gravity. At the time, I thought he was just testing me and being goofy, but, in retrospect, I think it might have been his mind starting to slip, because, ten years later, the Titanic never sunk, Hitler was living in Argentina, and we had never been to the moon.
Everyone in my family started to acknowledge that he was starting to behave differently - sometimes paranoid, starting to ramble, and on rare occasions, he'd go incoherent.
I know this is not the case for all people, but, it seems to me, often times, buying into really wild conspiracy theories is a sign of mental illness.
In my dad's case, I mean, he was the one who taught me about math and science as a little kid, and he knew his stuff. But, starting around the time he started having health problems, he would occasionally slip into weird conversations. The one that sticks out the most to me, was when he declared at a family dinner one evening that he didn't believe in gravity. At the time, I thought he was just testing me and being goofy, but, in retrospect, I think it might have been his mind starting to slip, because, ten years later, the Titanic never sunk, Hitler was living in Argentina, and we had never been to the moon.