As I said to Perplexed, he lives halfway across the continent. I do know his name and mailing address, but I talk with him exclusively over IRC. I know some of the therapies and medicines he’s taken, but I don’t know what he’s taking right now.
Part of my reluctance to take matters into my own hands is that I don’t know how to reliably tell a qualified psychiatrist or psychologist from a quack. I can look up what Wikipedia says about a specific therapy like ECT, but how do I know whether what it says is accurate enough to trust my friend’s life to it? As the status quo seems unlikely to have a catastrophic turn for the worse, I’m reluctant to do anything that would change it without either a strong confidence in its efficacy or at the very least a strong confidence that it will do no harm.
As the status quo seems unlikely to have a catastrophic turn for the worse
Neither of us is qualified to judge whether that’s true.
The fact that you talk with this person exclusively over IRC limits your options a little, but it also changes things in one important respect; it greatly increases the probability that you’re the only person (or only responsible person) with this information. He might tell you things that he doesn’t tell any of the people he interacts with face to face. If you’re the only one who knows, then you can’t just sit on that information.
If you do call a hotline, the first thing they do will probably be to find out who your friend’s psychiatrist is and contact them. The information you have is sufficient to do this discretely. They are well aware that doing the wrong thing could be disastrous, and aren’t likely to do anything stupid.
As I said to Perplexed, he lives halfway across the continent. I do know his name and mailing address, but I talk with him exclusively over IRC. I know some of the therapies and medicines he’s taken, but I don’t know what he’s taking right now.
Part of my reluctance to take matters into my own hands is that I don’t know how to reliably tell a qualified psychiatrist or psychologist from a quack. I can look up what Wikipedia says about a specific therapy like ECT, but how do I know whether what it says is accurate enough to trust my friend’s life to it? As the status quo seems unlikely to have a catastrophic turn for the worse, I’m reluctant to do anything that would change it without either a strong confidence in its efficacy or at the very least a strong confidence that it will do no harm.
Neither of us is qualified to judge whether that’s true.
The fact that you talk with this person exclusively over IRC limits your options a little, but it also changes things in one important respect; it greatly increases the probability that you’re the only person (or only responsible person) with this information. He might tell you things that he doesn’t tell any of the people he interacts with face to face. If you’re the only one who knows, then you can’t just sit on that information.
If you do call a hotline, the first thing they do will probably be to find out who your friend’s psychiatrist is and contact them. The information you have is sufficient to do this discretely. They are well aware that doing the wrong thing could be disastrous, and aren’t likely to do anything stupid.
Most of the Wikipedia information on mental disorders and standard treatments for them is fairly accurate.