What ‘Am I Crazy?’ Really Means

Have you found yourself typing “Am I crazy?” into Google or asking Siri? You probably got back a patchwork of results, from online “sanity tests” to mental health forums.

Fortunately, most people who do such searches aren’t actually going “crazy,” as in developing delusions, paranoia, or hallucinations, says Gerald Goodman, PhD, an emeritus professor of psychology at UCLA.

“Believing that you are going crazy is a good clue that you are sane,” he says.

When someone is developing a serious mental illness with psychosis, such as schizophrenia, they usually don’t know it. “Part of ‘crazy’ is getting away from reality,” Goodman says.

Marty Livingston, PhD, a New York psychologist and author, agrees. “They’re not aware of the difference between a feeling and a fact,” he says.

For instance, a healthy person might feel like someone is following them and know it’s not true. “But somebody who’s really having an onset of psychosis believes that it’s true,” Livingston says.

Sure, you might ask “Am I crazy?” just to vent frustration, or to find an online mental health test. But Goodman and Livingston also offer these three possibilities: