Sampath and his mother

Do you think that in todays society sampath and his mother would be diagnosed with with a mental disease?

When I started reading Hullabaloo I wondered if Sampath was dislexic because he had difficulty adding the wedding costs (Ch 4). "He tried to follow the rows of numbers all the way to the bottom square marked total... his mind grew dizzier and dizzier," (33). I don't know about his mom, but there seems to be something more than a lack of motivation hindering Sampath.

I think Sampath's mother would be diagnosed. She seems to have a problem with food... And I think Sampath could be diagnosed with depression because of his lack of motivation towards school and work.

Yes I do.
I think Sampath would be diagnosed with depression. I think he has a lack of motivation in life to do things like school and work because his father is constantly putting him down, which makes him depressed. However I don't think he would need antidepressants to cure his sadness, all he needs is his father's love and support.

I think his mother has a sick obsession with food because her mind was traumatized from her pregnancy with Sampath when there was no food for her to eat. So I think that currently she is still in that state of mind where she is constantly thinking of food.

I believe that in today's society Sampath definitely would be diagnosed with schizophrenia. I know a schizophrenic and she mirrors Sampath almost exactly. Now, here are some common symptoms of schizophrenia:

--Sometimes feeling nothing at all
A lot of his life.
--Appearing desireless- seeking nothing, wanting nothing
His lack of motivation.
--Feeling detached from your own body (depersonalization)
At the very end when he was talking about feeling detached from his body.
--Hypersensitivity to criticism, insults, or hurt feeling
After the wedding.
--Depression- feeling discouraged and hopeless about the future
--Low motivation, energy, and little or no enthusiasm
--Dropping out of activities and life in general
Quitting the post office job.
--Inability to form or keep relationships
He had no friend except for the monkeys.
--Social isolation- few close friends if any. Little interaction outside of immediate family.
Barely talked to anybody until he became the baba, but then after a while he was done with it all.
--Increased withdrawal, spending most of the days alone.
--Becoming lost in thoughts and not wanting to be disturbed with human contact
--Neglect in self-care- i.e. hygiene, clothing, or appearance
--Replaying or rehearsing conversations out loud- i.e. talking to yourself (very common sign)
--Finding it difficult to deal with stressful situations
--Inability to cope with minor problems
--Lack of goal-directed behavior. Not being able to engage in purposeful activity
--Deterioration of academic or job-related performance
post office job
--Inappropriate responses- laughing or smiling when talking of a sad event, making irrational statements.
Inappropriate behavior at the wedding
--Catatonia- staying in the same rigid position for hours, as if in a daze.
In the guava tree
--Intense and excessive preoccupation with religion or spirituality
His being the baba
--Frequent moves, trips, or walks that lead nowhere
His migration to the guava tree
--Ruminating thoughts- these are the same thoughts that go around and round your head but get you nowhere. Often about past disappointments, missed opportunities, failed relationships.
--Making up new words (neologisms)
--Becoming incoherent or stringing unrelated words together (word salad)
--Trouble with social cues- i.e. not being able to interpret body language, eye contact, voice tone, and gestures appropriately. --Often not responding appropriately and thus coming off as cold, distant, or detached.
--Difficulty expressing thoughts verbally. Or not having much to say about anything.
--Speaking in an abstract or tangential way. Odd use of words or language structure
--Nonsensical logic
His advice towards the end in the guava tree
--Conversations that seem deep, but are not logical or coherent
--Overpowering, intense feeling you are being watched, followed, and spied on (tracking devices, implants, hidden cameras)
The spy.
--Delusions of grandeur- the belief that you have an important mission, special purpose, or are an unrecognized genius, or famous person.
--Hallucinations are as real as any other experience to the person with schizophrenia. As many as 70% hear voices, while a lesser number have visual hallucinations.
--Auditory hallucinations can be either inside the person's head or externally. When external, they sound as real as an actual voice. Sometimes they come from no apparent source, other times they come from real people who don't actually say anything, other times a person will hallucinate sounds.
--When people hear voices inside their heads, it is as if their inner thoughts are no longer alone. The new voices can talk to each other, talk to themselves, or comment on the person's actions. The majority of the time the voices are negative.
--Visual hallucinations operate on a spectrum. They start with the overacuteness of the senses, then in the middle are illusions, and on the far end are actual hallucinations.


Schizophrenia also usually manifests in early adulthood.

[i]In this regard, perhaps the whole book was him becoming sicker and sicker with schizophrenia. He fits perfectly. Maybe most of the book was a hallucination.[/i]





In regards to his mother, I believe that she had OCD. Common symptoms of OCD:
Basically it's usually being really obsessed with something and compulsive. The mom directly fits under the food obsession category.

--A preoccupation with foods and/or food measurements.



In scientific studies, there have been overlaps found between schizophrenia and OCD so it could be possible that the mom and Sampath both had mental illnesses.

This is a constant reoccurring concept in this book. But I do believe that his mother definitely has a mental disease, throughout the entire book she seems to be in her own world. She never really takes part in their family, all she does was gather food to cook Sampath. I do not necessarily believe Sampath has a mental disorder, but I do believe that his mother feeds him drugs. That would make sense due to the fact that she is crazy, she then would not be a proper mother.

Yea I agree with that his mom put drugs in his food because at one time the atheist mentioned that maybe the mother was drugging his food. Also the mom went out and picked pretty much every plant to use in cooking, so it could have been a possibility that some of the plants she was using were poisonous.

I think that in today's society Sampath would have been diagnosed with a mental illness. I think that Sampath shows symptoms of depression and schizophrenia. This would give reason as to why Sampath was so challenged when attempting to fuction in society and why he eventually resort to live as a hermit in a tree.