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I experience paranoia as a result of my Bipolar-Type Schizoaffective Disorder; at times the paranoia is quiet severe, requiring that I admit myself to a psychia

I experience paranoia as a result of my Bipolar-Type Schizoaffective Disorder; at times the paranoia is quiet severe, requiring that I admit myself to a psychiatric inpatient unit. The prevalence of security cameras and other surveillance devices makes my paranoia worse. I must take more medicine as a result, but even so my medicine is not completely effective. It is difficult for me - it really is - just to exist in modern society without going crazy.

therealwill 12y ago
IR leds show up as bright white lights on most cameras but are invisible to the naked eye. If you know a little about electronics you can make a battery powered cap with IR LEDS on the brim that will prevent cameras from seeing your face.
- DanBC 12y ago
  What you end up with is a better illuminated face. Those IR led anti-camera techniques are laughably bad.
  - wyager 12y ago
    That's not how that works. To blind a security camera, you need to exceed its static range in the area of the CCD that your face occupies. If camera optics were perfect, you would have to lighten or darken your entire face to the extent that your face either maxed out or minned out the CCD at its current exposure setting. (So having a "too well" illuminated face would actually help hide from a camera that didn't adjust to the brightest object in the frame, which includes most security cameras.) This can take a fair amount of light. However, security camera optics usually suck, and due to low-res CCDs and low-quality and dirty lenses, even a few small light sources near your face can help over-expose and obscure your whole face. The light incident on the camera from a small IR LED is often more than sufficient to do this, especially if the camera has an exposure optimized for dark or indoor conditions. The extra light reflected from your skin due to wearing IR LEDs is unlikely to compare to the light emitted directly from the LEDs. If you have any cheap cameras, you can text this yourself. A single small IR LED on a low quality IR-unfiltered camera looks like the lens flare from a JJ Abrams movie.
    - DanBC 12y ago
      I have tried it; it doesn't work. Can you point me to any video or picture of it working?
      - wyager 12y ago
        Are you trying it with an IR security camera? If not, it's probably IR filtered.
    - Intermernet 12y ago
      Maybe strap one of these [1] to your head, and make sure it's always pointed at the CCD. Otherwise, not enough power. As @DanBC says, try it with LEDs. It doesn't work. [1]: http://www.wickedlasers.com/torch http://www.wickedlasers.com/torch
  - kw71 12y ago
    I think you shouldn't point the leds at your face, but away from it, so that the light has a chance to shine directly into the camera sensor.
    - DanBC 12y ago
      LEDs just aren't very bright. This is an idea that people think works until they try it.
      - kw71 12y ago
        I agree with you that a typical 3mm/5mm LED will not be effective. There are some very high power LEDs nowadays, and I've just tried a 2003-vintage IR spotlight, made from four large LEDs, against the cheap cameras around the house. All of those are completely washed out by it. A nicer camera, which has an IR filter, is unfazed.
- rasz_pl 12y ago
  No, this is a myth perpetrated by Kipkay's FAKE hack video. You would need tens of watts in IR leds to blind security camera.
wahsd 12y ago
Sorry to hear that. I don't know if it really helps, but you might want to try an internalize that as much surveillance as exists, they aren't interested in regular people not involved in crimes they or their superiors and corporate masters deem major.
- proksoup 12y ago
  Better act regular!
- task_queue 12y ago
  Sure hope the OP is in the correct location and has the correct religion, ethnicity and associations for this to be true.
- a3n 12y ago
  I.e. if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about. But even people who have nothing to hide have a lot to worry about, because merely coming to the attention of the government can be disastrous. Say you're caught on camera at the post office or the corner gas station. There's an ongoing investigation, and the government observed that the subject of the investigation passed that camera yesterday. They decide to capture all other passers by within N hours of that event. You fall within that window. The investigators do this with every other camera available to them. Since you and the subject are going about your business at one location, there's a fair chance that you both have gone about your business in other nearby locations. Say you pass that filter. There's a fair chance that you both were at some location at the same time, maybe even within eye sight of each other. Now you're a person of interest, and your name appears in the investigation. Now remember that any law enforcement agency is fundamentally a bureaucracy. Almost no one actually knows how to manage; some are accidentally good managers, but most have been "Peter principled" up into management. Since we're enlightened enough to know by now that almost no one knows how to manage, we've tried to bring some fairness into the employee evaluation process, by using metrics. "That which gets measured gets done." Any rational employee is going to pay attention to what he gets evaluated on. Number of tickets written. Number of suspects questioned. Number of arrests. Number of convictions resulting from arrests. The investigation is going slowly. The investigator hasn't been out of the office for a week. His boss has been glaring at him lately. The investigator picks you to get himself out of the office. He visits you at work because you both work days and it's more intimidating to a subject to be embarrassed and nervous in view of co-workers. You've just suffered a minor injury to your reputation. Surveillance shows that you both visit some location often, and often at the same time. Church. Store. Post Office. Or maybe you have an acquaintance in common, even if you don't know each other. "We'd like you to wear a wire and contact the subject." Nah, I don't want to do that. "It looks bad for you that you come into contact with this subject often. I'd hate for you to be investigated yourself." No really, this is not my thing. "Remember that thing you thought was innocent and legal? It actually wasn't, and we're prepared to offer you a plea deal." Um ... OK Totally made up but plausible scenario, and probably played out with different details daily. But at least the investigator is still in the running for an upgrade to his GS rating.
rndn 12y ago
It often seems to me that neurotypical humans are on the other extreme. They are always overly optimistic, sometimes almost to a pathological degree. Pathological—at least in the system we find ourselves in today (as opposed to ten-thousand years ago).
- fragsworth 12y ago
  People take medications for paranoia not just because they want to stop being paranoid, but because they experience terrible anxiety, depression, or other bad feelings alongside/because of the paranoia. You can be "paranoid" and healthy, if your paranoia doesn't affect your well-being or happiness, and/or if your paranoia is justified.
darkhorn 12y ago
Well, I don't know the current case but in Turkey they were talking about a new law where shcizofrenic people would be under suvelliance by police (because some scizopfrenic people thouht that police were following them and they attacked the police). So the topic was "the law which will make schizofrenic people's dreams come true". I'm not joking!
elipsey 12y ago
I have more than one friend or loved one with a serious psychiatric diagnosis. They, and some other pretty smart folks I know, have sometimes remarked that they might have been perfectly happy, or at least accepted rather than stigmatized by their neighbors if only they had been born as hunter-gatherers or nomadic pastoralists where they could be shamans or something. Anyway, I'm rooting for you bro.
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  Thank you for your kind words. In fact, a Psychologist by the name of Joan Junqueira once told me "In more traditional societies, the Schizoaffectives are the Shamans." Among the reasons I work as a coder, is that I can write good software despite being delusional.
carrotleads 12y ago
Sorry to hear that mate. Is that just the cameras or allergy like feeling for EMF, something similar to character who acts as the brother of Mr.James MacGill in "Better call Saul" episodes? Thanks for sharing.
- driverdan 12y ago
  > allergy like feeling for EMF No such thing.
  - carrotleads 12y ago
    I would hope so.. but I have no clue what people as the OP goes through with schirzophenia... are some of them scared of anything modern.. anything electric.. how does this fear manifest as.. is it just a mental or do they think they feel it physically too..
    - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
      This is what it's like for me to be paranoid: "My Deepest Fear" at http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/vancouver-diaries/thought-police.html http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/vancouver-diaries/thought-...

therealwill 12y ago

IR leds show up as bright white lights on most cameras but are invisible to the naked eye. If you know a little about electronics you can make a battery powered cap with IR LEDS on the brim that will prevent cameras from seeing your face.

DanBC 12y ago
What you end up with is a better illuminated face. Those IR led anti-camera techniques are laughably bad.
- wyager 12y ago
  That's not how that works. To blind a security camera, you need to exceed its static range in the area of the CCD that your face occupies. If camera optics were perfect, you would have to lighten or darken your entire face to the extent that your face either maxed out or minned out the CCD at its current exposure setting. (So having a "too well" illuminated face would actually help hide from a camera that didn't adjust to the brightest object in the frame, which includes most security cameras.) This can take a fair amount of light. However, security camera optics usually suck, and due to low-res CCDs and low-quality and dirty lenses, even a few small light sources near your face can help over-expose and obscure your whole face. The light incident on the camera from a small IR LED is often more than sufficient to do this, especially if the camera has an exposure optimized for dark or indoor conditions. The extra light reflected from your skin due to wearing IR LEDs is unlikely to compare to the light emitted directly from the LEDs. If you have any cheap cameras, you can text this yourself. A single small IR LED on a low quality IR-unfiltered camera looks like the lens flare from a JJ Abrams movie.
  - DanBC 12y ago
    I have tried it; it doesn't work. Can you point me to any video or picture of it working?
    - wyager 12y ago
      Are you trying it with an IR security camera? If not, it's probably IR filtered.
  - Intermernet 12y ago
    Maybe strap one of these [1] to your head, and make sure it's always pointed at the CCD. Otherwise, not enough power. As @DanBC says, try it with LEDs. It doesn't work. [1]: http://www.wickedlasers.com/torch http://www.wickedlasers.com/torch
- kw71 12y ago
  I think you shouldn't point the leds at your face, but away from it, so that the light has a chance to shine directly into the camera sensor.
  - DanBC 12y ago
    LEDs just aren't very bright. This is an idea that people think works until they try it.
    - kw71 12y ago
      I agree with you that a typical 3mm/5mm LED will not be effective. There are some very high power LEDs nowadays, and I've just tried a 2003-vintage IR spotlight, made from four large LEDs, against the cheap cameras around the house. All of those are completely washed out by it. A nicer camera, which has an IR filter, is unfazed.
rasz_pl 12y ago
No, this is a myth perpetrated by Kipkay's FAKE hack video. You would need tens of watts in IR leds to blind security camera.

wahsd 12y ago

Sorry to hear that. I don't know if it really helps, but you might want to try an internalize that as much surveillance as exists, they aren't interested in regular people not involved in crimes they or their superiors and corporate masters deem major.

proksoup 12y ago
Better act regular!
task_queue 12y ago
Sure hope the OP is in the correct location and has the correct religion, ethnicity and associations for this to be true.
a3n 12y ago
I.e. if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about. But even people who have nothing to hide have a lot to worry about, because merely coming to the attention of the government can be disastrous. Say you're caught on camera at the post office or the corner gas station. There's an ongoing investigation, and the government observed that the subject of the investigation passed that camera yesterday. They decide to capture all other passers by within N hours of that event. You fall within that window. The investigators do this with every other camera available to them. Since you and the subject are going about your business at one location, there's a fair chance that you both have gone about your business in other nearby locations. Say you pass that filter. There's a fair chance that you both were at some location at the same time, maybe even within eye sight of each other. Now you're a person of interest, and your name appears in the investigation. Now remember that any law enforcement agency is fundamentally a bureaucracy. Almost no one actually knows how to manage; some are accidentally good managers, but most have been "Peter principled" up into management. Since we're enlightened enough to know by now that almost no one knows how to manage, we've tried to bring some fairness into the employee evaluation process, by using metrics. "That which gets measured gets done." Any rational employee is going to pay attention to what he gets evaluated on. Number of tickets written. Number of suspects questioned. Number of arrests. Number of convictions resulting from arrests. The investigation is going slowly. The investigator hasn't been out of the office for a week. His boss has been glaring at him lately. The investigator picks you to get himself out of the office. He visits you at work because you both work days and it's more intimidating to a subject to be embarrassed and nervous in view of co-workers. You've just suffered a minor injury to your reputation. Surveillance shows that you both visit some location often, and often at the same time. Church. Store. Post Office. Or maybe you have an acquaintance in common, even if you don't know each other. "We'd like you to wear a wire and contact the subject." Nah, I don't want to do that. "It looks bad for you that you come into contact with this subject often. I'd hate for you to be investigated yourself." No really, this is not my thing. "Remember that thing you thought was innocent and legal? It actually wasn't, and we're prepared to offer you a plea deal." Um ... OK Totally made up but plausible scenario, and probably played out with different details daily. But at least the investigator is still in the running for an upgrade to his GS rating.

rndn 12y ago

It often seems to me that neurotypical humans are on the other extreme. They are always overly optimistic, sometimes almost to a pathological degree. Pathological—at least in the system we find ourselves in today (as opposed to ten-thousand years ago).

fragsworth 12y ago
People take medications for paranoia not just because they want to stop being paranoid, but because they experience terrible anxiety, depression, or other bad feelings alongside/because of the paranoia. You can be "paranoid" and healthy, if your paranoia doesn't affect your well-being or happiness, and/or if your paranoia is justified.

darkhorn 12y ago

Well, I don't know the current case but in Turkey they were talking about a new law where shcizofrenic people would be under suvelliance by police (because some scizopfrenic people thouht that police were following them and they attacked the police). So the topic was "the law which will make schizofrenic people's dreams come true". I'm not joking!

elipsey 12y ago

I have more than one friend or loved one with a serious psychiatric diagnosis. They, and some other pretty smart folks I know, have sometimes remarked that they might have been perfectly happy, or at least accepted rather than stigmatized by their neighbors if only they had been born as hunter-gatherers or nomadic pastoralists where they could be shamans or something. Anyway, I'm rooting for you bro.

MichaelCrawford 12y ago
Thank you for your kind words. In fact, a Psychologist by the name of Joan Junqueira once told me "In more traditional societies, the Schizoaffectives are the Shamans." Among the reasons I work as a coder, is that I can write good software despite being delusional.

carrotleads 12y ago

Sorry to hear that mate. Is that just the cameras or allergy like feeling for EMF, something similar to character who acts as the brother of Mr.James MacGill in "Better call Saul" episodes? Thanks for sharing.

driverdan 12y ago
> allergy like feeling for EMF No such thing.
- carrotleads 12y ago
  I would hope so.. but I have no clue what people as the OP goes through with schirzophenia... are some of them scared of anything modern.. anything electric.. how does this fear manifest as.. is it just a mental or do they think they feel it physically too..
  - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
    This is what it's like for me to be paranoid: "My Deepest Fear" at http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/vancouver-diaries/thought-police.html http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/vancouver-diaries/thought-...