How do you tell the difference between mental illness and something physical like a tumor?

For that you need to see a neurologist who can do a series of simple tests involving reflexes and motor skills to get clues about what, if anything, is going wrong. To tip them off about what the dysfunction might be, they compare the symptoms you have to the effects that are known to be associated with a particular dysfunction. If they have a reason to be concerned, they can do blood tests and an imaging scan to verify that their hunch is correct. When I got diagnosed with schizophrenia the psychiatrist handed over some medications that treated the symptoms I had that day and without any concern for possible physical ailments, they sent me on my way. After a little goading from me, they decide to pacify me by going along with my requests to be fully examined for all possible causes. My concern for possible explanations stemmed from spending too much time on the Internet. I bugged them until they did do a more thorough evaluation involving more tests to explain the nature of my problem before calling me schizo, and they decided to pacify me by ruling out physical explanations for my symptoms. The neurologist did a couple of quick reflex tests, looked at my pupils and announced that I had no dysfunction that was something they could treat, and they basically scratched their heads wondering why I was referred to them in the first place.

As a paramedic I see a lot of both. What the poster said above is right: physical illness have signs and symptoms. Mental illnesses usually aren't so obvious - unless you do a CT scan of the brain and sometimes not even then. What it comes down to are cultural stigma's. Europeans used to think darker pigmented people were stupid. Hearing impaired used to be referred to as "deaf and dumb." In time, with proper education, the stigma associate with mental problems will disappear.

Well, an mri or a spect scan can easily find a tumor and spect scans can show brain damage from physical trauma. It does sound like schizphenia though. The good news is that its very treatable with new atypical antipsychotic drugs. Heres my suggestion, do what ever you can to get him medicated, this can be very difficult. Find a support forum for yourself or talk to someone like a psychiatrist. after he is on the meds, if the symptoms and delusions and paranoia go away, then it probably is not a tumor or trauma. Dont waste your time talking with people who arent trained to deal with this particular illness, nobody will understand.GO TO A PROFESSIONAL. good luck.

This sounds like he is bipolar to me . A uncle of an ex friend used to think the same thing about aliens and weird things and the doctor said he was bipolar . You should take him to the doctor ASAP cause this could be dangerous but don't tell him you are going to the doctor tell him you are going to another destination so he won't refuse to go . I don't think having a tumor can cause you to act weird maybe the headaches but not the alien crap .