I help out at a street kitchen which feeds the vulnerable, today this guy who I've seen plenty of times, usually seems pretty mild mannered and keeps to himself, starts talking to me about aliens and demons and devils and the bilderburg group and all this shit.
Like you get all this sort of crank conspiracy stuff when dealing with this sort of crowd, so that was par for the course, but then the guy started saying he was a demon (he also referred to it as a Djinn) who had possessed the body I was talking to. He started referring to himself as "we" like fucking Venom. He was irl fedposting about some pretty violent shit.
Eventually I was doing something else and he bailed, but me and the other guy who had been trapped in this conversation were kinda rattled. Usually you just nod along with some conspiracy types, push back a little if you can. But this seemed like a total break with reality. He even told us how "I [as in the demon] started as a voice in his [as in the guy i was actually talking to] head, but now I'm in control". He told us about going to the psych ward so clearly he's not been helped by the system.
Wtf do you do. This dude has always seemed fine but now I'm worried he's gonna play out the last act of the movie Bug at one of our kitchens one day. Like wtf. What the actual fuck. I just want to feed the hungry bruh.
Worth remembering that the vast majority of mentally ill people are not violent.
First off, I'd check if there's some kind of non-cop-related crisis response in your area. Some cities are getting better about that.
Sounds like the dude was having delusions. It's a shitty situation to be in. Medication helps some people, but people in that state are often unable to recognize that they are delusional.
Honestly I don't have any good answers for you. This is a problem that individuals can't do much about. It needs a societal response and we don't live in that society.
I would suggest looking around for a psych nurse subreddit or forum and asking for advice there. Psych nurses and er nurses are tough as coffin nails and most of them have dealt with people in crisis who were erratic or even violent. They might have some useful advice or insight. You might also try asking, very respectfully, in some bipolar or schizophrenia forums how people would like to be treated if they were to be encountered in that situation.
I'm not accusing you of collaborating with cops, but please keep in mind that cops are a far greater threat to a person having a mental health crisis than that person is likely to be to you. It may be impossible for them to comply with orders and police will usually respond to that with violence.