One would think, logically, that spelling and grammar are the main indicators of mental health. But this is not so.
A sentence containing the misspelled word "judgement," for example, provides little insight into whether someone is compos mentis. Neither does ending a sentence is a preposition, although one would assume the contrary of.
The true indicators of whether a person is in control of their faculties are punctuation and capitalization.
Does the author of the email, Tweet or post suffer from hypomania? Look for run-on sentences. Five or more together in a single missive are quite telling.
This is why I believe that the period is a marker of sanity.
The exclamation mark, on the other hand, is suspect. One at the end of a particularly happy bon mot is fine. Two is OK. Three or more may point to some sort of delusional episode. Consider the craziness of the following sentence:
"I love camping!!!"
Capitalization can be used as a diagnostic tool as well. All caps points to anxiety disorder, as in a text I'm oft to receive that simply says "MOM STOP IT." No caps can be equally disturbing, as in the emails my husband sends that say things like "no i will not go with you to get a pedicure to relieve your fungus fears. don't ask me again."
Depression? Probably. Poor guy just doesn't have the energy to hit the shift key.
Please tune in later when I use sentence diagramming to solve global warming. PEACE OUT.
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