Going Haywire Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Nash

John Nash was an American economist and mathematician who won a Nobel Prize. He also suffered from schizophrenia and was hospitalized many times due to his mental illness. He died at the age of 86 in a motor vehicle accident.

Answer: King Charles VI

King Charles VI of France started showing his insanity in his mid-twenties. He was psychotic often and believed himself to be made of glass. Entrances to his homes were blocked up to keep him inside. His mother was Joanna the Mad and his problems were possibly genetic.

Answer: Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was very strange. He is rumored to have stuck a needle in his own eye trying to figure out vision. He believed in alchemy, went long periods of time without sleeping and possibly died a virgin. There is speculation that he may have been bi-polar or perhaps autistic.

Answer: Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe was one strange man. He had a "psychic" dwarf jester that he had sit under his dinner table. He lost his nose in a duel with another man over who was better in math and wore silver, gold, and brass noses the rest of his life.

Answer: False

Nicole Tesla was a very strange person but it is not thought that he was schizophrenic. He had severe insomnia and would go many days with no or very little sleep. He hated anything round and human hair and jewelry. He was also a germophobe and would not touch anything dirty.

Answer: False

Chicago singer Wesley Willis was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his 20's. He was known for meeting people with a headbutt instead of shaking hands. He died of leukemia in 2003.

Answer: Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a child. She took up acting as a treatment for the disease. Her career ended around 1950 and she was arrested several times for being drunk in public.

Answer: George III

There has been much speculation about George III illness and but porphyria seems unlikely. His illness started when he was a young man and caused hallucinations. From 1811 to the time of his death in 1820 the King became progressively insane and blind.

He was nursed in isolation and kept frequently in straitjackets. He was held for years behind bars in his private apartments at Windsor Castle.

Answer: Zelda Fitzgerald

Zelda Fitzgerald was the wife of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was admitted to a mental hospital and underwent the treatments of the times. She got out in 1932 to see her dying father and then was admitted back into a psychiatric facility where she died in a fire.

Answer: Lionel Aldrich

Lionel Aldrich was a star tackle with the Green Bay Packers. In the late 1970's he was diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. This led to him becoming homeless. Before he died in 1998 he advocated for the homeless and mentally ill.