Let me tell you guys about a moment I had at a cafe. I was alone, trying to get an idea or two for a new restaurant review. It was then that I overheard the conversation of a couple of people at the table next to me.

Normally, I try to just ponder and mind my own business as I trawl for ideas. This time, though, the conversation was so bizarre, so absolutely shocking, I had to turn around and ask them if I was hearing things.

It's rare to hear a conversation that makes my jaw drop. I mean, I remember smoking a cigarette dipped in PCP and thinking that animals used to be like people, then decided to devolve into animals again.

I'm used to weird, but this was just plain wild.

The couple next to me was an older woman — I'd say around 60. Next to her was her kid, a very exasperated and depressed-looking man around my age.

The woman kept saying that Trump was going to save the world from a pedophile cabal. Her son (or who I assumed was her son) looked defeated and was trying to change the topic.

He decided to try to talk about his return to school.

"I'm a math major, mom. I'm going back for my Master's. Let's talk about that. Please," he groaned.

She then started spouting off more weird Q-Anon conspiracies, starting with, "Good. Then you'll see that bankers invented the number zero. Zero doesn't exist."

I had to stop there. I turned around and decided to be a buttinsky, "Excuse me, did you say that zero didn't exist?"

Her son grimaced. This was a man broken by his Qmom. She began to explain that zero didn't exist because how can something nonexistent exist? And then she went on about how this was for banking and how this and that and…

Well, it all was total nonsense. She kept saying that "they" brainwashed me and her son. I stopped talking and just stared at her like some work of trainwreck art. Her son ordered the check and ushered her out.

This woman was a rarity in my life, but she's not the only one I've encountered like this.

Over the past eight years, I noticed a strange trend in people — particularly those on the far right. Regular exposure to conspiracy theories, hate propaganda, and online content started to mess with peoples' minds.

Around 2014, I started hearing the little swirls of the incel movement. By 2016, incels became a very visible group of people who seemed to get increasingly hateful, paranoid, and hopeless. Eventually, it became a movement marked by violence toward women.

Around 2014, I also started to hear swirls about Q-Anon. I mean, conspiracy theories were always there. I still remember seeing those "9/11 was an inside job" bumper stickers all around cars near the Shore back in the day.

Just like with incels, Q-Anon started off as an innocuous online movement for tinfoil hat wearers and fringe kids. It quickly turned into one of the most venomous, violent propaganda cults the world has ever seen. I mean, Q was a driving force behind the January 6 coup attempt.

In both cases, the people seemed to change almost overnight. Even when presented with proof contrary to their conspiracies of choice, they just got angrier and doubled down. It quickly affected their moods, confidence, and even their grasp on reality.

A lot of these people started to become severely, severely mentally ill. Some show signs of extreme paranoia, while others seem downright obsessive. A handful even seem like they've had a full-blown psychotic break.

I'm far from the only one who noticed the link between these movements and mental health.

Doctors and sociologists are currently studying conspiracy theorists — mostly to figure out how to get them healthy again. It's a known fact that these people are really not okay.

As it turns out, many Q followers have reported being diagnosed with mental illnesses before they got into the conspiracy. And as someone who's watched people dive into these rabbit holes, it does exacerbate what's already there.

Incidentally, social isolation is also linked to conspirational thinking. So, it's not surprising that the very people who are already not okay are going to be more likely to fall victim to this and dig deeper when they meet others who think like this.

There's another level to the whole online extremism as mental illness thing most people don't think about.

I forgot where I heard this, but I remembered reading up on a propagandist explaining the effects of propaganda. They likened it to hits of cocaine. One hit won't change you, but repeated intake will warp your brain.

In psychology, this is known as the Illusory Truth Effect. Even if you know something is fake, repeatedly hearing it will make you feel like it's more truthful than it is.

There's a certain point where a person's political leanings and beliefs are incompatible with reality. The person I spoke to who thought there was a bordello on the moon and believed that zero didn't exist is an example of this.

And yes, I believe their beliefs will hurt them. After all, we've all heard of people investing their life's savings into Trump coins or moving to "off-grid communities" for these cult-like movements. That is a life-ruiner in my book.

Moreover, people also need to pair this with the other major elephant in the room: anger addiction. That propaganda is rage-inducing for a reason. People end up getting hooked on rage because it gives people an adrenaline rush.

In other words, this mental illness we're seeing? It's part delusion, part depression, part extreme gaslighting, and part addiction. If you talk to them, they sound like an addict who's coming down from a high.

This brings me to a major question we need to ask as a collective.

At what point is a person's beliefs and political leanings a mental disorder? At what point does propaganda consumption turn into a mental illness? How are we going to treat people who fall victim to this stuff?

There are so many families ripped apart by Q or incel bullshit. At what point can family members issue out a directive to prevent their loved ones from consuming this toxic schlock? I think there needs to be a law for this.

This is a public health crisis.

People are dying and ruining their lives over this shit. It is a sickness. It is affecting others in their families. So, why aren't we trying to come up with a diagnosis for this?