Originally posted by batdog:
Murder is freaking murder. If I go out get drunk as toejam and run over 20 people whats going to happen? That wench needs to die at the least. Its pathatic how people are always looking to excuse others for thier actions.
xBAT
I don't usually get up on a soapbox, but the subject of mental illness hits too close to home for me to just sit by idly and watch.
So, here goes ...
The reply, above, is a tragic example of the ignorance and hardheartedness that exists in this community and in this country with regards to the mentally ill.
When you go out and "get drunk as toejam" it is because you choose to do so. Therefore, you choose to be out of control and are, in that sense, responsible for your actions. A mentally ill person does not choose to be mentally ill -- that's the way they were born. (I'm talking about the physiological mental illness, here, not the "learned" kind)
That's the way their brains are "wired". In fact, to many mentally ill people, it's the rest of us who are "different"!
I agree that if someone is pretending to be mentally ill in order to escape responsibility for their actions then this is wrong. But if someone is indeed mentally ill, we need to approach the problem differently. In the case of this woman in Texas, I think she needs a full work up to rule out the possibility that there is something more serious wrong with her. If they're "treating her for depression", but in fact she is schizophrenic the drugs may be doing her no good at all. That's why we have the psychiatric profession, to evaluate people and make those judgements. And believe me, they can tell when you're faking it.
I am mentally ill (bipolar or manic depressive) and have been for 50 years. It took me 40 years of highs and lows to finally endanger my family relationships and seek out medical help. I have been on Lithium for over 10 years now with the wonderful side-effect that I am almost "normal"
At least I have stopped alienating my family and now have earned their love and support. I couldn't have done it without a lot of love and understanding from them and my close friends.
Of course, my situation is mild compared to someone who is schizophrnic.
One of the things I have learned is that if you are mentally ill and pills help, you STAY ON YOUR MEDICATION. I tried stopping and, sure enough, the old symptoms returned. My wife was on Paxil, for a while, and had to stop so she could try other medication. She got very ill (severe flu-like symptoms) when she stopped taking the drug.
During some research on mental illnesses, we ran across a class-action suit against the manufacturers of Paxil, stating that they had "understated" the addictive nature of the drug. One of the examples they cited was a man who stopped taking Paxil, cold turkey (I'm pretty sure). His withdrawal reaction was to get so depressed that he took his own life and that of his family. Sound familiar?
The point is, you don't take mental illness lightly. And you have to understand that if a mentally ill person is taking medication for an illness and stops taking that medication, there are great risks involved. Unexpected side-effects and recurrance of symptoms are going to happen. It's not like taking aspirin for a sprained ankle. The mental illness doesn't just "go away".
While I understand that some people are don't have any tolerance for people of different political persusions than themselves, I am appalled that they would use mental illness as the sounding-board for that hatred. The only thing that threads such as this do is to nuture and feed the kind of ignorance and arrogance shown in the referenced reply. They do nothing to help the plight of the mentally ill and very little to further the education of the masses on the subject (with a few notable exceptions, thank you Miko2d!)
So, to counter this, I offer a couple of links that I ran across in my research on mental illnesses:
http://www.mentalhealth.com/p.html (excellent reference page)
http://www.mhsource.com/hy/links.html For those of you who truly wish to educate yourselves and make a difference in the world, I urge you to visit these sites.
For those of you who would rather remain ignorant of the subject and continue to spew venom at the world, well, all I have to say is that you are your own worst enemy. It's because of behavior like that that the ACLU and NOW exist in the first place
Have a nice day and remember: TAKE YOUR MEDICATION
Buhdman, out
