I’ve just picked up a book called, “The Rules of Insanity: Moral Responsibility and Mentally Ill Offenders”. I think it’s an interesting topic really given the whole batch of new “illnesses” that have become so fashionable recently.
We know that there are programs for people who are seriously mentally retarded so that they can get disability and other economic means to keep them at the level of a normal life. Also, that in certain legal matters the rules for those who are seriously mentally retarded,(sorry if that’s not the PC term, I’m not sure what they’re calling it these days), can be somewhat lax in order to account for their lack of capacity for reason.
What I fear is that these sorts of things will begin to be abused by those who’s mental illness is less than what should be required for these sorts of concessions to be made in their favor.
Should a person diagnosed w/ generalized anxiety disorder, or clinical depression, or bipolar disorder be allowed to use an insanity defense, (not the diminished capacity defense, aka the twinkie defense for all you legal scholars). Should a person with one or more of these common disorders be eligible for disability?
If so, by what criteria should we make determinations as to which cases should qualify?
Once you study the different illnesses for a while you can build a picture of the pridictable behaviours of the person and their relation to the conditions that they have. So in a court situation a psychologist who has delt with the patient before may be called to give his proffessional oppinion. If the person has an anxiety disorder and killed someone because they were backed into a corner and tormented mentally with regards to subjects that exassibate the persons anxiety then it may be used as a defense. However if someone is anxious and they cooly shot someone in cold blood or with a planed attack etc then it may not be used. Its realy common sense. Mental conditions are very well recorded along with listed behaviours that tipically are displayed because of the illness. Faking a mental condition is possible but you would have to be exeptionally tallented to pull it off.
Mental diseases that haven’t been observed for the past few hundred years (at least) are likely inventions of pharmaceutical companies. I’m serious here – depression? Sure, everybody feels down sometimes. Heck, some people are losers and feel down all the time! I’m not saying that drugs won’t fix these problems since the brain is a physical thing but I’m not sure how much of this is about how to make a quick buck.
Don’t get me wrong, amphetamines are a great time, but giving these things to children is irresponsible to the nth degree.
I’m sure we could find some cut-off level, but depression? Come on. I’d say something like if the mental disorder was recognized in the 40s and continues to be recognized as such (otherwise homosexuals and women working in a male field could cash into fat disability pay) then we can talk about disability. They had sanitariums back then, they could identify the major things, even if they didn’t know how to treat them very well.
I couldn’t agree with this more. But what if I’m wrong? Is there more to it? Someone needs to present the counter argument. Every time I take this side, I have trouble getting someone to offer coherent or convincing debate.
So we should not treat people untill a condition has been recognised for 70 years? surely that means that we have to leave some people to suffer.
If we did not treat depression we would have alot more sucicide attempts on our hands. Depression is a tragic affliction and can ruin lives. It is not the same as feeling depressed some days, the name is misleading. Clincle depression can only be diagnosed after 4 weeks of constant depressed feelings. It can have symptoms like extream fatigue, loss of appetite, lack of motivation. It makes people leave their jobs, splits up families and kills people, do you realy view this as a minor condition?
First off, I’m not saying that people can’t treat these symptoms, though I personally think most of these things oughtn’t be treated as a general rule. There are some cases of clinical depression that do need to be treated, but not at the rates that they are. The same deal with ADHD, frankly I’m not even sure if that one exists at all, but for the moment let’s assume it does – the present rates of diagnosis is outrageous. If we say that ADHD is real and that it has just been “hidden” this whole time, what sort of productivity levels are we talking about.
Also, suicide levels did not change significantly between 1990-1992 and 2001-2003. Thirteen years and no change, despite a dramatic rise in treatment. If people want to hop themselves up on soma, that is their business but if people are going to be drugging themselves up, I think they should have the intellectual honest to recognize that they are doing just that. Just because the interaction has been “sanitized” by an authority figure (an MD in this case) it doesn’t mean that it is anything other than drug use to deal with the world. No different than those who are perpetually stoned, drunk, or what-have-you.
Why is it so hard to accept that a condition exists. Our mind controls everything we do. A condition is defined when a cirtain type of thought pattern exibits a cirtain type of behaviour. And when did drugs come into this? Drugs are not the basis for psychological wellbeing. They are a short term solution to alow a person to be of calm mind so that they can break the cycle and begin therapy
The people at your university who major in business and don’t make the best grades will take jobs with drug companies. They’ll know next to nothing about the drugs. They’ll go around all day into doctor’s offices selling the stuff to the MDs who don’t all have the understanding of chemistry to be aware of every possible outcome of taking these drugs. They’ll get taken to an expensive lunch, or have it catered at the office so that the drug reps can justify spending more money, (feeding more people), then they’ll get them to sign a deal to give their drugs preference when it’s time to prescribe things.
Is this good for healthcare? Especially mental health?
I know lots of these people. They are completely disinterested in the well being of the patients. They only have to sell drugs.
They do. I promise you right now that any given person on this board could walk into a shrink and say damn near anything and it simply wouldn’t matter one way or another what it was that they said, or acted like. If you go to a shrink, they drug you up.
Pysical disability is not a privilege either. Should these people be given no help either? Its a privilege not to have illness thats why its our responsibility to help those that do
Ehem. What exactly do you think we are doing by giving these people support? We are helping them to function in society. That infact is what I do in my job. I help children with a number of conditions to eventually be able to leave and live independently. Society is already changing to accomodate these people
