Mental Heath. What’s the limit?

Question

Hello errrrbody. Ok so. There’s something I’m seeing on Glow that I’m becoming increasingly interested and I wanted to know your views. 
The following (hypothetical) statement. 
‘That individual has a lot of mental health (MH)  issues but that’s no excuse because they’re evil’ 
At what point do we stop seeing someone’s MH issues and take behaviours at face value instead? 
Are MH issues an excuse for unwarranted behaviour? 
Do we have unrealistic expectations from people on medication? 
Can we blame someone if they won’t seek help? (Bearing in mind people with such issues don’t know that they need help)
Discuss people. Let me know your thoughts 😬

Accepted Answer

I think this is a bit too broad of a question. Every individual who suffers from mental health and commits a crime has a different level of responsibility, ranging from full to none, because their health and mental impairment is completely unique to them. People who are schizophrenic, for example, can have full responsibility for a crime, if they're receiving treatment or even just in a lucid state, but if they're caught up in a hallucination then they can be completely not responsible. It's a case by case thing. 
I also think people tend to speak very melodramatically and hyperbolically about people who commit crimes in general, and especially about the mentally ill. I try to refrain from that if I can.

Answer

Depends on the mental issue and the behavior

Answer

My mom suffers from mental health issues and was not taking the proper medication the majority of the time I lived with her. I legit thought she was evil. The emotional roller coaster was unbearable. But since her meds have been balanced out, I see how wrong I was. 
I think people really don’t understand the depths of mental illness and how much it actually changes people. 
And yes, most people with mental illness have no idea they need help. My mom had no idea she was behaving irrationally and causing so much confusion and pain for all of us. 
I think it’s up to loved ones to really encourage the mentally ill to get help. That’s the responsibility that comes with caring for and loving someone. 
Growing up around my mom def has an impact on how I see mental illness now. I can never look at someone off their meds and call them “crazy” or “evil”. It’s just not fair

Answer

I have a mood disorder. I sought help and still have symptoms sometimes even with proper medication and counseling. But I also dont hide behind my mood disorder. I dont use it as an excuse for treating people like shit. When I’m extra irritable 98% of the time I excuse myself and do what I need to do before I snap and hurt someone.
Its also important to understand a person struggling with mental illness is probably trying to figure out where there personality ends and where symptoms of their mental illness begins. Its really difficult to distinguish the two and make corrections to your own behavior.
So i guess what i mean is that I understand that it will affect a persons behavior but its not an excuse to not try to better yourself. And equally as important, just because someone is still struggling doesnt mean they arent working towards getting better. Its not like you press a button and are magically fixed. Ive been in counseling for almost ten years and tried easily 50+ medication combinations to get to where I am today. A lot of people in the world dont have such easy access to treatment and other resources.

Answer

Explanation =/= excuse or justification. While mental illness may shed some light onto WHY someone acted how they did, it doesn’t necessarily excuse their actions or make them acceptable.

Answer

I think people with mental health issues are responsible for their actions as long as they are deemed competent by a physician or doctor of psychiatry. A person with schizophrenic delusions is not going to have the competency to distinguish reality from what’s inside their head, so in those cases, no, I don’t hold them responsible for their actions. A person who is clinically depressed is (usually, unless suicidal) competent and has the wherewithal to make their own decisions. Those people are responsible for their actions. Obviously cases will be based on the individual though, as anyone is capable of a mental crisis.

Answer

It’s likely impossible to generalize this subject but I’ve seen the impact of mental illness on 3 generations in my family. The very fear of that gene having an impact on my mental stability sometimes haunts me because I fear not having the control of my mind that I have now. Unless you have experienced it or know someone close that has had a mental illness just note the following: noticing that something isn’t right, being willing to seek help, accepting the diagnosis (if there is one), continuously seeking help and maintaining treatments will forever be a challenge. For some it gets easier, for others it gets worse but it’s not easy and there aren’t enough resources in the communities to support people with mental illnesses. I see it every day... I’ve done a lot of research and it shocks me how many of us suffer from some form of mental illness and don’t know and may never know it...

Answer

I don’t believe evil exists. “Good” and “evil” are concepts we made up to promote our species. Since healthy creatures almost always have a drive to promote their own species, any creature that lacks that drive or possesses a drive that causes them to desire to actively harm or even kill members of their species must be inherently, unhealthy. 
So, any human that commits a heinous crime- I believe- must have some sort of mental health problem that needs to be addressed in order to determine an adequate punishment/treatment.
There’s a reason I’m repulsed when I hear of a terrible crime committed. My mind is healthy and can’t comprehend the possibility of being able to harm a member of my species.

Answer

This is a hard one for me because o think it depends on the person, the illness, and the severity of the illnesses. For example, I considered my father to be an evil person. He was very abusive my whole life, mostly to me. When I was 8 he grabbed me by my neck, lifted me up off the ground, and slammed me against a door and held me there all because I couldn’t tie my shoes fast enough and missed the school bus. He would always tell me how much he wished I were dead, that he “could kill me and dump me along the road to rot.” Called me literally every insult you could think of. He’d find any excuse to “spank me” and punish me with an inch thick board with holes drilled in it of which he would spank me until I had welts and it hurt to even wear pants, and he didn’t care if he hit areas that weren’t my butt. To make it worse he would make me pull down my pants to do it with multiple people in the room to humiliate me. When I was in 9th grade he got into a bad car accident and almost died, and suffered a traumatic brain injury. After that the abuse just got worse. Not a day went by without arguing, yelling, and constant insults. He started carrying his shotgun around, and would point it in my face. (This was something he did once before the accident too). One day he climbed up on the roof of the building that used to be beside my house, and pointed a loaded gun at me (it was probably loaded the other times too). Police came and took him to the hospital where he had to stay for 3 days. He was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, but I don’t know if I agree with that diagnosis because there was one incident when I was 17 and he accused me of doing porn. He pulled up the website and pictures, and the girl looked nothing like me. She was blonde, I had been dying my hair dark brown (almost black) for years. Things were absolute hell until he committed suicide when I was 18 in my first semester of college. I never even cried over his death. You could argue that the abuse was because of his mental illness, and that he had it before his accident and that it just made it worse, but I think he was just an awful person. He had no redeeming qualities. Even on a good day he resented having to do anything at all that didn’t benefit him. He also didn’t want treatment. He wouldn’t take his meds as directed and resented going to therapy until he just stopped going. He just didn’t care and didn’t want to.
Maybe I’m the bad guy, but I don’t think how I feel about my situation will ever change, and I feel that he just wasn’t a good person.

Answer

I’m curious, for the people saying it’s no excuse, how do you feel about the fact that students who have diagnosed conditions and an IEP can be excused from consequences for their actions? Example- a student with an IEP for a behavioral disorder starts a physical fight. The School can not suspend her without holding a manifestation hearing. If it’s determined that the fight was a manifestation of her disorder, then she is not suspended.  
Bonus question, if you find that to be reasonable, then how do we expect that child to grow up into an adult where suddenly the rules have all changed?

Mental Heath. What’s the limit?

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