by Englishman 28 Replies latest jw friends
Well if someone is judged by how they treat people, and if they are mentally ill, they could treat people in a way that would cause you to dislike them. They could be a bi-polar and be super happy one day, but the next day tell you to leave them alone.
They might not have control of it either. So its similar to disliking someone who doesn't have 2 legs because they can't run as fast as you like.
If you are talking about people with problems like mental retardation... all I have to say is that I have worked around people like that and what I noticed is that they can swing very rapidly from very kind and lovable to brutally violent in the blink of an eye.
I know it sounds mean, but I keep my distance for safety reasons.
Supposing a poster alternated between being caring and considerate one day and then became vicious, foul and so abusive that it made some people feel physically sick with the sheer awfulness of what was posted?Then suppose you discovered that the poster concerned was actually taking medication for schizophrenia?
What are we supposed to do? Forget the bad days because the person concerned probably can't actually help the way that they're acting?
I'm not trying to make a point here. Some ex's do have serious mental health issues. Do we have some sort of obligation to assist them?
As long as we are just talking about this board, and not real life, I personally would be inclined to make some allowances. We don't have to worry about being physically attacked. Knowing that a person had a serious mental problem would make it easier for me to dismiss the crappy stuff they might say, maybe even give some of the love and care that I would be too afraid to give in in person. I mean, I felt compassion for Natalienlieu. Maybe she was just a troll (hell, maybe she was a he, I don't know), but I felt she was an okay person who suddenly got into a sad, bad place. She really seemed to go a bit wonky. If I knew that she was, for example, a diagnosed schizophrenic I might have just wanted to say, hey, calm down, take your meds, you're doing that thing you do and you know you'll be sorry later.
They could be a bi-polar and be super happy one day, but the next day tell you to leave them alone.
Just for educational purposes, most bi-polars do not cycle this fast; a small percentage do, less than 5%. Most cycle over a much longer period of time and are depressed or manic for only a portion of the year. Many bi-polar people cycle over a 6 to 12 month period with large periods of time where they are neither depressed or manic.
A good site for this is:
I think it depends on how harmful them become to themselves and others. If they pose a serious threat, then they should be confined to a mental health facility. If they so not pose a serious threat, other than a nusiance on say a discussion board, then this presents some serious challenges - to balance between the needs of the majority vs being flexible with a mentally ill person who needs love and understanding ...
Although ... sometimes, I think mentally ill poeple are not always as bad off as they may appear, and will take advantage of people's kindness. But this is one of those tough judgment calls.
As far as behavior goes, I think they should be held to the same standard as everyone else ... but in enforing that standard, perhaps some creative but kind methods can be employed.
LOL @ Alan.......
No. They should all be lobotomized.
AlanF
On a serious note, I too think it depends on the circumstances. I think people like Andrea Yates, should be confined in a mental insitition for the rest of her life. What if she hears God telling her to once again kill the child that did survive? I would say it is a very real possibility of that happening again. Or she could snap and kill anyone eles that she thougth God told her to kill. For someone to kill their own children in the manner she did , is someone that has such deep rooted mental illness I am not sure if meds could ever make it go away for good. And if it did, she would probably then be sucidial when the true enormity of what she did came to her.
I think that peodopiles should be given test of their mental competance, and if they are of normal intelligence they should be punished to the extreame. Some say rape is committed because the rapist has a deep physcological hatred towards women, maybe they were abused in the past....but still the same, they are punished regardless of what could have contributed to them become a rapist. And again they should be punished if they are of mentally compentant.
No. They should all be lobotomized.AlanF
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. Psst. A little bird tells me that some folk think that I had Farkel in mind when I wrote this thread. That's nonsense. Apart from being a musical genius, (and I lurve Rachmaninoffs rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, BTW) Farkel is in my list of the top 5 posters that I would most love to meet. Englishman.
Even the suggestion that Farkel has mental health problems is absurd!
Even the suggestion that Farkel has mental health problems is absurd!
Why, bless you, Minimus, how kind. Englishman.
