Criminally Insane

[Champs Elysees]

I watched a CNN special report on mentally ill people who are criminally insane. It was scary to say the least.

Should immigrants who have been diagnosed as mentally ill be allowed to become citizens?

Remember, we don't treat mental illness anymore. We give them pills THAT THEY TAKE AT THEIR DISCRETION and send them off to do whatever.

What about the rights of people who are mentally ill? Do they have too many? Is there a problem with enforcement of court orders against them??

The mentally ill are a very small population that commits a very small amount of crime here, but remember, it was mentally ill kids who killed people at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois.

Discuss!

[Bunny Hop]

maybe it depends on the illness?? IDK. I feel some kind of way about those where people could end up hurting themselves or others.

[No Screen Name]

Mental illness really isn't taken seriously, and there have been cuts all across the country in terms of treatment and services available to the mentally ill.

It's no wonder we're seeing more of them act out.

[Champs Elysees]

That CNN special really made me paranoid.


What's so sad is that so many of our mentally ill are homeless VETS! That's criminally insane within itself.

[No Screen Name]

OMG, I work for the military, and we did a community service project at a soup kitchen last winter.

You would be SHOCKED at the number of people that came through the line saying, "Hey! I used to be in [the branch of the military I work for] back in 1988!" or whatever. Some of them were in Desert Storm. I think it really kind of shook up and bothered a lot of my coworkers, because they made comments.

[coldfront06]

In my opinion, war will make a person mentally ill. There isn't anything "normal" about killing a human being. Thats why you see so many vets with mental problems.

[MochaD]

The mentally ill folks are damn to he!! and so are the people who have to deal with them. We are now in a society that "normalizes" crazy azz folks. Folks that are coming up crazy were usually crazy we just ignored it. The signs and symptoms are there we just choose to write it off. Example:

Dude from VA tech -teachers and students knew dude was off, but they just characterized him as weird, strange, different, etc. NAH HIS ASS WAS CRAZY!

or,

That crazy azz aunt or uncle you got that when he or she act up, y'all play your position. Example:

It's Christmas and everyone is over for dinner and that aunt or uncle starts acting up you and/or others:

1) Ignore him/her and tell others to do the same because "that's just the way (s)he is..."
2) Play along and watch the young kids react and laugh it off...
3) Go home because "Uh Ohhh Uncle Levis is having an episode, it's time to go!"

I've seen this. I'm sure we all have and can attest to it. What we need to do is start taking it very seriously. If it walks like a duck, talk like a duck, hell QUACK QUACK -figure it out!! It ain't rocket science. Someone shouldn't have to die to determine that, "hmmm, maybe they were crazy after all."

[CrimsonENDvy]

QUACK QUACK...lol@ Mocha.

But at the same time, we shouldn't characterize EVERYBODY who is strange or different than us as insane. Maybe they're just shy

[No Screen Name]

coldfront06 said:

In my opinion, war will make a person mentally ill. There isn't anything "normal" about killing a human being. Thats why you see so many vets with mental problems.

I think so. My really, really close friend and coworker came back from Afghanistan a little under a year ago, and tried to kill herself...TWICE. It didn't help that we work at a job that makes people go postal, and she had a buttload of stuff going on in her personal life with her mother and sister. She saw SO many horrible things there...tiny children blown up on mines...people massacred...HORRIBLE stuff. When she got back she talked about it a lot, but I don't even bother to ask her about any of it now.

Her therapist told her she had post-traumatic stress disorder, and put her under a 72-hour watch in a mental institution. I visited her while she was there...there are some REALLY ill people walking around out there.

[coldfront06]

If she hasn't already, she apply for disability. My dad was diagnosed with PTSD from his time in Vietnam, and he gets money as well as other benefits. All of us (his children) can go to any state university for free.

[Champs Elysees]

You're right MD. They just give people pills that they can choose NOT TO TAKE and they send them on their way, then we end up with a V Tech or NIU.

[FULLOFME]

The whole issue of mental illness needs to be explored and addressed and it needs to be done so immediately. Mental health care for children needs to be mandated when necessary for parents just like you are required to seek a physicians care physical illnesses.

The other thing that needs to be addressed is the affects that being substance exposed in the womb has on an individual as an adult...It seems obvious that with the rise of substance exposed infants in the 80s and a subsequent rise in mental illness in this century that a correlation should be considered.

I also think that having underage and incapable parents results in neglect and neglect definitely has an affect on mental stability and a child's development.

The bottom line is that unfortunately everyone is not capable of being a responsible parent and because a parent is responsible for the "molding" of their children's lives, they will have to be taught and/or forced to parent their children appropriately. Now the approach is likely to be unorthodox and seemingly radical but at what cost do we continue to ignore it?