@ivana by way of illustration, the example of a parent who kills themselves and their child 'due' to depression is again an issue of despair. there is a way through depression and it involves TLC, like the way through anything else. At present people with depression are usually given some tablets and left to languish when they need TLC (nursing, being sung to, kindness - tablets won't fix a broken childhood or an excess of [apparently] inescapable pressure in a person's life). We simply don't know or care enough how to treat mental illness properly yet. The parent who commits murder and suicide typically wants to save their child/children from a 'cruel world' - that is, it is an issue of despair at the world, which is an issue of despair at human nature (only trust God, not people). Just about any health problem I can think of, with the exception of mental illness, is treated with kindness and empathy and effective treatment. Little wonder that many people with mental illnesses despair, at least at times - the first thing that happens when a person develops mental illness is rejection, insults, laughter, abuse, violence, and it tends to continue that way. People with mental illnesses take it out on themselves and/or others at some point, but that is not due to the mental illness but the shocking cruelty with which people with mental illnesses are treated. People who commit crimes when psychotic are only reacting (with perhaps, rare exceptions) to the perception of world they have learned exists when they are psychotic - that is, that people will be insulting, abusive and violent towards them, and nothing else. I maintain, and my argument is sound (as far as I can tell - certainly no-one has effectively refuted it yet) that there is no necessary link between mental illness and bad and/or criminal behaviour. nb. odd behaviour is not necessarily bad behaviour, although i grant that there is a premium on social conformity. here endeth the sermon!
... View more
10-02-2016
