re: #27 KerFuFFler

Why do you say you’e be in jail? Hospitalization is not jail.

And why are you so sure that an involuntary intervention would necessarily have been unsuccessful? Apparently you did not need one since you sought treatment by yourself ultimately (?), but for people who can’t make that leap themselves, should society turn their back on them? My best friend’s daughter (17 years old) was placed in a mental hospital for three weeks very much against her will this last year and has made remarkable progress. What is it about the magical age 18 that means society should turn its back on treating people so incapacitated that they can’t seek treatment?

I am not advocating a return to abusive practices from the past or the Soviet Union. But perhaps in attempting to address former problematic issues the pendulum has swung too far in our society. To me it seems foolish to enshrine “age 18” as a cut-off for being able to intervene in peoples’ mental healthcare when serious conditions like schizophrenia typically don’t even manifest themselves until early adulthood. We need to look forward for a balanced approach to assist people incapacitated by mental illness.

I sought treatment after unhooking myself from my own belt. There was no rationality behind it. Just blind instinct to survive. It was a very close thing though.

Also, my depression had a strong element of paranoia to it. Being, to all intents and purposes, arrested for my illness would not have helped my mental state at all.

Ultimately psychiatry was of no help at all in dealing with my illness. Save for, arguably, the drugs. Psychiatry can’t deal with matters of faith. Indeed, it doesn’t even recognize faith exists. My loss of faith can be summed up by the Comedian: What happened to The American Dream? It came true. You’re looking at it.

Finally, are you really proposing criminalizing mental Illness? Do you really want to hand that sort of power to the teahadis? Because don’t forget, the teahadis are in power in much of this country and you know they will not hesitate to use such a tool to quash dissent.