June 06, 2006

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• I have what I call Acute Specific Apathy Disorder. Does that mean I'll get a free pass to go home when I don't feel like working, or to hang up when someone is droning on and on and boring me? Where is the legal protection for my disease?
• I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!! sorry, sorry . . . it's just . . it's so hard sometimes, y'know?
• Lay off the blue pills, eh?
• One one hand, I see this as just another way for somebody to classify a "condition" so that there is a real excuse for what they do. On the other hand, I was happy to see that other people are just as odd as I am. Yesterday was particularly stressful. Suffice it to say, my cell phone did not sprout wings when I threw it, so I do need a new one now. *sigh* I'm in the dog house at home (and I dont even have a dog).
• *hands BPH a twinkie*
• I give us 25 more years of this bullshit before the big collapse, and then we'll eat people who say its not my fault I destroyed the oxygen recycler, I have a condition.
• Mental illnesses are not defenses to crimes. They can be used to lessen the punishment, but they don't make you not guilty.
• Well thats a subtle distinction. I'm still guilty... but not as much as someone who is in complete control of their faculties when they blow their top and break something.
• /throws a plate at wingnut. I HATE YOU! I WANT YOU TO DIE!!!
• Like anything else, sleezy lawyers will use this to get idiots off the hook. The other side of the coin, however, is that for some folks it probably IS a chronic mental illness and should be treated. This acknowledgement may be the key to helping them, and may keep the rest of us and our loved ones safer.
• "...there's a biology and cognitive science to this..." Well, yeah, seeing as how that true of any human activity whatsoever. Even if there is such a condition, it doesn't mean that it can't be controlled. Although I don't agree with wingnut's generalization, it does stand here.
• There's degrees. Now, about 10 years ago, I was (mis)diagnosed with adult ADD. They pumped me full of speed until I actually became a speed addict, & went on to street meth, which fucked me up something chronic. Years later, clean, I discover that in fact I have Asperger's Syndrome, which in some respects mirrors ADHD in some symptoms. That was gross negligence on the part of my psych, but it is par for the course. The patient, imho, is somewhat responsible for judging the appropriateness of the treatment. You have to be confident enough to say "hey, Doc, this thing aint workin' worth a shit." I didn't do that, I went along with whatever I was told, & I should have voiced my inner doubts. Just because there is a neurological disorder that causes some people to blow up in stressful situations, does not mean that all people that blow up in stressful situations have that particular disorder. This is the problem we are facing, that psychiatrists & neurologists are over medicating people when they fall into the behavioural footprint, without taking into account the natural variance of 'normal' human emotional behaviour.
• I think that with most mental illnesses, it is hard to distinguish the person from the disease. If you cure the disease, you've altered the personality; you have a different person afterwards. Anyway, before we just thought these people were short tempered. Now they are people with the condition that they are short tempered. I don't see this as a great advance excpet what huronbob said, is that maybe this means these people get treatment. But before they were diagnosed with borderline personality disorder or anger management issues. So what is really changing? I'm thinking that this is a semantic change to the DSM that is making news because of the "now I have an excuse" aspect. I don't think they have an excuse any more than before. In their non-explosive moments, they should be getting treated if need be. The onus is on them to do whatever is necessary to not be a danger to the people around them and have the life they want. I'm not about to start forgiving road rage just because there's serotonin involved.
• Whatever it is, I blame those ANTISOCIAL ASSHOLES WHO DON'T SIGNAL!!! GOTTIT, ASSHOLE?!? *takes hands off wheel to do raised-fist, slapping-inside-elbow thing*
• At least in Canada (most jurisdictions in the US are similar) mental illness can come in both during the conviction and sentencing stage of a trial. If you past a very high standard of, to use the technical term, being batshit crazy, then you can be declared not criminally responsible and institutionalized. If you don't meet that standard, you'll be convicted but mental illness can become an issue in sentencing, with some sort of psychiatric care being all or part of the penalty (unless there is a mandatory penalty).
• Thank you for the twinkie comment, petebest! I got a chuckle out of that. I distinctly recall the world at large rolling their eyes when the whole "Twinkie Defense" trial was happening back in (quick Wiki search) 1979, also known as "innovative defense." Now, no one seems much to blink an eye. Had we only known it would start trending that way. . .
• I think its important, both socially and legally, to recognize the distinction between mental disorders and behavioral disorders. Anyone who commits a crime should be held responsible, but if there are extreme mitigating circumstances due to severe mental illness (ie, a schizophrenic having a disassociative episode) that should have a bearing on the type and severity of sentence, but this post "twinkie defense" bullshit is just a reinforcement of a dangerous level of victimhood, irresponsible social dynamic
• /sputter..rant.....argh!
• I'll take the Twinkie, real (with creamy filling) or not! Mord, your answer is perfect. I have known people getting "treatments" for things like this, and watched them change into a ball of Happy Mush, which is why I would only consider non-medicated therapy as an option. There are just too many side effects when you mess with Serotonin. Anyway, here on national television, I pledge to get some (non medicated) help. I must be a bttter monkey, and that starts today.
• OK, but what's my TWINKLE defense? And how was I supposed to know this podunk one-horse town had some kinda blue law agaist twinkling, anyhow? *bangs tin cup on bars*
• Did you say "twinkle" or TINKLE? 'Cuz there's a biiiiig difference, my friend! One is cute, the other is definitely a no-no in public. You just gotta figure out which is which.
• *spit take* It's illegal?!?!
• the other is definitely a no-no in public Only in some countries!
• What do you think the tin cup is for? *plays "Tinkle, Tinkle Little Star* on the harmonica*
• One must add to Chyren's comment vis Asperger's Syndrome. It is very difficult to diagnose Asperger's, as Chyren has mentioned. It is somewhat "loosely" termed 'a mild variant' of Autism. Often one does exhibit similar traits as with ADD/HD (and co-morbid conditions.) One must add that it is tad unfair, Chyren, to describe your experience as that which might mirror many, because this is not the case. ADD/HD is in fact under-diagnosed if anything, and the cases of misdiagnoses are statistically extremely rare indeed. Asperger's, as with other physiological brain differences, can exhibit as particular to personality, which is often a primary significator as to how these brain differences manifest in individual behaviour, thus Psychiatrist's must rely on the reportage (in adults) of their patients to thus make an accurate diagnosis. Psychiatrist's are limited in what facilities they have available for diagnosis, and in particular to most cases concerning adults with Asperger's, and ADD/HD. It is the patient who must be responsible in making their honest responses to diagnostic questions from Psychiatrists and/or concerned medical practitioners. It is extremely rare for a person who has Asperger's syndrome to become addicted to stimulants because stimulants very rapidly develop, in those with Asperger's Syndrome, severe forms of (temporary) psychosis. Specifically, paranoid delusions, often accompanied by hallucinations (most commonly visual) The paranoia will ease once the stimulants are no longer ingested but unfortunately, ideas / thoughts/ confusions / beliefs developed during the period of psychosis may take many years to resolve. It is also very rare for those with Asperger's Syndrome to wish to continue using stimulants of any kind (and very soon after taking them) as the effects are overwhelmingly unpleasant, and to an extreme degree. You may have, in fact, both Asperger's Syndrome and ADD/HD (which is also not unknown) but again, if this is the case, an addiction to any kind of stimulant including 'street speed,' is very rare. It is far more common to find those with Asperger's will use various kinds of cannabis. This does help with the co-morbidities such as Anxiety (panic)Depressive Disorder, which is common to those with AS, as it is with those who have ADD/HD. Alcohol is also often detrimental to those with AS, creating extremes of agression, allied also to paranoia. Alcohol such as Vodka and Tequila are however, often effective for those with ADD/HD. Both contain an stimulant similar to Dexedrine / dexamphetamine. One might suggest that you seek an additional opinion as to the diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, particularly since AS is still a condition where obaining effective support is very difficult indeed, no matter where one might be in the world. As an AS person, one is familiar with the difficulties one must endure in daily life. thus one is secure in maintaining that we DO need any support available to us.
• Hey, it's pretty well-known that rats trapped in overcrowded and high stress conditions will eat their young, gnaw their own tails, and develop extreme aggression. Welcome to Rat World.
• Huh. I drive on Los Angeles freeways. I might actually qualify for this.
• In my own experience with mental health doctors I found them almost all too eager to attribute my not-so-normal emotional responses at the time to some kind of condition and immediately recommend various drugs to take. I backed away slowly and then ran. Since then I've felt that possibly conditions are over diagnosed, which is bad for people who do have actually have a problem. Maybe what is required is that unless you are a danger to yourself and others, it should take several sessions before you even see a glimpse of a prescription pad.
• Stop 'medicalizing' bad behavior
• Urge to kill...RISING.
• I witnessed an instance in southern California thirty-odd years ago of what I'm sure would now be diagnosed as road rage. I was coming out of a grocery store into a plaza edged by shops and businesses including a small bank, when I saw a young man screech his car to a halt, fling himself out, and run up to the bank building, which had an entrance with glass doors. (The bank was closed, I should add, this happened around five or six o'clock in the afternoon.) He began beating the doors very violently with his hands and kicking furiously with his feet, and even throwing his whole body repeatedly against the glass, trying to smash it in. The glass broke under the onslaught. The guy showed no regard whatsoever for his own physical wellbeing or the fact he was damaging property in plain daylight in view of at least twenty appalled people like myself, gaping at the amount of damage he was doing to himself, and of course the building. Blood flowed copiously. Took two cops and the assistance of several bystanders like myself to seize him and manhandle him into the rear of the cop car. The cops rushed him to the hospital. Read in the newpaper later the hospital put over three hundred stitches in him. There was no way any of his actions could be construed as rational. 'Bad behaviour' simply doesn't begin to encompass it: to all intents, he went berserk. I don't think he had any awarenes at the time of good or bad, harmful or not harmful; don't think he had that much ability in him to think at all during this episode, in fact. The paper reported he wasn't on drugs, or drunk. He said, after calming down, he'd arrived too late at the bank and went (forgive me, monkeys!) completely bananas, in the vernacular of the day. His family said he had an explosive temper (!), but had never been in trouble with the law before. I've seen frightened animals and birds, a very few times, react with violent self-disregard of this wholly irrational sort, but never a person. This was a situation where someone was so off-kilter it literally made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
• to all intents, he went berserk Was he wearing a bear skin? Because if he wasn't, he'd have no street cred with the viking crowd. I'm a bjorn-again pillager.
• I agree with the article homunculus posted, but: I long for the days when a problem was faced head-on and solutions were found not necessarily by doctors, but rather by those experiencing the difficulties. When did that ever happen??
• In the mythical past when towns were small and people were friendly and everyone was white and went to church every day and none of these new fangled problems existed at all. Do you want to be instantly transported to such a place? Listen to some conservative rhetoric, close your eyes, suppress your gag reflex and just drift away.
• Sorry to be disobliging, but I don't want to experience the difficulties, thank ye very much!
• I'll have what he's having.
• He's having Deep-fried Twinkies,
• Road rager punches driver, car.
• I wish my partner was a user of this site, cos she's a Clinical Psychologist in Training, doing a doctorate, and would have lots to contribute here. Sadly she's not, and you're stuck with me. Them nutters, eh?
• Monkeyfilter: Them nutters, eh?