I can't say a lot that hasn't been said here. I, personally, with my experience with the mentally ill think in terms of: There are the mentally ill and then there are the evil. The two are not naturally together, in my experience.

D9

Defect of reason, Anne. Where such a defect of reason results from a disease of the mind and the person does not have the ability or perception of the nature and quality of the act he was doing or, if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong.

In Illinois maybe some twenty years ago some bureaucrat decided to close several large, filled to capacity, mental institutions. Just opened the door sending the inmates/patients out into the streets with a couple of bucks. I kid you not! This actually happened. These people were mentally challenged, needing help and God only knows what became of most of them. Those two buildings stand empty to this day!!!

following on from you lola weather someone was aware or not of doing wrong, therfore evil or not a good way to determine from mental illness and evilness for want of a better word. Should they still be feared?

can people of all life stages stop repeating some behavioures, yes! think they can? therfore once dangeras to others (threat to you) dose't leave them necassarily going to hurt you (or me)f so anyone who's ever been violent would we watch them as closlie or assume thyd be violent mental illness aside?

NO i don't fear mental illness, sorry but a godsend at times for me

what i think is strange is we all went to extreem examples, child abuse rape murder!

how about less extreem and more common hurts or harms from assosiasions with frends or lovers who are mentalie unwell...?

Do they count? or on topic from being feared or not?

more common stuff like finding it hard to cope with moodswings, greater strees on a romantic relashionship, greater sugestibility ro external forces, hurtfull things being said (when griped by force of unwellness) rembering that symptomes from disorder can be more acute at times than other times...being driven or helped to edge of ones owen sanity or reason (oh yes it can happen lol)

it hurts my hart gratlie every time an assosiation with mental health and danger gets made and its held up as the onlie example of behaviours leading from mental unwelness.

dancer why do you ask?

just trying to get the chat going or has some news articale got you attension or something?
Or observasions from your work place?

if mental ill people to be feared, it dose't bode well for terms of romantic relashionships, parenting ability and practises, job oppertunities and so on. As mental illness/wellness dose't ezxclude the person from any of those activities
So then what?

I'm with Lola -- yes, defect of reason. But not the was the US courts have it. Not guilty by reason of insanity has been overused -- and what about "temporary insanity"? Such a plea is detrimental to those who are seriously mentally ill.
Chatty, the same thing happened in Maryland -- everyone went to live under the bridges and places like that. I met a guy (who used to be a math teacher in city schools) who for 10 years walked along the inland highway along the east coast. He slept right outside any given state line so he could hop the line. He's bipolar but in many ways he was quite reasonable. Anne, you mention the blank eyes. One of the scariest people I've met did make good eye contact. And until he revealed that he'd murdered his girlfriend, I never would've guessed. He used to terrorize the gentle folk at the day center, by doing little mean things, like cutting the crotch out of someone's bathing suit and the person didn't know it until the bus arrived at the pool.

The 'emptying out of the mental institutions' happened under Reagan and was all over the country. These people were turned out with nowhere to go, not even to a halfway house. Families were scrambling to find a safe place for some of the patients who had never lived 'outside'. Those without families ended up on the street (and many are still there.)

Mental health servises are heer for acute cases when someone is daangeris to themselfs or others, (mostlie themselfs) then back to CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, many people families are alreadie at the end of their ability to cope due to emotional straine or becousre they have little understanding of mental illness or how to aid those that are and behaving according to the symptoms of the illness. THE uk system DOSE'T WORK!

ONE example that dose work can be found in scandinavian countries which have great systems with many carers tranned and doing a lot of hands on work with people in the community.
That system works!

people have companie understanding, qualified help, family straine is lessended, if the person is acute and needs hospitaliasion their delt with, quick;lie and effectivlie. Long term institusonal stays arn't the answere. Obviouslie this type of care needs funding and is funded by the taxes.

so when it comes to compasion and seeing the countries system taking proper care of people, WOULD you be willing to fund this with your taxes?

monie weer mouth is time what would you chose?

oh a wee something occured to me while reading this last night. Some of the metal illness named during this thread are descused regularie enough in the forums as a few members are diagnosed with the mental illness thats been named.

their obviouslie not dangeress, nor troublesome in the forums you or many of you alreddie converse with the effected individuels on this sight, some of you may know some may not know that the person being talked with are registered as mentalie ill. Some are medicated some are not medicated.

it just freeks me a bit when people are saying they would be fearfull of a person with such and such AND thir reading this descussion! Also maybee some people will now see people with that mentale illness as not being so forin or alien to them when they think and rember that they been chatting with x y or z forum member for a long time.

this make any sense?

Celtic, I asked this because, yes, of work. At the hospital, on one shift, we may see about 5 mentally ill people. They come through the E.R. when in crisis and they are either sent home or put into a locked ward. They are classifed as either SI, (self injurer,) Or HI, (Homicidal Idealology.) Sometimes they are both. We need the police when they are moved and they must be watched at all times by a health care worker when in the E.R. When moved we use the police to help escort them to a locked ward.

Vet's are often seen as dangerous when they have a mental illness and more than a few have them. We have the state of the art mental, and PTSD new unit of all Veteran's hosptials in the country. We have people from everywhere come now. We have a massive facility that gives people therapy and medical help in the same huge building separate from the hospital. This includes dependents of the military too. We have all kinds come through.

We in the E.R. are not at all afraid of the mentally ill, BUT, the rest of the hospital staff are afraid of them. Most visiting patients are afraid of them even if they have PTSD. They are highly shunned in most of the hospital and by people that are visiting. They don't want to see them, they don't want to be near the ward and they get wide eyed when hearing that the ward even exists.

I do not fear the mentally ill at all. I've got way too much training and life experience.

Yes, there are people on this forum with mental illnesses who are stable and good, even great people. Mental illness is first an ILLNESS. This is the way I see it.

My mother is schizophrenic and has been out of whack since I was about 12. She hears voices, forgets I'm there and I really never had a mother, I had an experience. I don't make a big deal out of this because I have dealt with it. I do not fear her at all. I am at terms with my lot so far as a mother in my life. I am also her closest child with regard to her caregiver.

All this is why I asked the question, Celtic...