I've known professional sportspeople to choke under pressure. They develop anxiety, have negative thought and worry about things they cannot control. Are they just mentally weak or is it just a form of mental illness.
Is there anything you can't blame on mental illness?
Should we be more lenient on criminals who committ crimes because they have a mental illness?
Mental illness is not my speciality. Hence this is not a specialist reply.
Firstly, re your subject: Mental illness is just an excuse for mental weakness and is a character flaw.
I don't consider mental illness to be "just an excuse for mental weakness", nor do I think it is necessarily a character flaw. There are no doubt some instances where either or even both of those things are so, but in the main, I think it cannot be presumed to be the case.
Some forms of mental illness are shown to be at least in corollary with measurable brain dysfunction or brain injury. Some are shown to be at least in corollary with presence or absence or levels of particular chemicals as evidence through blood or tissue samples. This would certainly suggest in the absence of contradictory data that there is a relationship between those evidences and the diagnosis of a particular mental illness. It would remain to be ascertained whether the data are caused by the mental illness or are causative of it.
However, to discuss that in any sort of depth, you'd need to define what you consider "mental weakness". You'd also need to define "character flaw" in terms that make it very clear (and is evidence-based) that character is distinct from the body (e.g., from physical and physiological ailments or injuries) and the mind (e.g.,experience-based traumas). I somehow (call it a gut instinct) think you'd consider even an overview discussion of that toooooooo long.
Secondly, "I've known professional sportspeople to choke under pressure. They develop anxiety, have negative thought and worry about things they cannot control. Are they just mentally weak or is it just a form of mental illness."
Most professional sports people are likely to have a high degree of mental discipline and determination. If they didn't, it would be unlikely that they would achieve any sort of success in the highly competitive and demanding world of professional sport. However, of course they are not immune from pressure, and there may be specific situations that particularly affect them. Even a cursory consideration of some mental or emotional traumas that can create "negative thought" or cause people to "worry about things they cannot control" would lead mental health professionals to consider diagnoses such as PTSD.
I doubt that you are suggesting PTSD is a sign of mental weakness; I think it's more likely that you enjoy provoking ... lively ... discussions. In any sort of discussion about elite athletes having problems of anxiety, depression, etc., posing an unanswerable either-or question such as your "mentally weak" or "form of mental illness" is not likely to be helpful.
Thirdly, Is there anything you can't blame on mental illness?
This is by far the most interesting question you have posed in your post. I reply with my own bias that it is non-evidence-based and presumptive to assume that acts of evil must be based upon a mental illness simply because a so-called mentally healthy person cannot even conceive committing the evil acts that some people have committed. I accept that there is evil in the world, that some people commit evil behaviours and have evil motivations. I doubt that there is someone who is entirely evil, but evidence of some kindness in a person is not - in my view - proof that the person is "ill" rather than motivated by some degree and sort of evil.
If there is data supporting a diagnosis of mental illness - i.e., the condition has a measurable cause, whether that is for instance injury-based, physiology-based, function-based or trauma-base - that would give some cause for blaming associated behaviour upon the condition. Even here, though, there's something else to consider. Is a mentally ill person not able to commit evil because of evil motivation even apart from their mental illness? Does the mental illness preclude the committing of evil because the person has decided to commit evil? It's a complex situation.
If there is no data supporting a diagnosis of mental illness - i.e., if it is solely the behaviour that has led to a conclusion that the person committing the atrocity must be mentally ill, else how could they do such a thing - I would not be prepared to accept the diagnosis or conclusion. In the absence of such evidence, I would be more likely to conclude that the person has decided to act in an evil fashion.
Fourthly, Should we be more lenient on criminals who committ crimes because they have a mental illness?
This is one of the most tragic questions. I have to sort out my view on this... Hmm.
I truly do not believe in being lenient to those who take drugs which could reasonably have been forseen to cause a psychotic episode. I include alcohol abuse in that. So many violent acts reported in the media are demonstrated to have been precipitated or associated with abuse of illegal substances. To lose a loved one because - for example - a 22-year-old male with a history of an abusive childhood and foetal alcohol syndrome/spectrum disorder took methamphetamines and went into a violent murderous rage which affected his reasoning ability and his ability to control his actions is a loss that can't be dismissed on the basis of the offender's very difficult history. The offender cannot truly claim that he bears no personal responsibility. It is reasonably foreseeable that taking the meth is going to result in catastrophic behaviour. He may be more vulnerable to abusing alcohol and drugs - and that's a valid point - but unless it can be demonstrated that such an individual has NO ability to regulate his actions, NO free will, NO ability to make decisions... that individual cannot excuse his behaviour on his history.
"Harder to control one's actions" does not mean "impossible to control one's actions".
There are individuals who, by the nature of their mental illness, may truly be said not to be responsible for their behaviour. That would be frightening beyond belief, and inherently dangerous to the person and to others. Even to contemplate what such an individual's life may be is terrifying.
The focus on mental illness ought - in my opinion - to be upon support, prevention, boundaries when they're necessary, rather than upon excusing dangerous behaviour. In Australia, we are significantly behind the US in offering dual diagnosis treatment programmes (although admittedly in the US the costs for such programmes are exceedingly high). In my opinion, there are tragic cycles of this sort of comorbidity and there aren't anywhere near enough facilities that integrate appropriate treatment and get affected persons on track to properly manage and to break the cycle.
Unless this is funded and implemented, we'll continue to see violence and abuse beget violence and abuse, and that is going to result in substance abuse and the whole sorry tale of ... who do we blame when it all leads to a foreseeable tragic outcome?
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Someone who didn't finish uni, can't hold a job, can't keep a relationship, have their clothes dumped all over the floor tells you they have depression. What say you?
Well, I don't lnow about anyone else, but what I say this: fess up, Bob, you don't really give a tinkers cuss about this or any other of the topics you start. You just get your jollies from throwing out random statements and then sitting back with your popcorn to watch the you-know-what hit the fan.
