Mental illness and the court system
It’s often heard in courtrooms that a criminal is not mentally ill and is able to stand trial; or as in some cases, the other verdict, they’re mentally ill and will be treated in a hospital. Aren’t all criminals mentally ill to some extent? What’s the difference?

Mental illness is a broad descriptive term that categorizes illnesses and mal-functioning of the brain and nervous system. It runs the gamut from mild to severe, acquired through drugs and environmental conditioning to inherited and those related to aging such as Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Criminally insane individuals are also mentally ill but they come into the court system because of some crime they’ve committed. Judges, aided by psychiatrists and other professionals must decide if they’re insane or sane. If they’re sane they stand trial for their crime; if insane they’ll be committed to a mentally ill hospital and possibly treated for their illness. They may or may not be released out into the public again; it all depends on how severe the crime and how severe their illness.

The two above explanations are easy to understand but nothing is as simple as one is often led to believe. While the two systems, medicine and the law, have two different ways of dealing with their particular problems, they are actually quite closely related. They depend on each other for answers when they come up with puzzling problems. Despite their ways of determining if a person knows right from wrong, both have guidelines that are often not enough to allow the victim, if found to be insane, to go out again in public.

Where are the loopholes?

Criminals with their cunning minds often fall back on the insanity plea to avoid incarceration for life, or worse still, in states where the option is legal, sentenced to death. The mentally ill, especially those with the ability to think rationally at times, will sometimes attempt to appear mentally healthy by giving the right answers to questions of orientation as to place, time and other relevant questions in order to get out of the hospital. Both of these situations are definitely not what a normal mentally healthy person will do. It depends on the reasoning mind behind the actions.

Inadequate terminology

Perpetrators of hideous crimes, if found sane, must stand trial. They are right in that assessment, they must be convicted and put away; but are they sane? Not according to the mental health side of the picture. No one in their right mind would do such a thing. What then? The lines are drawn between lawyers and doctors.
Courts have adopted sane and insane as a dividing line to decide how to proceed with the trial. If declared insane they are then given over to the psychiatric facilities for evaluation and treatment and if declared sane are tried and if convicted, penalized. This makes law possible and attempts as much as possible to be fair and honest.

Are the criminally sane devoid of mental illness?

Mental illness is a curse of modern life. Drugs and environmental habits and societal fallacies attest to that. Living sanely often goes against societal norms and more than that mental health is measured more by degrees than by precise dividing lines. Of course the criminally insane is not mentally healthy. Their minds runs counter to good mental health and regardless what led them astray they must not be allowed to walk the streets and continue on in their crimes.

The best approach is to attempt to correct their behavior problems while in prison. Many prisons try to salvage their criminals; many do not for whatever reason. The biggest drawback to rehabilitation is time and money and most of all over crowed prisons. Yet, no one knows for sure what a little human kindness can do to a sick mind but many humane wardens believe it’s worth a try.

Mental illnesses

“Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.”

Insanity in the court system

“What happens to a defendant after a judge or jury returns a finding of insanity depends on the crime committed, and on the state in which the trial takes place.”
The importance of knowing the reasoning behind court decisions as well as medical terminology goes a long way in how mentally unhealthy people are treated. While horrendous crimes against society cannot be glossed over, many prisoners sent to prison can be rehabilitated. Society can no longer pretend the mentally ill are those on the other side of the fence; mental illness touches everyone in some capacity or another. Mentally healthy people are aware of this.

Other mental health articles I’ve written on similar subjects: Mental illness and the criminal justice system; and Mental Health: A new way of dealing with crime and mental health and Connection between intelligence and insanity. Other articles can be found on my Helum (About Me) page.

Labor Day 2016
Labor day is in celebration of the workforce, the backbone of our economy, but why then does it have such a uninspiring name? As a writer who writes daily for Helium, words are a great way to get in touch with your thoughts.

Many times I start my writing day a bit grumpy, especially on Monday mornings, much preferring to sleep until ten. Then wow, I survey ideas and writing notions and my outlook changes drastically.

About the word labor. It sets a tone that gives little incentive but if one overlooks its connotations and instead prefers to see the work day as a way to start on a new day, a new adventure with less depressing thoughts, then mental health has inched forward. And good mental health is what living and working is all about. Therefore be joyful about Labor Day and celebrate it joyfully and stop allowing it's bad associations get you down.

PS. The picture? Generally I I upload one of my scribblings of art or some scanned piece of past art, doodle or what not, but this time, it's a picture of my daughter and myself. I have the long blond hair and with my right arm I'm holding my baby. She's grown now, has a family of her own and is the proud owner of her own baby safety business. I'm holding my baby safely and whether or not I'm having more fun as a blond, gray headed old lady, is debatable but that picture popped up when I went searching for an appropriate picture to adorn my Labor Day viewpoints for mental health.

Today, May 25, is graduation day for may high school students around the nation. It's about the most important day of their lives whether they know it or not. That's so for many reasons: They're now assuming their new roles as adults and with this freedom from many rules they've had to obey at school, they're now free to choose. Of course the new school, college, a business school, or straigt to work or to job hunting will have their own rules.

Nothing changes for these students except they now have more say in the decision making that concerns them. And it's hoped that they will decide to stay on the side of mental health and will learn how to begin thinking, acting and living their lives that will keep them on the track toward sane and a healthy future.

A first step will be in learning how to take care of themselves. As the cookbook images above show, away at school or at home, learning how to eat properly, prepare one's own meals is fast becoming a necessity and not an elective course.

Congratulations to 2012 graduates everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When thinking about mental health sometimes it's easy to forget about all those who are mentally sick. We get stuck on thinking about ourselves and forget that but for the grace of God they would be us. Compassion for the sick and finding every means of trying to improve their lot is what cures or relief from mental illness is all about. Yet that is a task for the professionals, all this mini blog has to offer is how to reign in on our less than healthy thoughts and ways of life. More on that later. To be continued:

How not to follow the crowd

Following those who know where they're going is not a bad idea, but following others because everyone else is doing it is a bad idea. Have a good reason for your actions and make sure they're needed ones and not just doing without thinking.

It's not a bad idea to go around in circles if the cirles happens to be a walkway or an exercising walkway, but to go around in cricles and wandering hither and yon just to be up and doing is folly. If one will be truthful with one's self, there's plenty of walking around the house when needed chores are being done. Therefore it's probably not necessary to be going where others go simply because it's something to do that might be interesting.

Have a purpose to your actions and see that not only are you exercising your muscles by going whereever you need to go, but you are accomplishing something other than walking and yes talking, needlessly.