[Vision2020] Noble Found Not Guilty Due to Temporary Insanity

[Art Deco]

Sunil, Andreas,

So you think that someone with mental health issues doesn't realize that things are not just right?

There may be a few cases where that is true, but it is hard to believe that people do not realize that they are beginning to experience problems.

In the case of Noble, among other things, the reports are that he was consuming copious amounts of caffeine based energy drinks.  Can not a person know that such behavior is not normal, that something is wrong, and something needs to be done?  And that failure to do so may result in some unpredictable, possibly destructive incidents?

Nor is a mental illness a white/black phenomenon.  It is a continuum.  A person is not totally mentally healthy one day, then in the state of having lost their mind the next.

How is a developing mental health problem any different from when people start to drink too much alcohol?  Or start to cough too much?

Mental illness is generally not a fulminating, fast developing phenomenon; it develops over time and with changes and symptoms that should be danger signs to the person and to those around them.

So the answer to your question "You think he should recognize the signs that he's losing his mind WHILE HE'S LOSING HIS MIND?" is that for most cases, yes.  Just as a person drinking alcohol recognizes that they are starting to drink too much, a person starting to see puzzling or destructive changes in their behavior is generally aware that things are not just right.  That's the time for a responsible person to act to right the ship.

That's why many people do seek help for mental health problems or find ways to right themselves.  Those that don't are like those that start to drink too much or cough too much, they fail to exercise personal responsibility.

I have known many people who have had mental health issues.  Most of those either sought treatment or found a way to deal with it successfully. 

I simply do not by the argument that people with mental health issues are so afflicted from the onset that they are unable to recognize that a problem exists, and are unable to do anything about it.  That fact that many persons do seek positive ways to deal with mental health issues certainly contradicts such a position.  Failure to do so is not a mitigating factor, but an exacerbating factor.

W.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Sunil Ramalingam 
  To: vision 2020 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 6:13 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Noble Found Not Guilty Due to Temporary Insanity


  What Utter Crap.

  "Treatment is fine and necessary but there should also be some penalty for the lack of responsibility in not seeking treatment/mitigation before the mental illness progresses so far that control is lost."

  What personal responsibility do you expect to be exercised by a person who is losing his or her mind?

  You think he should recognize the signs that he's losing his mind WHILE HE'S LOSING HIS MIND?

  Maybe you come to this remarkable conclusion having spent a significant amount of time working with mentally ill people. Maybe you have the training and expertise to conclude that they are able to exercise reason while their minds are disintegrating.

  Does this expertise extend to people with no prior diagnosis? With no prior experience of the symptoms and conditions? Who may not even realize that something is wrong?

  Yeah, the mentally ill have it too friggin' easy. Let's penalize them for lacking the foresight to responsibly deal with terrifying symptoms, while they're lost in their own heads. 

  I just knew you were going to post something like this when I saw Tom Hansen's post. Like clockwork, just like clockwork.

  Sunil

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: deco at moscow.com
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com
  Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 18:01:05 -0700
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Noble Found Not Guilty Due to Temporary Insanity


  I agree with Tom.

  At what point when a person sees that not all is right does it become ethical to seek help.  That's what personal responsibility is about.  I hope that the insanity defense laws will be changed to reflect that responsibility.

  Treatment is fine and necessary but there should also be some penalty for the lack of responsibility in not seeking treatment/mitigation before the mental illness progresses so far that control is lost.

  W.

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Tom Hansen 
    To: Moscow Vision 2020 
    Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 4:12 PM
    Subject: [Vision2020] Noble Found Not Guilty Due to Temporary Insanity


    Courtesy of the Daily News.

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    Noble found not guilty due to temporary insanity
    May 5, 2010, 3:57 pm

    Dan Noble was found not guilty of two counts of vehicular assault and two
    counts of hit and run in Whitman County Superior Court on Wednesday.

    Judge David Frazier ruled that Noble was temporarily insane during the
    Dec. 9 incident, in which he ran over two Washington State University
    students with his car on the WSU campus in Pullman.

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    Perhaps now Mr. Noble can get the help necessary to prevent this from ever
    happening again.

    Although Mr. Noble's temporary loss of self-control was the major
    contributing factor in this incidents, I still feel that preventive
    measures should have been taken to avoid this from happening.

    Seeya round town, Moscow.

    Tom Hansen
    Moscow, Idaho

    "The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
    and the Realist adjusts his sails."

    - Unknown


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