: BD> Second, grouping all mental illnesses and chemical imbalances
: together is
: BD> akin to saying that a wrenched knee and an accidental
: amputation at the hip
: BD> both make a person disabled because they both stem from a
: physical trauma.
:
: They also both would keep an NFL player from playing football.
Really? I've seen HS football player wrench knees, ankles, wrists, etc. all
the time, and just tape it up. They're back playing again the next week.
However, having only one leg /would/ be a problem.
: BD> By lumping all chemical imbalances of the nervous system
: together, you are
: BD> equating someone like me and your average theme park
: thrill-seeker with
: BD> violent psychopaths and people who face-jump off tall
: buildings. Not quite
: BD> the same thing, IMHO.
:
: I don't see the link, and I don't think I made it.
: Violent psychopaths cannot become governor usually, and a thrill-seeker
: would be fine with me.
You defined Parkinson's as a mental illness because it was caused by a
chemical imbalance in the brain. You then said you would never vote for
someone who had a mental illness. Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but
it seems to me like you were lumping a large number of conditions together
based on body/brain chemistry.
:
: BD> I'm sorry if I'm seeming a little vehement about this, but
: this is something
: BD> that affects my life. The more people who understand that
: mental illnesses
: BD> are not always the tragic, debilitating things they once were
: the better.
: BD> It's very frustrating to have people assume that I'm
: unreliable or even
: BD> useless because I have to take a pill a day to control my depression.
:
: BD> Anyway, I just want people (especially me) to be judged by
: what abilities
: BD> they /do/ have, not what's "wrong" with them.
:
: I used to work with a guy who was insanely bi-polar, we became quite
: close, and I thought he was one of the funniest guys I've ever met,
: however I would never ever vote for him for anything...
: The job descriptions of programmer and politician are quite different,
: programmers can be crazy, no one dies if they are grumpy or
: unproductive. Politicians need to be extremely mentally stable imho.
IMHO, all polititians are a bit crazy. They often do things for reasons
that boggle my mind. They are often chosed based on criterea that I don't
understand. They just are a different kind of crazy than programmers. :-)
In any case, conditions like depression, bipolarism, and anxiety disorders
**when properly treated** (often thru a combination of drugs, counciling,
and/or cognative measures) don't have to equate to instability.
Take me, for example. My depression is well under control right now. Has
been for about a year, now. I still get stressed out; I can still feel
depressed. However, in a crunch, I do well. I hold it together to get
through the crisis. I'll probably freak out later, but I get through the
crisis. In fact, I know a lot of people who are /not/ diagnosed with any
mental illnesses who handle crises less well than I do. I'm not trying to
toot my own horn or anything -- don't get me wrong. I'm also not a
superman. But I get by.
I agree that polititians /should/ be stable individuals. However, I don't
think it's always the case that they are, and I don't think that the
diagnosis of a treatable mental illness should be a red flag that removes
them from your consideration. I think it is a point to ponder, and a reason
to look at their performance history, but shouldn't we be doing that anyway?
I just don't think it's fair to rule them out based on a chemical imbalance.
--Ben Doom
Programmer & General Lackey
Moonbow Software
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