Responsibility for Mental/Psychological Health/Well-being | INFJ Forum

Responsibility for Mental/Psychological Health/Well-being

Flavus Aquila

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Issues of responsibility for individual mental/psychological health/well-being are all over the place.

Individual/societal responsibilities. (Re. The "Capitalism makes us sick" thread).
Determinism/free-will issues.
Personal history/family and individual choice.

Can you blame others/structures/etc. for psychological problems? Can you be blamed for psychological problems? (Blame in terms of causative responsibility/liability). Who has a responsibility to do something about it?

So many issues/factors/opinions....

Thoughts?
 
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Can you blame others/structures/etc. for psychological problems?

I don't think so. I believe we're all individually responsible for ourselves, even when we're "stressed." For example, if you're stressed and develop a drug addiction that is completely on you. If you're stressed and massacre a dozen people.. that's definitely on you. I believe we're responsible for ourselves in all instances. It's sad, of course, that people have these psychological problems, but I can't imagine a civilized society in which people are not responsible for their actions.

I do, however, believe that culture and conditioning play roles in shaping our minds. And that teenagers are particularly affected by these influences; teenagers are impressionable. I think a person becomes completely responsible for their decisions and actions at some point between their early and mid twenties. I think that's when a person reaches true adulthood.

Can you be blamed for psychological problems?

Well, I think some have unhealthy lifestyles and develop new or exacerbate existing psychological problems, so yes - to a degree. It's unfortunate that some have psychological problems, but what can you do? Excuse them? Pardon them? What good will that do? I'm not sure what causative responsibility is though..

Who has a responsibility to do something about it?

I think my answer to the first question covers this question well enough.

My stance on these things is very straightforward. Some consider it archaic, but I believe almost completely in self-control. And I don't think there is any excuse for harming others. I view some of this romantically, maybe.

Also, I believe anxiety and depression are natural experiences that are often necessary for our personal growth.
 
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There is always a cause and effect, but ultimately, it is up to the individual to make their choices.

If you look at the effects of abuse or any sort of traumatic experience, there are real effects on the brain and mental health of the survivor, but it is still their responsibility to work through it and make their own choices on how to proceed.

I guess the exception would be someone with a profound cognitive disability who cannot reason and understand consequences.
 
It is a very complex issue with many layers, schools of thought and theories about causes and remedies.

Let me just put this out there: You cannot lump all mental illnesses or psychological issues together. There is a tremendous difference between someone who has schizophrenia with hallucinations and someone who has a substance use problem. Both are diagnosable as a mental health issue but the causes and the level of responsibility and difficulty in 'controlling' the symptoms would be very different.

Here is a list of mental health disorders, which vary greatly in the way they develop and in the way they can be treated:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mental_disorders

My sister-in-law was diagnosed with something called psychotic depression when she lost touch with reality and thought that people who were wearing red clothing were trying to kill her. She can't control that. She can't be told to just stop acting like that and choose to not have those psychotic episodes. She will be on medication for the rest of her life and she usually ends up hospitalized for a few weeks at a time every few months to adjust her medication so she doesn't either kill herself or do something else to harm herself or others. My brother and her kids who worry about her and have to deal with a lot of stress are definitely not responsible for causing her mental illness but they are having to live with the consequences of it.
I don't know what the cause of her illness is or who to 'hold responsible'. According to research it is likely a combination of biology and environment, possibly even a virus may have triggered a predisposition for the disorder. She was born very premature and has glaucoma because of it, maybe the fact she was born premature may have contributed to her predisposition as there seems to be an increased risk of mental illness in people born prematurely. I personally would think that holding her responsible for the development of her own glaucoma would be unethical and therefore would also say that holding her responsible for her psychotic depression is probably also unethical. Perhaps some would hold her mother responsible; I don't know why she was born prematurely but I do know that she had a twin sister that died at birth.
The point that I am making here is that there are some mental disorders that are very obviously mental diseases that are beyond personal control and in my opinion should be viewed as any other physical disease. The fact that the affected organ happens to be the brain instead of the heart or the liver doesn't really matter. Although I would suggest that in the case of some heart and liver diseases there is clear evidence that the causes are poor health habits of the individual combined with a predisposition, which means in that case there is more evidence to hold them responsible for their diseases.
 
We're responsible for ourselves but responsibility doesn't stop anyone. This is why it behooves you to help others be responsible because practically speaking, they do whatever the hell they want.

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Also responsibility is moot for somebody who owns everything they do.
 
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I think it would be not just an unkind but also an irresponsible society that would seek to divest itself of anything to do with the problems of the many communities and individual people who it consists of, not just because it is not always realistically possible for people to behave responsibly about their problems, but also because problems are messy and tend to ripple beyond the control of those places where they originate, regardless of how accurately the origin of those problems can be conceived of as limited to some specific location.
 
Issues of responsibility for individual mental/psychological health/well-being are all over the place.

Individual/societal responsibilities. (Re. The "Capitalism makes us sick" thread).
Determinism/free-will issues.
Personal history/family and individual choice.

Can you blame others/structures/etc. for psychological problems? Can you be blamed for psychological problems? (Blame in terms of causative responsibility/liability). Who has a responsibility to do something about it?

So many issues/factors/opinions....

Thoughts?

Everyone.

Yes. The people are ill because we've been conditioned(forced) to integrate into a model designed to make a few people wealthy at the expense of many others.
The slave system is alive and well.
It's just been camouflaged by the money system.

When a human being is deprived of it's creative impulses the will to live is diminished and thriving is reduced to merely surviving. All zest for life is sought through external means. The few who hold the power dictate the choices to the slaves for their external sources to give their lives meaning. For example they make and promote alcohol as an external source to bring happiness in one's life while simultaneously banning Marijuana and throwing people in jail for daring to even try it.
They also condone these things:
Gambling
Sex
Food
Extreme fear situations like Roller Coaster rides and bungy jumping.
Clothes and shoes
Entertainment
etc
etc

The few in power control all aspects of the system. They are cracking the whip over the masses sparking the fear (fear mongering false flag events) and then offering the soothing drone of "come buy this thing or do this thing and your fear will be abated...for a while". Then it repeats....day after day after day.

It's a crafty thing they've done to the masses...including myself.

Yet I take full responsibility for my own well being...although it's hard sometimes to do it because I'm limited on my choices of external things to survive.
 
Issues of responsibility for individual mental/psychological health/well-being are all over the place.

Individual/societal responsibilities. (Re. The "Capitalism makes us sick" thread).
Determinism/free-will issues.
Personal history/family and individual choice.

Can you blame others/structures/etc. for psychological problems? Can you be blamed for psychological problems? (Blame in terms of causative responsibility/liability). Who has a responsibility to do something about it?

So many issues/factors/opinions....

Thoughts?

Good question. I am only addressing your question from the personal, not institutional/societal angle. I don't believe in a life-time of blame and self-imposed victimhood. The culture of victimhood kind of makes me sick actually. But I do believe in causality. Example I do have PTSD issues from the horrible way I was treated and bad events in my life. This person who treated me so poorly and those events are in the past though. I try to live my life with goals and in a future-oriented manner, even if memories of the past haunt me. I believe in perspective. I also believe Faulkner that "The Past is never dead. It's not even past." So I just try to keep things real. To say that someone's bad actions had zero effect on me, that by sheer willpower, I have refused to accept any injury from them, is not realistic. But to be aware of these injuries and ways to heal and try to have a good life, is totally realistic for me. I think someone's baseline personality/level of resilience has a high impact on the ability of a person to move on successfully from traumatic experiences with minimal negative impact. So, one must have some level of self-acceptance (being careful not to make that self-pity/wallowing). In torte law there is the adage that one takes one's plaintiff as they come. That is, a person who negligently knocks a hemophiliac over causing great bodily harm and mental suffering is quite liable, even if those injuries would not have manifested in a non-hemophiliac person. One most be real and accepting of one's true nature. Some of us are more sensitive to the effects of abuses and other injurious treatments at the hands of others. So in essence, do have insight into your true nature and why it hurts, do acknowledge the parties responsible and do try to move on in whatever ways feasible rather remaining stuck time.
 
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Can you blame others/structures/etc. for psychological problems?

I don't think so. I believe we're all individually responsible for ourselves, even when we're "stressed." For example, if you're stressed and develop a drug addiction that is completely on you. If you're stressed and massacre a dozen people.. that's definitely on you. I believe we're responsible for ourselves in all instances. It's sad, of course, that people have these psychological problems, but I can't imagine a civilized society in which people are not responsible for their actions...

On one hand I agree. I don't like the pervasive culture of victimhood and blame (which I stated in my post above). If someone becomes stressed and develops a drug addiction (as in the example you use), it's all well and good to say "that's on you," but it's not actually realistic. Point of fact is that whether you like it or not, it's on you. That is, no matter what hard-line you take in theory, the societal cost of addiction is huge. It is on all of us, the cost and effects. Judicially, socially, crime-wise, we all bear the costs of someone becoming dysfunctional and anti-social due to their own decisions. So it is not very pragmatic to simply state that large scale societal problems are on someone else. However you phrase, it we are all dealing with the problems as a society when an individual goes awry.
 
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I used to believe strongly that people were responsible fully for their actions. The mentally ill for example should be aware enough to hold themselves accountable for their actions. That people who did wrong...commit murder, rape etc where only doing what they really wanted to do under the guise of blame of something else as the cause.

However I have experienced in my own life being out of control in certain regards. As an example, feeling so poorly that it was difficult to show anything but anger and suffering to the outside world. I have taken medication that had a profound effect on how I saw the world. Something as simple as the food you eat can change how you see and interact with the world.
In short I no longer believe its reasonable to hold all people fully accountable for their own actions. Thats not to say they should not be held accountable but only that I believe there are actually things that effect people outside of their control that affect them and change them directly into something they would not normally be.
The murderer in jail with the crazed look in his eye... maybe his brain is actually being affected by something to most people is not a poison but to him specifically is and it is this that causes him to wish to so harm to others.

Its a...difficult thing to come to terms with you know.
 
I used to believe strongly that people were responsible fully for their actions. The mentally ill for example should be aware enough to hold themselves accountable for their actions. That people who did wrong...commit murder, rape etc where only doing what they really wanted to do under the guise of blame of something else as the cause.

However I have experienced in my own life being out of control in certain regards. As an example, feeling so poorly that it was difficult to show anything but anger and suffering to the outside world. I have taken medication that had a profound effect on how I saw the world. Something as simple as the food you eat can change how you see and interact with the world.
In short I no longer believe its reasonable to hold all people fully accountable for their own actions. Thats not to say they should not be held accountable but only that I believe there are actually things that effect people outside of their control that affect them and change them directly into something they would not normally be.
The murderer in jail with the crazed look in his eye... maybe his brain is actually being affected by something to most people is not a poison but to him specifically is and it is this that causes him to wish to so harm to others.

Its a...difficult thing to come to terms with you know.

I very much agree with you!

...and been there too...

It is indeed a difficult thing to come to terms with. Much love to you EV. :hug:
 
I used to believe strongly that people were responsible fully for their actions. The mentally ill for example should be aware enough to hold themselves accountable for their actions. That people who did wrong...commit murder, rape etc where only doing what they really wanted to do under the guise of blame of something else as the cause.

However I have experienced in my own life being out of control in certain regards. As an example, feeling so poorly that it was difficult to show anything but anger and suffering to the outside world. I have taken medication that had a profound effect on how I saw the world. Something as simple as the food you eat can change how you see and interact with the world.
In short I no longer believe its reasonable to hold all people fully accountable for their own actions. Thats not to say they should not be held accountable but only that I believe there are actually things that effect people outside of their control that affect them and change them directly into something they would not normally be.
The murderer in jail with the crazed look in his eye... maybe his brain is actually being affected by something to most people is not a poison but to him specifically is and it is this that causes him to wish to so harm to others.

Its a...difficult thing to come to terms with you know.

Responsibility is not the same as indictment. You still call a murderer as a murderer whether they can help it or not. A murderer is one who commits murder, By saying somebody is a murderer you are saying they are the primary cause of murders, which is holding them responsible.

I own everything I do even when I don't intend to. It's not somebody else doing it. Even if I'm crazy I'm still the one who is crazy.
 
Responsibility is not the same as indictment. You still call a murderer as a murderer whether they can help it or not. A murderer is one who commits murder, By saying somebody is a murderer you are saying they are the primary cause of murders, which is holding them responsible.

I own everything I do even when I don't intend to. It's not somebody else doing it. Even if I'm crazy I'm still the one who is crazy.

Right but if you honestly do not know what I meant its going to be hard to be more specific. A murder is a murderer and needs to be held accountable for their actions. However the reason they are may not be because its just who they are. I believe there are things that can be introduced into their physical body that can change them. No...I know there are things that can change people in a way they are not in control of. I hope this is a better explanation.
 
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Right but if you honestly do not know what I meant its going to be hard to be more specific. A murder is a murderer and needs to be held accountable for their actions. However the reason they are may not be because its just who they are. I believe there are things that can be introduced into their physical body that can change them. No...I know there are things that can change people in a way they are not in control of. I hope this is a better explanation.

Sure there are things like that. That is why we have mercy and justice.

I think our society has become too fascinated with punishing people.
 
I think even if you can blame someone for your problems, it's not worth doing. Even if there's a person who had a direct hand in ruining your life, blaming them will not help get your life back on track. It won't solve anything. Just as blaming yourself for making a mistake isn't going to fix that mistake. It's more important to focus on repairing that which went wrong, than looking towards an outlet for the anger.

As sprinkles said above, there's far too much importance given to blame in society. Demonizing and punishing those who have done wrong. I'm not saying there shouldn't be repercussions for people's actions, but focusing on retaliation isn't going to undo whatever happened. It only serves to fuel the destructive cycle.
 
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I agree I think the blaming is ultimately futile in terms of achieving resolution or solution. It doesn't achieve anything constructive in response to the problem.
 
Regarding one to one relationships exclusively. Friends family and girlfriends.
I've dealt with those issues in both directions. Me feeling that i was fucked up by others, and also being openly blamed for other's problems issues given my immaturity and apparent self-centeredness. Thing is... Guilt exists, and it's a part of this process, but beating yourself that much about it doesn't help. When it comes to psychological issues it's a very entangled subject, you'll never quite know when you step on someone's shoes by doing what seems right to you at a certain moment or you may know and hesitate, but that doesn't seem like an absolute solution in certain situations, at least through my perspective, not that world is cruel, but we are not made solely by good intentions. And i want to be clear that it's not about deliberatedly hurting someone, never, but sometimes it's not avoidable, given differences in perspective.
Having experienced long periods of acute sensitivity in social relationships, where a change of tone in voice could rub me the wrong way, i must say that it's an issue of how confident you may feel in your skin to be able to see things with detachment in certain moments. Fucking it up with others is usual, but if they can't forget, nor forgive you, and keep beating you and bringing that over and over, even when you express utter regret, probably is time to move on and not care that much about it. ime a good person who wants you by her/his side, will always at least understand it.
Anyway, i think this boils down to human interactions.

Cases of trauma caused by actual physical abuse and rape draws the line pretty darn clearly when it comes to responsibility and blame imo. It messes people up and many end up with serious disorders . However as unfair as it may sound, and seeing in some cases, the responsibility for getting back up lies on the victim, not on the person who perpetuated it.

People get wounded all the time anyway, many carry big fat traumas that were not meant to happen nor didn't deserve. Sometimes it seems to me like it's unfair, other times and in some cases it may encourage the person to become stronger and more aware of what life is about. It depends. However life is pretty unfair by default, imo.

As for society, well, by and large, what it promotes is in many instances sick and mentally degrading. Also unrealistic. Many people buy into that, which is a shame. And yeah, it's a sick society and if you buy that much into that shit, you may very well end up batshit crazy sheep doing "meeeeeeh". Changes are pertinent indeed.
 
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I agree I think the blaming is ultimately futile in terms of achieving resolution or solution. It doesn't achieve anything constructive in response to the problem.

I disagree. Blaming is finding the root of the problem so you can fix it.
 
I disagree. Blaming is finding the root of the problem so you can fix it.

Yes, exactly! And this may be just semantics here, but crediting someone as the cause of the problem contributes to individuals being held responsible for their actions at many levels.
 
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