Are People With Mental or Emotional Disorders Wholly Responsible For Their Actions? (blood, experience)

[Sunstone]

Are people with mental or emotional disorders wholly responsible for their actions?

Suppose, for instance, a person afflicted with an untreated bi-polar illness goes out on Black Friday and racks up bills way beyond her means to pay them. Can she legitimately claim a lack of legal responsibility for those bills on the basis of her illness? To be precise, does she have a right to return the merchandise -- regardless of whether the store owners want to accept her return -- on the basis that her contractual obligation to pay for it is voided because she was acting under the influence of her illness?

[Mike182]

i think there should certainly be special dispensations.

it rarely happens, but as a diabetic, i have on occasion woken up in a state of hypoglycemia... for those who don't know what that is, when the sugar level in the blood goes to low.

when this happens, because i have been in this state for a relatively long time (due to being asleep) when i wake up, it is just like being drunk. i don't just mean tipsy, i mean 4 bottles of wine drunk. it may not be the same for every diabetic, but that's how it affects me. while some of the things i have done in that state of quite comedic, some have been rather violent, i have not been in control and i have been a danger to the people i live with.

i would hope that should i awake in one of these states and actually hurt someone, and it should go to court, i would not be held wholly responsible for my actions. though, i have not done any research into past court verdicts in situations like that.

[Seyorni]

There are situations where people are pretty much on auto-pilot and function without any conscious realization of what they're about.
If a person performs some injudicious or even criminal act as a consequence of mental defect I think allowances must be made. Concerned parties need to sit down and work out an acceptable solution.

[gnomon]

This is the type of question that can be entirely circumstantial. It also depends if we are talking about people who are acting under a particular mood, distress, delusion or psychosis. The latter must especially be noted because most symptoms of mental illness do not translate to psychosis.

Also, what responsibility does someone with untreated bi-polar disorder but has knowledge of their condition as opposed to someone untreated and undiagnosed. I think you will find many in the community of recovery, such as DBPA, who find the idea of personal responsibility is held very strongly. If someone knows about their condition, fails to treat it properly and then acts on that condition...the view is that they are wholly responsible. Why? Because they still made a free willed conscious decision.

I think a case that Mike describes would be held in a different light. Such a condition can be brought on by uncontrolled circumstances.

There is no one template that can be applied. I just know from personal experience and experience in the recovery community that most often when someone puts forth the claim of uncontrolled actions and put aside responsibility.....they are wrong. Of course, I think much of this experience is derived from the over diagnosis of mental illnesses.