I have a difficult article today having to do with mental illness and the Law. It comes from experience.
According to some psychiatrists, the mentally ill are seen as hostile and undesirable because their illnesses are left untreated – by Law as the person cannot be given treatment against his will – and left to worsen until they finally kill someone and become an enemy of the State. The public then demands that the Law – not doctors – address the issue by throwing them into prison. This is useless. The only thing that happens is that the mentally ill end up with a prison record with all that entails and with no medical treatment of value. Medical research has shown that mental illness is a genetic problem not a behavioral one.
A word to the wise: I have been told in my own experience that “the Court is not your friend.” You will pay the price if you believe otherwise. I say the criminal justice system is the problem, not the guy with the illness. You will understand when the Court takes your kids away from you as they did me because you sent them Hallmark cards once per month. I am telling you.
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David Geiger is a licensed and awarded electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts as a result of his schizophrenia.