Should someone suffering from Schizophrenia and delusions be accountable for their actions?

Question

Should someone suffering from Schizophrenia and delusions be accountable for their actions?

Answer 1

Depends.

For the record I have schizopherina and WHEN I have my bouts, NOTIHNG in heaven or earth can convice me otherwise. So its 50/50 for all mental illness not just this one type.  

Answer 2

Accountable to what extent? If you mean they should be given mental health care because they are a danger to themself or to others, then yes. But do I think a person suffering from delusions should be put in prison, no way. Treatment is refused by patients because one of their symptoms is anosognosia. It's rediculous to try to treat people with mental illness in absolutes. No one would ever give up on treating a cancer patient just because they refused chemotherapy. Then why should we give up on the mentally ill? They are not willfully sick, they are not responsible for developing or perpetuating their illness.

I have a family member with schizophrenia who suffers from delusions, and they ARE NOT easily treatable. Those antipsychotics that weavings mentioned are not that easy to use. Every patient responds to different medications differently. What works for some will not work for others. There are even different types of Seroquel and Abilify that work better for some people than for others. You struggle to get the patient to try medication that they don't believe they need and then it doesn't work well. The chances on getting them to try another medication after such an incident is very small.

I guess you have to take into considered the scale of things. But whether they were rude to you the last time they saw you, accused you of something you haven't done, or tried to physically harm another person they should not be held accountable as a healthy person would be, unlike you or I they do not know what is actually real and what is not.

Answer 3

Yes, if treatment was offered, and refused. The delusional symptoms of schizophrenia are the most easily treated; medications like seroquel and zyprexa, can offer a schizophrenic a chance at a normal life.

If it's before treatment....assume the person suffering from the disease no longer existed in any form that could have stopped what happened. The mind simply shatters. Where the pieces land, is random. Odds are, many of those pieces are sharp. Few experience it without being scarred.  

Answer 4

Considering that hallucinations and delusions are real to someone who has schizophrenia the only way they could be held accountable is if you judge from the nature of their hallucinations and delusions, but isn't that also sick?  Therefore they should not be held to the same standard as a normal person, but if they are dangerous then society must be protected.  I don't believe in imprisonment in a correctional facility, but they can be confined to a mental institution.  Unfortunately this is usually a life sentence without parole, and that needs to be addressed as people can get better.  I have had schizophrenia for 18 years now and I've never even come close to harming anyone, but I can see from the nature of the delusions that that they can get you into trouble if you don't have some type of anchor.  I simply think of hte 10 commandments when I am delusional and I try to keep them.  This keeps me out of serious trouble, but there's still minor problems with me asking people things trying to check reality.  The voices are tricky and they will make it seem like someone else is in danger.  Who wouldn't ask questions if they believe this hence I come out looking like a madman when actually I'm being a hero.  This causes all kinds of problems so I have decided to live and let die.  I will no longer care about rescuing anyone because it may not be real and I end up getting shipped off to the hospital.  Actually if I receive answers to my questions I can break free of the delusions as I trust my family, friends, and neighbors.  I can end delusions after making a decision what to do about them.  So long as I resolve them lovingly they dissapear.  I think more work needs to be done to teach people to deal with delusions and hallucinations instead of forcing medicine which is a quick and easy fix, but the spirit and soul remain broken and this in the long term is what produces the criminally insane because they never learn to cope with who they are.  With a little experience the one who can acknowledge that they are sick can get better.  Not everyone who has schizophrenia is oblivious to the fact that something is wrong with them.  I am very well aware of when I am hallucinating and after a while maybe a few hours I can break free of delusions.  This makes me less dangerous, but still there are time when i am thoughroughly convinced that I am doing something good and right when in reality it is the wrong thing to do.  Fortunately for me it has only been minor nonlawbreaking things, or I didn't get caught and it really didn't matter.  It's important that when someone with a mental illness commits a crime that they are tried by a jury of their peers.  Those who don't or never had a mental illnes can never judge those who do, not even professionals.  They can only observe and observation is flawed as it cannot determine intent and often leads to misdiagnoses and misunderstanding.