Are some people better off not being cured?

They deserve the choice or chance to continue living. By this logic, we shouldn’t even release criminals from jail after they’ve done their time.

It certainly is a difficult question to tackle, in some respects, and might even challenge some moral and ethical boundaries, perhaps. I readily agree with @Blackberry that it should ultimately be the choice of the person providing that person is able to make the decision on their own. As for the person in the coma, I’m of the opinion that you’d have to leave the decision up to that persons next of kin or even that persons attending physician if there is no next of kin.

The criminal is going to have to accept the consequences of alienation because of their crimes and place the blame solely on themselves for creating that animosity in the first place. They will just have to take their chances and see what happens, maybe.

As for the individual that was in a deep depression, maybe someone can recommend counseling or maybe even medication to help ease the symptoms of further depression and even offer suggestions on how they might find happiness all over again now that they’ve been granted a second chance, so to speak. I understand at 90 years old you might not have a lot of time left but wouldn’t it be more satisfying to leave this world in a peaceful state of mind as opposed to being in a depressed condition? That’s how I might envision it if it was me in that situation.

You betcha I’d want to finally be happy. If you tell me that I’ve been depressed too long and don’t get to have the cure, I’d be hard pressed not to commit murder on your ass before I offed myself. What kind of cruelness had gotten into you, @Pandora?

My recommendation is that you try to put yourself in other people’s shoes for a moment when considering questions like these.

@wundayatta There are plenty of Aspies that wouldn’t want a cured if offered one, even if it meant they’d have more friends or better social connections.

@SpatzieLover Isn’t that why it’s a syndrome and not a disorder or a disease?

It’s labeled a syndrome because it is characteristically made up of at least three disorders:
-ADD/ADHD
-ASD Autism Spectrum Disorder
-Anxiety Disorder—(often including PTSD)
Seasonal Affective Disorder is another common trait (usually this is present in more than one season)

@Pandora It should be a choice.

I think the people involved should get to choose.

@wundayatta I am putting myself into the situation. In the examples I’ve given, I may want to know what it feels like to be happy or normal (which in the prisoners case, I may have thought violence as normal). But really I wonder how happy would I be in the end to find out I was out of my mind for all those years and now I’m alone in a world of emotions I don’t recognize and a world that has no place in it for me.
I’m not talking about something that gets resolved pretty early in ones life, like ADD/ADHD or that there is a current cure. And I’m basically talking about people who must have someone choose for them.
For example. Bi-polar people. Some claim they don’t like the way they feel when they are on medication so they choose not to take it. To them normal is how they feel when not medicated. This has always been their reality.
So for now, in my shoes. I’m fairly normal (at least in my mind) and what society calls normal, but how would I feel if some magical pills made me feel a way I am not use too? Society tells me I have to take it to belong but even then they really don’t accept me and now I am old and my whole life feels like one long dream. Which reality would I really want? Would I want to stay oblivious?

I thought about this today thinking about my aunt. Now that I am older I think she may be suffering from depression all her life. She’s old now and can’t function on her own. I was talking to my mom about it and she said my aunt never wanted to be treated for her depression. She always figured church and prayers would help her through. No one forced her and today her mind is really foggy.
So I wondered how would she feel if she were given medication for her depression and by some miracle her mind cleared up. How long would she feel happy for? Would she feel glad that she has some clarity or will she resent that no one forced her against her will?
Just so you know. She got really bad when her only son died from drinking too much. She’s foggy about his memory now. So would it be kind or cruel for her to relive that again?

It is not uncommon for elderly people with diseases that take your mind away but not your body, (like Alzheimer’s) often are not treated for pneumonia and the pneumonia is what kills them. Pneumonia is known as the “old folks friend” for that reason.

@Sunny2 It’s how we let my dad go.He wasn’t elderly, either.

As if happens, @Pandora, I have bipolar disorder. I’m a person, not an idiot. Even if my brain is all foggy, I’m still a person, and I want to make my own choices. I want to decide to take the meds or not. My choice. Not anyone else’s.

I have experienced taking a med and having my mind change almost overnight. I have had thoughts one day, and three days later been unable to even think those thoughts (mostly suicidal). It raises some serious existential issues. Who am I if you can introduce a few chemicals in my brain and my personality changes in a few days? Which me is me?

All of us have to deal with that, and I think we all arrive at our own unique answers to those kinds of questions. For me, they are all me. All the mes are me. I’m the happy guy. I’m the guy who wants to end all the pain and is willing to die if there is no other way out. I’m the guy who has multiple lovers and the guy who is loyal to his wife. Both of them. I’m the guy who can’t do a thing and the guy who can do a lot of things. I’m the guy who can’t think because I’m so dull, and the guy who is really creative. I’m the smart guy and I’m the dull guy.

I don’t want to stay on my meds. I don’t like peeing every hour. I don’t like trembling fingers. I don’t like having trouble waking up. I don’t like rashes. I don’t like depression, either. I don’t like being dependent on drugs. I don’t know if I am dependent on drugs.

And I also do like being depressed sometimes. I like how it brings me in touch with everyone’s pain, and how it reminds me of where people are coming from. I like how people can empathize with me when I’m depressed, and when I’m not, they think I’m an asshole. Some people like me better when I’m depressed. I even like feeling like I don’t fucking care any more, and I’m going to die. I like the way I can give up on everything when I’m depressed. I can stop fighting. I like being able to acknowledge how useless and stupid I am.

But I don’t want to be depressed even though it is a big part of me. Except when I don’t mind being depressed. I take my meds. I hope to stop taking them, but I won’t do that without the consultation of my shrink.

Depends. We might not be able to appreciate thousands of art pieces by Vincent Van Gogh with modern psychoactive medication.