Mental illness is not an excuse (& 3 reasons why)

By OptimistMinds
Page last updated: 27/01/2023 | Next review date: 27/01/2025

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The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter.  The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.


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This article explores how Mental illness is used as an excuse and why it is wrong. We also look at situations it should be avoided.

Is Mental illness an excuse?

Mental disorder is never an excuse for being the wrong person. Often when they’re upset, people make comments. They often make statements that are very cruel and demeaning and can annoy individuals. That can be attributed to a battle with a mental disorder quite often. But continuing hurtful decisions is just that, an alternative. An unpleasant change in behavior is not something that merely because somebody has a mental disorder must be permitted.

It comes in several ways to blame malicious behavior on mental illness. An individual will say something disrespectful, and by referencing their mental disorder, someone will come to their support, as if that allows people an easy ticket to harm others. Or someone will utilize mental illness to defend their actions, acknowledge critical decisions as just part of their illness, or use their illness to validate their mistreatment of others.

To be mean, insulting, or indulge in problematic behavior, mental illness is not a free ticket. You can’t excuse constant abuse as indicative of your condition if you have a mental illness, and if you are in a relationship with someone who treats you poorly, you wouldn’t have to deal with this because they’re sick continually. Of course, disorders such as bipolar disorder trigger mood changes, rage, and irritability. But then how you respond to these emotions is an individual preference.

If you discover yourself hitting people, that’s something you’ll have to resolve. This is something for which you ought to seek assistance. It’s something that you must recognize. You must not allow this to continue to occur just because you believe it is an aspect of the mental illness plot.

Once you understand what you’ve done, or someone notifies you of what you’ve done, it’s essential to get aid to change that conduct, not just to acknowledge it as part of your disease.

Mental disorder is also compared with physical illness. We claim that it must be handled the same manner, that you’d never expect them to get over it’ if a person had a leg injury, then you ought not to manage mental illness this manner. However, when it comes to the way we behave, the same could be said. For some time, you might anticipate somebody with a fractured bone to be somewhat snappy. Still, if they had been disrespectful, aggressive, or demeaning on an ongoing basis, you will not let them get on with it merely because their bone is broken.

We’re not allowed to be hypocrites. We can’t claim to handle these two things in the same way and then forgive those who suffer psychologically from inappropriate habits. Equating mental illness with mistreatment contributes to the mental illness stigma. There’s this myth that people who are mentally ill may be a threat to others. It is also presented in films and tv shows and even in novels.

But statistically, mentally ill people are more sensitive and less likely than anyone else to be harmful. For people with mental illness, justifying despicable behavior for a mental disorder makes it seem like being bad is the standard. And that isn’t all right. Some individuals are really struggling with their mood swings. But it’s time to do something when this impacts others and not justify it as an aspect of being sick.

One of the most frustrating, destabilizing things a person could go through is dealing with mental illness.

Our responses can be hijacked by unmonitored disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other illnesses, leading us to act in ways that do not fit with our beliefs or actual personalities.

Sadly, the repercussions of our acts do not dissolve from mental illness.

People can and do use coping mechanisms to manage their mental health, as they should, to fix dysfunctional systems.

One’s transphobia or prejudice isn’t excused by mental illness. Your misogyny and distrust of gender minority people don’t make mental illness acceptable. One’s dysfunctional conduct is not made excusable by mental illness.

When someone has just lost a family member, they may be excused for having a shorter temper than usual or for publicly weeping loudly. It is perfectly understandable to leave social events early or to not come in the first place. We appear to look at their actions with more sensitivity because we realize that the individual is suffering.

This recognition of behavior also sometimes transforms into tolerance of conduct while drunk. We all heard a version of the excuse, ‘They did not intend it at that moment they were intoxicated…’

Yet again, when drugs or alcohol are at play, we tend to disregard foolish, confrontational, insensitive, or greedy behavior.

Empathizing with the influence of mental illness on a person’s actions, as with life conditions and alcoholism, can significantly help us understand why they behave in a specific way. You can best understand why they are doing the stuff they have been doing if you recognize what they live through.

We would not view it as personal in this context, because we see an explanation why. We may still not accept the actions, but at least we can clarify to ourselves why it is taking place.

They will routinely display habits that are inappropriate for you. This will inevitably become too much, and you can only take so much. You will feel conflicted when this happens because half of you will be justifying their actions, but then the other half of you will be exhausted from being subjected to them.

Between supporting yourself and empathizing with them, you can feel stuck. It is, after all, not their mistake. You can affirm to yourself every time you go to leave.

The argument is that, depending on their apparent behavior towards us, we ought to judge individuals. If we understand the reasons behind the actions, we can be regarded indefinitely as a second class person.

For instance, if I get angry when I’m intoxicated, you may not say that I’m an aggressive guy. If I am still intoxicated, however, then ‘alcoholism’ is my usual condition. I am, therefore, an aggressive guy.

The same is common for individuals with questions about the mental well-being of others experiencing important life events. You ought to accept the habits that are regularly introduced to you as who they are if they are still struggling. Look at people for who they are and, most specifically, how they handle you, not the person they used to be or the individual they seem to be in their short moments of refuge from their misery.

How to handle mental illness?

At one stage or another in their life, most individuals encounter mental health problems. It is common to have periodic sorrow, tension, and depression. Yet, it’s essential to get treatment if you’re having chronic or significant mental health problems.

The symptoms usually may be indications of an undiagnosed mental illness:

  • Thoughts of harming someone or yourself
  • Emotions of sorrow, frustration, fear, concern, or anxiety are recurrent or persistent.
  • Regular outbursts of feelings or mood changes
  • Uncertainty or mysterious memory lapses
  • Delusions or hallucinations
  • Intensive fear or anxiety about putting on weight
  • Important shifts in eating or sleeping behaviors
  • Unknown improvements in success at school or work
  • Failure to deal with regular tasks or problems
  • Cessation from events or relations in society
  • Authority disobedience, delinquency, robbery, or destruction
  • Misuse of substances, including alcoholism or illicit drug use
  • Mysterious bodily conditions

Get support straight away if you’re worried about hurting yourself or somebody else. Request an appointment with a doctor if you’ve any signs on this list.

There are several kinds of healthcare service providers that identify and manage mental illness. Schedule an appointment with your general practitioner or a registered nurse if you think you may have a mental health issue or need mental health assistance. They will assist you in deciding what kind of provider you should see. They can also recommend in several situations.

A therapist will help identify mental health problems and manage them. Many various types of therapists exist, including:

  • Health Psychiatrists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Psychoanalysts
  • Clinical therapists

In some fields, such as alcohol or child behavioral problems, therapists also specialize.

Do not use mental illness as an excuse for these reasons:

  • To overpower the struggles of someone else as an excuse

In terms of who has the worst mental disorder or personal condition, we’ve reached the point where we are merely trying to outdo each other. We are always in competition to show that we are more impaired on the Web or in our existence than anyone else. Share your knowledge, but don’t attempt to show that your education was more difficult, that your hardship was more serious, that you experienced more problems, or that your mental condition was more prominent.

  • To be straight out, disrespectful to other individuals.

Since you are going through a difficult time, you don’t get an open offer to misbehave or be a nuisance to anyone else. If somebody is intentionally rude, you have the ability to remove yourself from those circumstances or express your opinion. But it’s going too far to treat people with needless disrespect simply because they don’t realize whatever you’re living through.

  • A reason to push people out of your life with no justification.

Some mental illnesses can render you totally out of control and lose sight of the fact that you had plans. As you don’t feel up to a normal conversation or leaving home, they can also make you desire not to be with people. The greatest thing to do if it occurs is to inform friends and loved ones that you have been struggling through something challenging and need some space for yourself without leaving out the individuals who’ve been attempting to help you.

  • To receive additional attention and sympathy.

There are discreet ways of bringing up the notion that you find something disrespectful because of the disorder you’re dealing with. Yet using your mental illness as a scapegoat to get attention (or even sympathy) in a discussion is pushing too far. But it should not be used as an attention grab amid the discussion, which is miles away from your focus or your mental disorder.

  • To divert from the struggles of others.

If anyone asks you to speak about their mental illness problems, if you express that you have been through something similar, it can also be supportive. In reality, because of that, you will be able to provide additional assistance and useful guidance. It does not add something constructive or beneficial to a discussion to continuously compare their problems back with your own to show that you’re more hurt or have endured worse.

BetterHelp: A Better Alternative

Those who are seeking therapy online may also be interested in BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers plenty of formats of therapy, ranging from live chats, live audio sessions and live video sessions. In addition, unlimited messaging through texting, audio messages and even video messages are available here.

BetterHelp also offers couples therapy and therapy for teenagers in its platform. Furthermore, group sessions can also be found in this platform, covering more than twenty different topics related to mental health and mental illness. The pricing of BetterHelp is also pretty cost-effective, especially considering the fact that the platform offers financial aid to most users.

Conclusion

This article explored how Mental illness is used as an excuse and why it is wrong. We also looked at situations it should be avoided.

FAQ: Mental illness is not an excuse

Is mental illness is an excuse?

People can behave in specific ways that are unusual or seem peculiar to others when developing mental illnesses. We need to note that the disorder is behind all the actions, not the individual.

Is mental illness an excuse to skip work?

Stress and mental illness are legitimate ways of taking time away from work, but research shows that many workers are still dissatisfied with taking time off for these problems.

Is mental health an excuse to be mean?

To explain unethical actions, mental health isn’t something that we could use. The individual with mental illness has to assume responsibility for this. Ignoring accountability would only make lousy conduct natural, and if this is the case, they would get away with much more.

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