Similar to Possum, I knew a lady who talked LOUDLY all the time. The story goes that she had grown up as one of 17 children, and when you're competing to be heard over that many, you have to yell, which as a middle-aged woman she never broke the habit of doing. She hurt my ears and gave me a headache, and I couldn't stand to be around her very much either. Mental illness was used to excuse her; apparently she couldn't help it. But does that mean I have to suffer?

It also bothers me when I am inpatient and another person is being loud and unruly. When I hear that person being absolved with, "Well, he/she has problems," I think, "I'm not exactly here on vacation myself."

We have to take care of our own issues first. If we can't deal with someone else's, that doesn't mean we are being hard-hearted. It means we have limitations.

And to address the legal aspects, as a sufferer of depression since I was 6 years old, I have NEVER been to the point where I didn't know right from wrong. When people claim they shouldn't be held liable for what they did because of depression, it bothers me. Depression is not a psychosis.