Quote:
Originally Posted by castellan
Assault should be dealt with regardless, illness is no excuse at all.
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That's a pretty broad assertion, and probably ignores too many mitigating factors that could've been present at the time. I'm not suggesting that mental illnesses should equate to an automatic get-out-of-jail free card by any means, but it needs to be considered at the very least. From the tone of your comment, I'm guessing that you've never suffered from a depressive illness yourself, or had any family do so.
Depression can certainly alter one's perspective on everyday things happening around you, or create a distorted perspective of other people's motives or actions or speech. Even a single word used in the "wrong" place can trigger an overreaction in the depressed—which wouldn't affect the average person.
Put simply, clinically depressed people are often on a totally different wavelength to other (mentally stable) people. But it's obviously not their "fault" as such.