Jesse Jackson, Jr

Myradella3 · 07-12-2012, 06:14 AM

My heart goes out to anyone dealing with mental or physical illness in a public arena. But, why in the world didn't he or his people just come out and say "The Congressman is ill and he is being treated. We should know something in a XYZ time frame."

RedCatWaves · 07-12-2012, 07:44 AM

The scuttlebutt is that JJJ is using "rehab" as a respite from his corruption investigation and marital-cheating ways. Seems when a politician gets caught with his pants down, they sometimes use mental illness as a convenient explanation, spend a couple months in rehab, apoligize, and come back good-as-new. In other words...more scams.

luvmylocs · 07-12-2012, 10:43 AM

they said "it's more serious than they first thought". that just opens up more questions. what's more serious than first thought? i agree, if this hadn't been on the heels of him cheating or whatever he might get more public sympathy. unfortunately when you're a politician, celebrity, athlete, etc. it seems like your health issues are not allowed to be private. i also agree that by him being out indefinitely it's causing people to wonder what's really going on.

luvmylocs · 08-13-2012, 04:04 PM

they're saying he has bipolar disorder. what's even more interesting is that my mother was telling me she read the family said he changed every since having gastric bypass surgery and they are thinking the surgery prevented him from getting nutrients to his brain. apparently depression and impaired thinking are common side effects that don't get discussed.

*Marah* · 08-13-2012, 04:35 PM

I don't know.. I'm not suggesting that he may not be Bipolar (that is unfortunate for anyone but there are meds and therapy to which he surely has access)...but boy this seems convenient in light of his corruption and cheating drama. I mean none of this was evident before ? Suspect to me.

Blackbanjogirl · 08-13-2012, 06:58 PM

It makes absolutely no sense that he would fake bipolar disorder to save his career. Really? That's ridiculous. Even though bipolar is like autism in that there is a scale. You can be low on the scale if you have bipolar 2 (esp if you have a family history) and still be fully functioning. Though, bipolar disorder carries a huge stigma. People don't know a lot about it and tend to confuse it with schizophrenia which is more severe. No one runs around shouting that they're bipolar unless they'd like to lose their career, relationships, etc. This is precisely what has happened to the two people I know with it.

Granted, I haven't followed this man's political career. I'm not trying to defend him. I didn't even know Jesse Jackson had a son in politics until lately. I just fail to see why claiming to be bipolar would benefit him in any way. He's being treated by the Mayo Clinic. I'm sure they're familiar with the signs of bipolar. Anyone who has known someone with bipolar knows you don't just fake that, and you quickly learns how to recognize bipolar symptoms in others. Though the disorder seems to be more prevalent today, only 2% of the population has it and doctors are very cautious in dxing someone with it because the treatments carry a lot of harmful side effects.

*Marah* · 08-13-2012, 07:24 PM

Many people have faked mental illness, abuse, and addiction that they conveniently weren't aware of to get out of all sorts of things or lessen the consequence of some action they have done. People do this mess in court cases ALL the time to try to weasel out of trouble. So I don't put it past ANYONE to be completely full of BS at any given time. Desperate times call for desperate measures in many minds.

luvmylocs · 08-13-2012, 08:40 PM

i think the interesting spin here is they are suggesting his condition is related to a lack of nutrients associated with a surgery MANY people are getting these days. this could be a big turning point in the after-care for people that have bariatric surgeries.

i work in underwriting life insurance and i was talking to my boss about this and he was saying it's known that people that have bariatric surgeries have deficiencies and depression, etc is a common outcome. wow, i didn't make that connection.

Myradella3 · 08-14-2012, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Marah*

Many people have faked mental illness, abuse, and addiction that they conveniently weren't aware of to get out of all sorts of things or lessen the consequence of some action they have done. People do this mess in court cases ALL the time to try to weasel out of trouble. So I don't put it past ANYONE to be completely full of BS at any given time. Desperate times call for desperate measures in many minds.

People in health care are taught to diagnose conditions. A part of that training is also how to identify malingering. Given the ease with which people think you fake mental illness, doesn't it make sense that the strategies to identify the faking would be even more stringent?
Real case, perhaps not related: A woman said she couldn't testify because she had Bell's Palsy. She got on the stand and started talking strange, babbling. A physician confirmed the Bell's Palsy. But a speech-language pathologist transcribed her speaking errors and showed the inconsistencies in speech sounds compared with the neurological patterns presented with Bell's Palsy. She had to testify. My point is that it's harder fake illnesses than realized. It can be done, but it takes a lot of effort and I'm just not convinced that JJ, Jr. would fake an illness like this for any reason.

curlyarca · 08-14-2012, 08:03 PM

Forget the fact that mental illness can manifest during periods of stress...

*Marah* · 08-14-2012, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myradella3

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Marah*

Many people have faked mental illness, abuse, and addiction that they conveniently weren't aware of to get out of all sorts of things or lessen the consequence of some action they have done. People do this mess in court cases ALL the time to try to weasel out of trouble. So I don't put it past ANYONE to be completely full of BS at any given time. Desperate times call for desperate measures in many minds.

People in health care are taught to diagnose conditions. A part of that training is also how to identify malingering. Given the ease with which people think you fake mental illness, doesn't it make sense that the strategies to identify the faking would be even more stringent?
Real case, perhaps not related: A woman said she couldn't testify because she had Bell's Palsy. She got on the stand and started talking strange, babbling. A physician confirmed the Bell's Palsy. But a speech-language pathologist transcribed her speaking errors and showed the inconsistencies in speech sounds compared with the neurological patterns presented with Bell's Palsy. She had to testify. My point is that it's harder fake illnesses than realized. It can be done, but it takes a lot of effort and I'm just not convinced that JJ, Jr. would fake an illness like this for any reason.

None of the above changes what I said. I stand by it.

ss40 · 08-14-2012, 09:17 PM

I don't think he's faking but I don't know him well enough. Is it hereditary? (It was crazy when his father made that statement about the President's testicles).

This illness may point to his recent lapses in morality. I hope he recovers but its unfair to his constituents the way this was handled. He should have resigned a while ago.

I'm cashing out