Robert Scotland wrote:This sounds bad but I do not have much compassion for other people that have some sort of mental or physical disability that was there own fault for example like them calming to have anxiety or other stuff when it's there fault for abusing drugs or people that have had car crashes when it was there fault for tdriving to fast . It annoys because I feel like I have had it hard for having dyspraxia and it wasn't my fault I was born like that does anyone else feel bitter in this way
While I respect your opinion, and your right to hold it, I completely and fundamentally disagree.
Firstly, I think the idea that any given disease process is completely someone's "own fault" is an oversimplification. A person's health is affected by a huge range of social, economic, environmental, and inherent biological factors, as well as individual choice. Furthermore, the choices an individual does make are themselves profoundly influenced by factors outside of their control. For example, a person is more likely to take up smoking if they live in an environment and culture which views smoking as acceptable, if their peer group or family smoke, and if they have an existing mental health problem. These factors become more common the further down the social/economic 'ladder' a person is, and where you are on this 'ladder' is largely down to accident of birth. Someone born in a deprived area to parents who smoke, is more likely to smoke, and so is more likely to suffer from the range of problems associated with smoking. There's an element of personal choice in this of course, but that's
far from the whole picture.
This general principle holds true, and is reflected in the statistics, for most acquired diseases. The worse the situation you're born into/living in, the worse your health is likely to be. Genetics, access to quality education and healthcare, the physical environment, access to social/economic capital, life stressors, housing quality, culture, diet, community, all play a part. It's far, far easier to be healthy if you were born into a lucky situation.
Here's a graphic that summarises this idea:
Secondly, I think that it's important to have empathy and compassion for people no matter what life choices they might have made. None of us are perfect, and we all make bad choices and mistakes. We all have ways that we try to cope with the stuff life throws at us, and some of these aren't healthy. Some of us exercise intensely, some of us smoke, some of us drink, some use drugs, some have a lot of sex, whatever. A lot of these things carry high risks, and a lot might seem from an outside perspective to be foolish choices, but humans are rational actors - whatever someone has done made sense to them at the time, even if it was just to numb the pain. I'm not saying that people should be free to do whatever they want - we live in a collective society, and for that society to function and for people to mutually enjoy freedom and rights, people need to be held accountable if they infringe on the freedom and rights of others. However, I would never seek to trivialise or ignore someone's illness based on their lifestyle or past choices.
A final note, on people with anxiety or other mental illnesses who use drugs - drug use is often an attempt at self-medication - often, the drug use starts
after the illness, and as a result of it. When I think of some of the things people I've worked with in the mental health system have been through in their lives, if I was put through the same I can't honestly say whether I wouldn't try to numb myself from those memories any way that I could.