Instigator / Pro
14
1417
rating
158
debates
32.59%
won
Topic
#2321
It is preferable to have a physical problem than a mental problem
Status
Finished
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
Winner & statistics
After 2 votes and with 14 points ahead, the winner is...
seldiora
Parameters
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 4
- Time for argument
- Two days
- Max argument characters
- 10,000
- Voting period
- Two weeks
- Point system
- Multiple criterions
- Voting system
- Open
Contender / Con
0
1483
rating
3
debates
33.33%
won
Description
assume that they are of same severity and ease of cure. An incurable mental illness is comparable to being in a coma or having no legs. Mild Schizophrenia is comparable to breaking your non-dominant arm. I say it is preferable to have problems with your physical body, than having problems with your brain/thought process.
Round 1
1. Ability to be cured
Mental illnesses, even when very light, are near impossible to stop. A study has found "in a sample of 26,527 people with depression, 53% did not make any reliable and clinically significant improvement in their symptoms after receiving a course of counseling. " One other article noted the lingering power of mental illnesses:
"Once in treatment, your physician or psychologist rarely mentions the word “cure.” Cure is what doctors do for a broken wrist or scurvy. Set the wrist or give the patient a vitamin C shot, and voila! Done. Treating mental illness rarely results in a “cure,” per se. What it does result in is a person feeling better, getting better, and eventually no longer needing treatment (in most cases). But even then, rarely will a professional say, “Yes, you’re cured of your depression.”
Why is that? Why is there such a reluctance to invoke this magical word? I mean, cure literally means, “recovery or relief from a disease,” so if someone has recovered or has found relief from depression, why not say the person has been cured?
I think our reluctance comes from the belief that mental illness is far more recurring than most diseases in many people’s lives. If you have a bout of depression or a depressive episode, that doesn’t stop the depression from coming back at some later time (even if successfully treated). Whereas once you’ve treated a broken wrist, it’s not going to return (unless you break it again); once you’ve treated scurvy, it too won’t return if you prod the patient into drinking more orange juice or eating an orange once in awhile."
I think our reluctance comes from the belief that mental illness is far more recurring than most diseases in many people’s lives. If you have a bout of depression or a depressive episode, that doesn’t stop the depression from coming back at some later time (even if successfully treated). Whereas once you’ve treated a broken wrist, it’s not going to return (unless you break it again); once you’ve treated scurvy, it too won’t return if you prod the patient into drinking more orange juice or eating an orange once in awhile."
Let's compare ADHD to a broken wrist. Both are extremely annoying and severely impact your day-to-day life. But you can save a broken wrist. ADHD has no known cure, despite being only a mildly annoying mental illness. Even after you treat it, there is no guarantee that it will not come back. As you can see, mental illness is far far worse than physical illness.
2. Commonality
We see here that 95% of the world has physical problems. Therefore that means 95% of people would be used to the problem stated in the premise. You would receive much knowledge and help because physical problems is much more common. On the other hand, only 1 in 4 people suffer from a mental disorder. Now you know why people look down upon those who are mentally worse rather than physically worse. What is more common is more easy to adopt to (As you likely had had it before) and would be preferable as a result.
3. Loss of reality
On the extreme end of the mental disorder spectrum, we have dementia, disassociation from reality, and more madness. Perhaps this is comparable to being blind, or deaf, or mute. You lose an entire part of yourself and you can never experience the world the same way as other people. But while mental illness you are no longer yourself, other family members are distraught over having lost the true you, your physical problems despite being equally incurable, do not prevent you from looking clearly in life.
Conclusion: If you are shot in the chest, you could survive. If you lose your arm in an incident, but are saved in time, you will probably not die. But if you forget what makes you you, then, then you are truly as good as dead. That is why I will always take the physical ailment over the mental ailment.
Forfeited
Round 2
If con had a physical problem, he could still potentially convey his argument using modern technology (consider Steven Hawkings), but mental disability would be a disadvantage near impossible to overcome
Forfeited
Round 3
hmm
Forfeited
Round 4
vote me
Forfeited
You are really coming back. From 1337 to 1480.
Yeah I have gotten a few over here
Here is where he called me a sweatbag and told me to join DART lol. https://www.debate.org/debates/Violent-revolution-is-a-just-response-to-political-oppression/1/
https://www.debate.org/christopher_best/
Not proud of it but there it is
I actually was the same. I started DDO and then quickly released the site was dead. Dr. Franklin was the one to refer me to here because I was a "sweatbag" lol.
When I started debating I was handed drugs that are low-happiness and high-toxic. It is called DDO. Now this is the only successful attempt to revive that dead carcass.
Once you get addicted to the debating you will never be able to quit... It's like heroin, except less heroic... I'm not funny
This is an amazing site! I was so happy that I took 2 debates and now I'm struggling to find time to complete them haha
Most of the new users are multi-accounts of old users or trolls.
Hey! Looks like an amazing site ... I'm sure I'll become a regular user soon.
Oh hello, don't see new users very often. Welcome to this site.
Good resolution!
As long as we can understand the result of each situation, in a sound mind, one will always choose what is more mitigated. You've only outlined physical scenarios that have an edge on the most favorable outcome.
It can go either or, hence non-controversial.
I agree on this one.
Gosh, is this from I can I bb too?