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JD Journal
By Daniel June
Posted on
Police were called when neighbors reported a woman having sex with her pit bull in her backyard in broad daylight. When they arrived, they found Kara Vandereyk “naked and on the ground” engaged in a sexual act with the dog. Upon their approach, she greeted them with a “hi,” and proceeded to touch the dog sexually.
The police blanketed the 23-year-old woman and asked her questions to determine her state of mind. She was unable to answer who she was, what day it was, or who the President of the United States was. She was able to explain that she was “bipolar,” but though she was on “prescription medication,” she was uncertain if she had been taking it recently.
A neighbor gave her some clothes, and she was taken to jail on charges of open or gross lewdness. The dog meanwhile was taken into the custody of Animal Control.
Like all mental illnesses, bipolar can be difficult to live with. It alternates between depressions, long plateaus of a normal state, and sometimes a bright or manic effect, which may also be accompanied by psychosis, when the person acts in ways that do not resemble their character or values when properly medicated or in their right state of mind. Living with the aftereffect of a manic episode can be difficult to cope with. In the case of Kara, it has been suggested that her behavior related to meth use or the use of other street drugs. This was offered as a counter-explanation to her shocking behavior.
It is true that many people who suffer from bipolar self-medicate; impatient with prescription drugs, they might use drugs that have a more pronounced effect, such as meth or cocaine. This can exacerbate their bipolar symptoms, leading to worse problems than if they were completely unmedicated and struggling only with the bipolar itself. While those who never had bipolar or done drugs may criticize Kara’s manic behaviors as if she were evil — and this, perhaps, according to Christian morality as they interpret it — anybody who has actually suffered from psychosis puts this to the lie and knows that psychotic behavior is not a moral issue, but a chemical imbalance.
Evidently the words of Jesus to “Judge not lest you be judged,” make little impression on such folk, who pretend to themselves that if their worst, most embarrassing moments were made into headlines in the papers, they would do just fine. Even if they themselves had nothing to be embarrassed about in all their life of adventures and misadventures, they ought to have compassion for those who struggle with greater problems than their own. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” is another saying of Jesus that applies to those who would judge and condemn an easy target.