Elderly woman verbally abuses depressed people

Clearly you were never suicidally depressed. What would you do if a "sick old person" was viciously and hatefully berating a depressed loved one you might have, stand there and watch? Someone is telling me they are thinking about suicide because of the abuse that lady gets to give her all she wants with impunity and this is ok according to you? Would you say all this if something some cranky old bat said or did caused your loved one to take their own life?

I think the correct thing is if someone is unwell they may not be in a position to correct their actions.

That does not mean though that those around her do not circumvent her actions. So in other words those that just say - oh she is old she can't help it; instead should be directing this elderly woman who may be mentally incapable of stopping herself; to step in and divert this woman over from others.

Like, for example say she is starting in on verbally abusing someone, grab granny gently by the arm and say hey granny, come here for a minute, we just got you a coffee and muffin over here. Like a child you need to divert her attention elsewhere. If she is unable to help herself, then others need to step in.

If I had been I know I would be even more sensitive to someone else's pain.

How would you come to help her if her leg were broken? Ask her to skip on over to the ER? I am disappointed in your total lack of empathy for this elderly woman.

Short of the grabbing by the arm, that is a good first step. A physical would be a good second step.

I think what both you, bobsal and you truesigma are just being sensitive to one person's pain. Both of these individuals (if this older woman truly has mental health issues) have issues and we should care for both.

In your example bobsal you only mention the elderly woman with a broken leg, what if she has a broken leg but yet had a gun and shot the other woman. Both people should get medical help

In this example, assuming both have mental issues is you help both. One does not get priority over the other. This older woman does not get a buy and is allowed to shoot someone simply because she has a hurt leg, neither does she get a buy to be allowed to abuse someone else simply because she has a mental health issue.

How you handle the older woman though would be different if she has a mental health issue vs not. BUT you still stop the abuse she is causing.

Treating the cause stops the abuse, including your hypothetical gun.

She can't be so ill if she is knowingly targeting other depressed people to feel better about her own illness, just because she probably thinks they are weak and helpless and can't defend themselves, especially if others around her are giving her a pass because she is old. That's the way a sociopath behaves. There is such a thing as an aged narcissist in case you don't know this. It seems to me it's because she is older she should know better. Obviously one of the reasons she does it is because she thinks she can get away with it. If you have empathy for a heartless old woman then why don't you have empathy for the dangerously depressed people she is abusing?

Balderdash. Do schizophrenics have control over the voices and their urges? How about cancer patients power over their pain and cancer. How about asking someone to stop being so diabetic? How about you throwing away the Tylanol and just stop having headaches?

Why though is the sick elderly woman the one who gets to drive depressed people to suicide with no remorse and the younger suicidal person is the one who needs to have empathy? Why do they need to care about her condition when she obviously doesn't care about theirs? Or why is the older woman the one more deserving of compassion? I think that is where people were wanting clarity.

No! It's not an either or situation: treat ALL the ill for Christ's sake. Not treating her actually contributes to making it worse for everyone else. Why do you all get so much satisfaction ignoring this woman and treating her as if she controls her illness? "No treatment for you until you stop manifesting your illness!"

Just what the hell is wrong with you?

I think rphalange actually did mention something about helping the older lady by gently diverting her attention away from the person she is abusing. But the point is you said that the suicidal person is the one who has the obligation to be understanding towards the older ill woman, which comes off prejudiced and ageist against the younger ill person. As if the older depressed person has more of a right to be abusive or deserves more empathy than the young depressed one, for whatever reason. You didn't specify. But you almost rationalized the old person being physically violent, which was pretty wild.