[Closed] Now put some bloody clothes on, beardy!!

where he does he put his wallet when popping down the shops?

From the Guardian article:

[i]What he misses most about clothes are pockets ("Somewhere to put my hands")[/i]

is not normal by any means. His behaviour is quite extreme.

As for being assessed, I'm sure he has, but as he isn't a threat to himself or anyone else, he won't get sectioned, hence just fed back into the justice system.

Just stop digging will you
We all know it is odd behaviour and no one will disagree.
He is , despite your diagnosis, quite sane.

I still haven't worked out what's in the 120litre rucksack!

I still haven't worked out what's in the 120litre rucksack!

His clothes!

Perhaps he's just stubborn, determined and a bit eccentric?

Definitely TJ.

To have such an obsession over something so trivial (to everyone else) and to pay such a high price for it (loss of liberty, job, everything basically), is not normal by any means.

Simply not being normal doesn't constitute a mental illness.

footflaps - Member

To have such an obsession over something so trivial (to everyone else) and to pay such a high price for it (loss of liberty, job, everything basically), is not normal by any means. His behaviour is quite extreme.

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Rothman ]Benny Rothman. [/url]

[img] [/img]

Yes it is clearly your area of expertise and of course you need to be sectioned or sectionable to be considered mentally ill.

That's not what I said. My point was the only way you can force someone to undergo treatment would be to section them.

As for whether he is or not, we can agree to disagree. I doubt our difference of opinion will bother him whilst he rots away the rest of his life behind bars....

Simply not being normal doesn't constitute a mental illness.

But giving up your liberty indefinitely over the right not to wear boxers, must be close to the boundary.

As for comparing him with the Mass Trespass / suffragettes etc, I'm not aware that many other people actually give a toss about his cause....

I still haven't worked out what's in the 120litre rucksack!

Tent, sleeping bag, means to prepare food, supplies and, yes, clothes.

As he says in the article:

Gough and Roberts reached John O'Groats in February 2006. Once again, he'd finished his journey in the coldest months of the year.

...

The two would sleep fully clothed in their sleeping bags, Roberts says. "When there's snow on the ground, it's hard to get out of your sleeping bag, let alone your clothes, to do a 22-mile walk."

They made some allowances for the weather. "We wore warm hats, thick socks, gloves and walking boots," Roberts says. "We ate lots of carbohydrates and walked fast. The closer we got to the finish, the easier it was to forget the cold and pain."

...
[In Prison] "I put a quilt over my shoulders at night," Gough says. "That's not a contradiction because there are no restrictions on me when I'm alone in my cell. It's in public I'm restricted and go naked as a result. Even with the quilt it gets pretty cold, but exercise helps."

Saying someone clearly has mental health issues because they do something different to others is trivialising it.

Perhaps, but that isn't what footflaps said. He said that paying a huge price for some apparently rather trivial thing is more than a little irrational.

As for comparing him with the Mass Trespass / suffragettes etc, I'm not aware that many other people actually give a toss about his cause....

Not many people gave a toss about the right to roam in 1932 either.

Not many people gave a toss about the right to roam in 1932 either.

They weren't called 'Mass Trespasses' because only one person attended....

About 400.

A lot less than the amount of people who get naked and protest on a regular basis.
And they've been doing it for years - 1914 is the earliest I can find right now.

IIRC he did have a GF who walked naked with him as well for a while, but I think she baulked at the whole 'rest of your life in prison' bit.....

We are British. When we see someone doing something odd, we ignore them.

This business of having him followed everywhere by policemen carrying trousers and demanding that he put them on or face arrest is completely ridiculous, and indeed unpatriotic.

We are British. When we see someone doing something odd, we ignore them.

Sorry, but I am going to have to one minor detail here. When we see someone doing something [i]exceedingly[/i] odd, we may even raise an eyebrow.

He said that paying a huge price for some apparently rather trivial thing is more than a little irrational.

No he didn't. He said the guy had mental health issues. If he had said he was irrational I doubt anyone would have disagreed.

Drac - Moderator
Saying someone clearly has mental health issues because they do something different to others is trivialising it

No. He quite clearly said not because he does differently to others but because he won't conform to societal norms which actually won't damage him in the slightest. In the UK we often have and do section people because they are not behaving in line with the rest of society and we seem to deem them a 'risk'. Footfalls is actually recognising what often happens not what should happen.

Junkyard - lazarus
I am sure this man has been professionally assessed by now

Very likely to be true. However diagnosed from the perspective that is often criticised - the medical model.

so the internet diagnosis is as pointless as it is inaccurate.

Again likely to be true but not trivial.

I am not sure why we want to criminalise what he does either

Agree. What harm does it do.

I would prefer a compromise with him where he could do it in say certain areas - walks or whatever and tended to not go shopping in the nude.
Failing that leave him to it as I doubt he will compromise.

Pretty much.

Hmm, I could have sworn that I posted on this thread earlier. Has my comment been deleted? If so, could a mod tell me why please?

So the only way that Mr Gough can be reliably restrained is to tailor him, as it were, a bespoke ASBO. As far as I am aware nobody else is subject to a similar order.

Thats the peculiar thing about ASBOs. If you undertake an activity that someone deems to be antisocial then the activity doesn't need to illegal for you to be a subject of an asbo prohibiting you from doing it. From that point on the activity is still legal but you doing it breaks the asbo and breaking the terms of an asbo is then illegal. So anyone subject to an asbo effectively has a tailor made law that only they can break.

No. He quite clearly said not because he does differently to others but because he won't conform to societal norms which actually won't damage him in the slightest.

Oh and that means he has mental health issues does it? No, it doesn't the guy wants to carry on walking naked he doesn't care what happens if he does. That far from makes him have mental health issues.

Hmm, I could have sworn that I posted on this thread earlier. Has my comment been deleted? If so, could a mod tell me why please?

Nope, no posts have been deleted from this thread.

I believe I read somewhere that his gf/partner left him because of his absolute obsession with this, and his complete refusal to compromise in anyway which would have allowed a (reasonably) normal family life.
Once such an obsession becomes so all-encompassing surely it shows some sort of mental illness?
It's almost a form of OCD, surely?

I believe I read somewhere that his gf/partner left him because of his absolute obsession with this...

Did [i]ANYONE[/i] read the Guardian interview I posted earlier?? 🙂

Once such an obsession becomes so all-encompassing surely it shows some sort of mental illness?

Or maybe it is just really important to him.

Just because we (society at large) deem it less important doesn't mean he is mentally ill to consider it very important.

you are using OCD in the wy a lay person would

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear or worry (obsessions), repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety (compulsions), or a combination of such obsessions and compulsions. Symptoms of the disorder include excessive washing or cleaning, repeated checking, extreme hoarding, preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts, relationship-related obsessions, aversion to particular numbers and nervous rituals such as opening and closing a door a certain number of times before entering or leaving a room. These symptoms are time-consuming, might result in loss of relationships with others, and often cause severe emotional and financial distress. The acts of those who have OCD may appear paranoid and potentially psychotic. However, people with OCD generally recognize their obsessions and compulsions as irrational and may become further distressed by this realization. Despite the irrational behaviour, OCD is associated with high verbal IQ.[1]

More technically - how we diagnose

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) Classification of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (ICD-10 Code F42) The essential feature of this disorder is recurrent obsessional thoughts or compulsive acts. (For brevity, "obsessional" will be used subsequently in place of "obsessive-compulsive" when referring to symptoms.) Obsessional thoughts are ideas, images or impulses that enter the individual's mind again and again in a stereotyped form. They are almost invariably distressing (because they are violent or obscene, or simply because they are perceived as senseless) and the sufferer often tries, unsuccessfully, to resist them. They are, however, recognized as the individual's own thoughts, even though they are involuntary and often repugnant. Compulsive acts or rituals are stereotyped behaviours that are repeated again and again. They are not inherently enjoyable, nor do they result in the completion of inherently useful tasks. The individual often views them as preventing some objectively unlikely event, often involving harm to or caused by himself or herself. Usually, though not invariably, this behaviour is recognized by the individual as pointless or ineffectual and repeated attempts are made to resist it; in very long-standing cases, resistance may be minimal. Autonomic anxiety symptoms are often present, but distressing feelings of internal or psychic tension without obvious autonomic arousal are also common. There is a close relationship between obsessional symptoms, particularly obsessional thoughts, and depression. Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder often have depressive symptoms, and patients suffering from recurrent depressive disorder may develop obsessional thoughts during their episodes of depression. In either situation, increases or decreases in the severity of the depressive symptoms are generally accompanied by parallel changes in the severity of the obsessional symptoms.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is equally common in men and women, and there are often prominent anankastic features in the underlying personality. Onset is usually in childhood or early adult life. The course is variable and more likely to be chronic in the absence of significant depressive symptoms.

Diagnostic Guidelines For a definite diagnosis, obsessional symptoms or compulsive acts, or both, must be present on most days for at least 2 successive weeks and be a source of distress or interference with activities. The obsessional symptoms should have the following characteristics: (a) they must be recognized as the individual's own thoughts or impulses: (b) there must be at least one thought or act that is still resisted unsuccessfully, even though others may be present which the sufferer no longer resists; (c) the thought of carrying out the act must not in itself be pleasurable (simple relief of tension or anxiety is not regarded as pleasure in this sense); (d) the thoughts, images, or impulses must be unpleasantly repetitive.

Includes:

anankastic neurosis
obsessional neurosis
obsessive-compulsive neurosis

So no basically and it does not mean what you thought.

Can we all stop the mental illness diagnosis he is sane and you are only highlighting your ignorance

SOme may describe his as mad or obsessive but he is , clinically, neither.

Actually Drac the extremity to which he is prepared to go suggests that yes, perhaps there is something which causes this beyond mere stubbornness or a need to stand up for his rights to this extent.

I still don't think footflaps was making light of mental illness.

Actually Drac the extremity to which he is prepared to go suggests that yes, perhaps there is something which causes this beyond mere stubbornness or a need to stand up for his rights to this extent.

No, no it doesn't.

No, no it doesn't.

So you wouldn't need an extraordinary motivator to make you willing to go to prison in support of your right to walk around naked...? Most people would.

perhaps there is something which causes this beyond mere stubbornness or a need to stand up for his rights to this extent.

The comfort of being a rebel

The comfort of being a rebel

That must be some comfort! 🙂

Most people would

Does not make any of us actually mental even though a mate may describe you as such.

So you wouldn't need an extraordinary motivator to make you willing to go to prison in support of your right to walk around naked...? Most people would.

Of course you would but that doesn't make you mentally ill.