Do you think mentally ill people are stereotyped as violent ?!
Question: Do you think mentally ill people are stereotyped as violent .?
or that all killers are seen as having a mental illness.?
I personally get offended by #1. My opinion is that violent people do violent things, and that is a separate matter from being mentally ill.
I am a "happy manic". When I am that way, I am only a danger to myself (having too much fun :-P ) not others, ever
I was looking at the article about the Belgian day care stabbings and they had to mention: "Residents told The Associated Press the suspect was a local man with a history of mental illness."
Who are these residents and how do they know.? Why was this mentioned when there is so little known about the case.?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090124/ap_o...Health Question & Answer
I personally get offended by #1. My opinion is that violent people do violent things, and that is a separate matter from being mentally ill.
I am a "happy manic". When I am that way, I am only a danger to myself (having too much fun :-P ) not others, ever
I was looking at the article about the Belgian day care stabbings and they had to mention: "Residents told The Associated Press the suspect was a local man with a history of mental illness."
Who are these residents and how do they know.? Why was this mentioned when there is so little known about the case.?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090124/ap_o...Health Question & Answer
Answers:
Yes mentally ill people are stereotyped and Christina here, is a product of that stereotyping. Her logic is if they are "ill" than they are violent. What about people with cancer.? Using your logic they should be killers too.
The reason mentally ill people are always shown on the news as crazy killers is because it's more interesting that just a relationship turned sower. People want to hear about the "crazy" man who kills people, they find it comforting to know that it's because there is something wrong with him.
Something else that is added to this is that it is not reported what specific mental illness he is suffering from, so all mental illness get lumped in together. One day the stigmatization surrounding mental illness will be gone.
also since it is reported on the news so much people think it happens more often than it does. Statistically speaking people with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than the perpetrator.
Read this and educate yourself.Health Question & Answer
The reason mentally ill people are always shown on the news as crazy killers is because it's more interesting that just a relationship turned sower. People want to hear about the "crazy" man who kills people, they find it comforting to know that it's because there is something wrong with him.
Something else that is added to this is that it is not reported what specific mental illness he is suffering from, so all mental illness get lumped in together. One day the stigmatization surrounding mental illness will be gone.
also since it is reported on the news so much people think it happens more often than it does. Statistically speaking people with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than the perpetrator.
Read this and educate yourself.Health Question & Answer
I have gone several times to a leading mental hospital called NIMHANS (National Institute of Mentally Handicapped and Neuro Surgery) at Bangalore, India. There are several sections in that hospital. Each section is meant for treating different types of mental illness. There are about dozens of sections and sub-sections. It is a huge hospital spread over a large area (approximately 5 sq.kms.). Each mental case is peculiar of its own.Health Question & Answer
the real answer is no. I exactly read a lot of real mental illness books and online "real" mental health site's articles on mental health and illness. Just check it out by typing schizophrenia or other ones. i did schizoprehnai and it always comes out as nonviolent.Health Question & Answer
anybody who would enter a daycare center and start killing children in a frenzy is by definition mentally ill or at least has a very different set of values to ordinary people, the other thing being that people dont like to think a 'Normal' person could do such a thingHealth Question & Answer
They're stereotyped as violent because they usually are. It's called an illness when it's a problem though, if it doesn't really affect you negatively they don't categorize it as an illness.Health Question & Answer
This is a very sad myth that is perpetrated by the media about mental illness. People assume wrongly that all mentally ill people are violent and this is plain wrong.Health Question & Answer
some tims they r and some tims they r not.Health Question & Answer
The answer to your question is yes but I don't have a violent bone in my body.Health Question & Answer
My psychiatrist tells me that the only category of mental illness with a higher than average risk of violence is paranoid schizophrenia. However, I am pretty sure that even though the risk is higher, hardly any people with paranoid schizophrenia are violent either. The problem is that the crimes committed by persons with mental illness are sometimes completely bizaare and senseless, and that scares people.It's also true that if you have mental illness & abuse drugs or alcohol, you are at greater risk of violence than a person who does not have mental illness but abuses these substances. However, both groups are at substantially increased risk of violence over the norm (I think the figure is a "normal" person using drugs/alcohol, risk is doubled, for person with mental illness, risk is tripled or quadrupled). I recently read that a study was done of people who were involuntarily committed to mental institutions, on average they were only at slightly elevated risk of violence, so the Brady Bill ( bans gun ownership among people previously involuntarily committed to mental institutions) is not based on a risk of violence. (Brady Bill was passed because John Hinkley, a man with schizophrenia, tried to assassinate President Reagan).
The stereotype matters a lot, because in some states, I cannot legally own a firearm (Texas - nobody with bipolar or schizophrenia can own a gun, in Hawaii, nobody with any major mental illness, Illinois, nobody who has been inpatient in past 5 years, including voluntarily, and there are others) I am a deer hunter & live in a rural area, and a gun is a part of life if you are rural.Health Question & Answer
The stereotype matters a lot, because in some states, I cannot legally own a firearm (Texas - nobody with bipolar or schizophrenia can own a gun, in Hawaii, nobody with any major mental illness, Illinois, nobody who has been inpatient in past 5 years, including voluntarily, and there are others) I am a deer hunter & live in a rural area, and a gun is a part of life if you are rural.Health Question & Answer
Yes!I agree with you totally.My brother was born with a chemical imbalance in the brain and with the onset of puberty he turned Paranoid Schizophrenic.He is a gentle and loving soul.People take advantage of that and his IQ is above genius.When they are off their medication delusions can happen affecting their judgment and adding to the paranoia.But there are ways of communicating with them if they feel threatened by some fantasy enemy.He is 53yrs old now and has not hurt a single person.He was once hospitalized with a fellow schizophrenic whom abused drugs and alcohol and was very violent.But like you I get sick of hearing of some heinous crime committed by a schizophrenic.I suffer from depression and don't have violent tendencies.There is a lot of ignorance out there,huh.?Health Question & Answer
Well, I would say that it's more on the lines of all murderers have a mental illness - and I believe it is true. Murderers are deranged and twisted. They have gone through many troubles in their lives that lead them to do the things they do. No 'normal' person would go out and kill someone for revenge or just for the fun of it. When I say murderers though, I mean serial killers of course. Soldiers kill, but they have valid reasons. Same as others in some type of authority. I think it's just the serial killers that have mental illnesses. I do not believe though that those with mental illnesses are violent. I know many people with mental illnesses that wouldn't hurt a fly (unless by accident of course). It's just ridiculous, these stereotypes...though I guess people find comfort in stereotyping for some reason or another.Health Question & Answer