Most Mentally Ill Are NOT Violent...

Well when you figure out how to articulate yourself, I'll be standing by in eager anticipation to hear your thoughts.

 

My thoughts are,that despite your BA psychology,you know fuck all about mental illness.

 

I'm bipolar and I've never hurt anybody or anything.
In fact, I'm a professional horse rider. People trust me with their animals daily.
Look at the murder rates vs. the statistic amount of people that have a psychiatric condition - maybe 1 in 50 people are killed by someone who is suffering from Schizophrenia/Dementia/Bipolar I,II,III/Depressed. That means that statistically people with no psychiatric disorder are more dangerous than those that have.

Why judge someone because of their inner demons? Most psychiatric disorders have a trigger - especially the hectic ones like Schizophrenia. Many people have the gene, many people never have an episode. Instead of judging someone, why not have sympathy for them and realise that they must have experienced something horrible which triggered the onset of their psychiatric disorder.

Saying people with a psychiatric disorder are violent/non-violent is just as fair as saying all black people are violent/non-violent. The group you're generalising against is just too large for anybody to make a blanket statement like that.

 

This part in bold really bothers me. Having been around a lot of people with psychological illnesses and seeing them go through the gamut of treatments I would say that this is completely unfair. Unfortunately I don't think it's as easy as having someone treated in the way that society/mainstream medical community thinks is the appropriate way to treat them. People need to have control over their own health, rather it's physical or psychological.

You can very easily look on the internet and see how people have horrible reactions to the various drugs, therapies and treatments when they are trying to get better and it makes them worse and so they go off those treatments and try other ways, alternative ways. I don't think there's anything wrong with not wanting to buy into "this is the only way, you must be on this drug for the rest of your life" bullshit...and it really is that. There are plenty of cases where people live their lives well by finding their own way to deal with their issues, despite whatever diagnosis they might have.

In my mind there's nothing more progressive and useful than www.theicarusproject.net which really addresses the wide variety of experiences, preferences and needs of people with mental illnesses or who are supporting people with these illnesses in their lives.

 

I'm not sure what got your panties in a wad, maybe you need to get laid or something. But I don't believe I know everything about psychology because I went to school for it. My reason for mentioning that is I have at least some degree of formal education on the subject, and after that I personally believe a lot of it is bullshit. It's more a business than anything, pigeonholing people into categories based on observed behavior or feelings.. There is not much actual science to most of it (ie brain imaging as a basis for diagnosis)

I also believe people are misdiagnosed and over diagnosed en masse.

And to address the following post, I never said bipolar people (or someone labeled bipolar) will automatically hurt animals or otherwise be violent.

I said I wouldn't trust a true mentally ill person with a gun, regardless of their DSM diagnosis. Stop being so sensitive.

 

What was wrong with his statements, Fairlight?

 

I am diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia,even though I am highly functional and display very few symptoms.I agree with Deviate that a lot of these labels are bullshit,but yet somehow feel it necessary to articulate that most of us do not display unnecessary violence.In fact I am somewhat of a control freak when it comes to my anger,but of course can't answer for others.When it comes to isolated incidents of extreme violence most perpetrators are at that time sociopathic,regardless of whether they have a prior history of mental illness or not.

 

Be upset with it. It's worth being upset over. It's the sad truth that we all struggle with.

Its good that you commented and pointed out the icarus project because it raises awareness for those in need and those who would like to support it.

 

Right. The majority of people with Schizophrenia are not violent.

But some are:

"Overall, the amount of violence committed by people with schizophrenia is small, and only 1 percent of the U.S. population has schizophrenia. Of the 1,140 participants in this analysis, 80.9 percent reported no violence, while 3.6 percent reported engaging in serious violence in the past six months. Serious violence was defined as assault resulting in injury, use of a lethal weapon, or sexual assault. During the same period, 15.5 percent of participants reported engaging in minor violence, such as simple assault without injury or weapon. By comparison, about 2 percent of the general population without psychiatric disorder engages in any violent behavior in a one-year period."

(http://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2006/new-factors-identified-for-predicting-violence-in-schizophrenia.shtml)

Take those results with a grain of salt, obviously.

 

When I look at the world I think most people are mentally ill. Our whole western upbringing is fashioned towards raising mentally ill slaves.

 

Word.

 

Not that I don't somewhat agree with you, but that is such a blanket generalization.

What do you advocate? Going back to pre-industrialization? Living in huts and caves and killing each and every meal?

 

I don't advocate anything really. I just observe.

 

So in other words, no solutions just a debbie downer. That's awesome :cheers2:

 

Exactly. I don't pretend to be able to change the whole world anymore. So I just change mine.

 

That's actually a fair statement. When you look at it honestly, there are no words to fix anything. Things are fucked up and nothing any one of us as individuals can do will substantially change anything over the long run. I'm not saying we shouldn't try but....something bigger than an individual needs to change.

 

I was just messing with bird more than anything. I'm at the point I don't give a shit what is going on in the world. I love what I do and if that makes me a postmodern slave, oh well I don't care. I agree it's all about changing your own world and the people close to you that you can have a positive impact on.

 

i'm pretty much with you there. i have a psych degree too, and pretty much all i really got out of it was the realization that most mainstream psychology is a giant load of shit.

 

So, I guess this thread is the wrong place for a rant on Adam Lanza

 

he was a patsie