This week in class I was asked about violence associated with mental illness. People diagnosed with a mental illness are much more likely to be victims of homicide than perpetrators. This article reinforces this:
Mentally ill people are not killers. Angry people are.
Very interesting article. Made me really think!!! I think that anger management skills are an important skill to have and needs to be more recognized among society. Anger is a real issue among us that needs to be focused on instead of using people with mental illness that have committed violent crimes (rare cases) as the scapegoat and treating the underlying cause. People with mental illness have that stigma of being violent especially from the media that portray this image to society. Peoples lack of understanding only ever hearing bad things contributes to the "stigma". People are afraid of the unknown and need to be better educated.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article. It sucks how the media can portray mentally ill people as murderers or killers. As Rachael said, people need to be educated and this article shows that its the "normal" people that are killers.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article. Anger is such a strong emotion little wonder people can commit violent monstrosities when they lose control. As Rachel said, when you don't know much about something, and you feel it threatens you because its abnormal, you fear it. Better education is the only thing that will shift this stigma that is sometimes attached to mental health patients by the general public. An angry person is so much more scary to me...anger can cause people to do anything and everything..
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to note that substance abuse such as alcohol and drugs can fuel violence, I think we are all aware of this, but also coming from a violent up bringing can only bring about mental health issues such as depression and even suicidal tendencies as they don't no any better and feel helpless, a vicious cycle really.
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