Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The Guardian: Claims about Andreas Lubitz's mental health only serve to stigmatise depression
Friday 27 March 2015 11.38 GMT
The media is today reporting that Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may have been dealing with depression. But claiming a causal link between mental illness and the crash only serves to further stigmatise depression
Whenever a major disaster occurs, it’s a perfectly understandable human reaction that we need to find a reason behind it. However, trying to make sense of a terrible situation is one thing, and falling over ourselves to jump to ridiculous conclusions is quite another. And quite frankly, the UK press should be downright ashamed of themselves today. The way in which they’ve covered the news that Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz may have had depression is abhorrent.
“Madman in cockpit” was the Sun’s effort. “Why on Earth was he allowed to fly?” asked the Daily Mail. In case you’re wondering what the link that’s trying to be made is, the Daily Mirror is here to help: “Killer pilot suffered from depression”. It’s difficult to know where to start with such breathless ignorance about mental health issues, but I’ll give it a go anyway. Again.
We’ll likely never know Lubitz’s state of mind while he was in flight
The crash investigation is still in a very early stage, which means that a lot of information being thrown around about what actually happened is pure conjecture. At any rate, we’ll probably never know what was actually going on in the cockpit, because no one survived the crash. It is therefore irresponsible to make any claims that Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane because of reason X or Y. It’s even more irresponsible to try and link the crash to Lubitz’s mental health. The fact is, we don’t know.
Depression does not make you want to kill people
I can’t believe I’m having to write this. “Why on Earth was he allowed to fly?”, Daily Mail? Because there’s no reason to suggest that people with depression – and again, we don’t know if Lubitz actually had depression at the time – are a risk for the wider population. More generally, it’s the other way around. A study in the Lancet Psychiatry last year found that people with mental illness in the UK were more likely to be victims of murder than people in the general population.
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/mar/27/andreas-lubitzs-germanwings-crash-mental-health-stigma-depression
The media is today reporting that Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may have been dealing with depression. But claiming a causal link between mental illness and the crash only serves to further stigmatise depression
Whenever a major disaster occurs, it’s a perfectly understandable human reaction that we need to find a reason behind it. However, trying to make sense of a terrible situation is one thing, and falling over ourselves to jump to ridiculous conclusions is quite another. And quite frankly, the UK press should be downright ashamed of themselves today. The way in which they’ve covered the news that Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz may have had depression is abhorrent.
“Madman in cockpit” was the Sun’s effort. “Why on Earth was he allowed to fly?” asked the Daily Mail. In case you’re wondering what the link that’s trying to be made is, the Daily Mirror is here to help: “Killer pilot suffered from depression”. It’s difficult to know where to start with such breathless ignorance about mental health issues, but I’ll give it a go anyway. Again.
We’ll likely never know Lubitz’s state of mind while he was in flight
The crash investigation is still in a very early stage, which means that a lot of information being thrown around about what actually happened is pure conjecture. At any rate, we’ll probably never know what was actually going on in the cockpit, because no one survived the crash. It is therefore irresponsible to make any claims that Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane because of reason X or Y. It’s even more irresponsible to try and link the crash to Lubitz’s mental health. The fact is, we don’t know.
Depression does not make you want to kill people
I can’t believe I’m having to write this. “Why on Earth was he allowed to fly?”, Daily Mail? Because there’s no reason to suggest that people with depression – and again, we don’t know if Lubitz actually had depression at the time – are a risk for the wider population. More generally, it’s the other way around. A study in the Lancet Psychiatry last year found that people with mental illness in the UK were more likely to be victims of murder than people in the general population.
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/mar/27/andreas-lubitzs-germanwings-crash-mental-health-stigma-depression
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
