Okay, I'm starting to get irritated with the way people blame mental illness for crime

[skygazer]

It seems almost automatic - in the threads about that wrestler who killed his family, it's been suggested that maybe he's bi-polar. That's the one I see a lot lately - someone commits a crime and they "must" be bi-polar. As a bi-polar, that bugs me. The only person I've ever been a danger to is myself and I think that's the case with most bp's.

It just continues to put a stigma on people who have enough misinformation about them out there and enough crap to deal with just getting through their lives.

[Random_Australian]

1. Yes, that and pretending people like them couldn't ever do nasty things.

Hey, perhaps * is a sociopath, but it seems to me like normal people turn into complete bastards under the right circumstances, and people never want to admit that so they almost automatically label people who do something bad as having some kind of mental illness.

[EFerrari]

2. It is the case with most folks with Bi-Polar and with most folks

dealing with mental health stuff. NAMI has a great stats page on their site on this and related concerns. I can't seem to find it right now (there's A LOT of good stuff at their site) but the stat I remember is that people dealing with mental health issues are 10X more likely to be crime victims than crime perpetrators.

I used it in my book somewhere. If I can find a copy, I'll post the info here. :hi:

[varkam]

3. That stat rings a bell for me.

And I do think that, as RA pointed out, people use the mental health issue as a wedge to drive between themselves and the "evil-doers", as they could never be capable of commiting whatever heinous activity is being referenced. I think that the reasonable among us recognize that for what it is - BS.

[hedgehog]

4. A lot of people tried to excuse Al Gore III's arrest this week on the

possible grounds that he is depressed or somehow traumatized by his car accident as a kid. My reaction is that depression is a diagnosis, not an excuse. Self medicating is one thing, but self medicating while driving a car 100mph is another. Someone in that kid's position has access to assistance a lot of people can only dream about. If mental health is an issue here, there is no excuse for self treatment.

[EFerrari]

5. Possible explanations and excuses seem to me to be different things.

If I'm behind the while, I'm responsible.

At the same time, I may be self medicating because depression can give you tunnel vision and make you overlook resources at your disposal.

They don't cancel each other out in any way, imho.

[davidthegnome]

6. Right on, Skygazer, great post

I've been thinking (and saying) the same thing for a long time now on numerous forums. Not just the stigma and all of that... but, in so many cases, when they imply that this person did this or that due to a specific mental illness... they are giving insult to those with the same illness who have not harmed anyone.

I don't think I'm bi-polar myself, though my (former) psychiatrist might have disagreed with me. But my experiences have definitely shown me that, as with everything else in life, people come in all shapes and sizes. The illness alone (IMHO) does not inherently make one have violent tendencies of harming others. In my experience, it is normally those who go untreated that end up getting to such a point as well.

I guess it's ultimately all about education, and it is very sad that lots of people have to learn the hard way. It is also very sad that people automatically assume mental illness is the cause of any number of crimes.


Ok, done ranting for the moment


Dave

[Larissa238]

7. They probably say bipolar due to lack of knowledge.

Most people think of depression as a minor thing if they don't have it. For them, the only real mental illnesses they know are bipolar and schizophrenia. So when someone wants to say that someone is mentally ill, they use one of those two labels. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone say "Hey, that person looks like they have schizoid personality disorder"? So, in that, they take the two labels they know, and use that. If someone is acting weird, they are schizophrenic. If someone has mood swings, then they are bipolar. Of course, the ones of us who actually know what that means gets annoyed, but until people learn what bipolar and schizophrenia are, to start, and then what the other disorders are, then they are going to keep assuming.

Besides, a lot of these people want to feel like they know something, so they throw around medical terms that sound like they could be associated with what happened. (like, saying Benoit had "roid rage" when what he did was very deliberate and does not seem like an act of rage, but he did do steroids, so it must be roid rage, since that's the only thing they know to associated it with so it must be right.)