I just saw something terrible in the news and part of the dialogue was to blame mental illness as the problem. I used to get offended as a person with schizophrenia and depression when I saw this on TV or other news sources. What do you think/feel about this topic?
just more stigma in the media…it will never stop as long as there’s that one out of a million sz’s that would end up killing someone other than themselves. it is a proven statistic that you have a better chance being killed by lightning than getting killed by a schizophrenic.
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I get offended. Most of the serious crimes committed here in my state are as a result of drug induced psychosis, yet it is always reported in the news as “the offender was suffering a mental episode”. No mention is ever made of the fact that the offender was under the influence of illicit drugs at the time.
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no, I don’t feel offended… I often call people “crazy” too which is kind of ironic.
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This is a double edged sword for me. I dont feel like people should use their mental illness to excuse behaviors they make no attempt to change. But on the other hand I know that people with mental illness sometimes do things when they are unwell that they wouldn’t normally do.
It’s a proven fact people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violent crime than to commit it. But I’ve seen court cases where individuals were found not guilty by reason of insanity. But as long as they keep up with their treatment/meds it wouldn’t happen again.
I do think the media likes to falsely make claims that a person is mentally ill when there’s no proof yet they were. Or they were under the influence of drugs as mentioned above. I wish there was more education that people with mental illness aren’t usually violent offenders.
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Yeah because it’s not true and despite not being out about my mental illness it effects how people treat me 
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I have never heard anyone say that mental illness is to blame for all the murders and wars. I do think people are ignorant about the subject of MI though. I try not to be thin-skinned and let what people say affect me too much, though. A person can go crazy getting bent out of shape over things like that.
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Thank you all for responding. I used to really get bent out of shape myself when people insinuated or outright claimed that the mentally ill are the problem with everything. I have since realized through treatment that just because you suffer from a phenomeno of thought not found in the majority that doesn’t put any arbritrary holds on anything good in this life from you.
When I was at my worst I really was a potential threat to others so I can’t say much other than I hope the meds that help me continue to be made. I will have to say though that I doubt that mental illness is to blame every time something like that happens because some soldiers do terrible things on the battlefield and then become pillars of the community when they come home.
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