Are The Mentally Ill An Easy Target Now?

First, how mental illness has affected my family. Both of my parents suffered from some form of depression. My father, specifically, was bipolar. And although we had to involuntarily hospitalize him once (a very hard thing for any family to do, BTW), he was never violent.

That last item actually brings up a good point. Most mentally ill are NOT violent! But it is easy for politicians to cater to people's irrational fear.

Gun control is never going to happen, politically now at least. But focusing unfairly on the mentally ill, making it easy to take away their rights in other words, is an easy thing to do politically. I know every time someone bring up the topic, they are met with thunderous applause. The mentally ill are very vulnerable, politically now.

And it goes even deeper than that, in our society. The mentally ill are the only handicap minority you can discriminate against freely. And I read something interesting on the internet that stuck with me. They are also the only mental handicap you can laugh at! Think about it. Crazy cat ladies, bag ladies, crazies who run thru parks naked as a jay bird. Those things are all funny in our culture. We would never, say, laugh at a mentally retarded person, even if it were funny.

Oh, and BTW, here are a couple of sites you might find interesting: http://promoteacceptance.samhsa.gov/publications/facts.aspx?printid=1 and http://www2.nami.org/Template.cfm?section=Mind_of_America_Foundation

I think the mentally ill are going to be a very vulnerable target politically now. What do the rest of you think?

 

Oh scapegoating is so much easier than actually dealing with questions like – do we need gun control or does our society have a race relations problem?

 

Absolutely. I have seen lots of discrimination about the mentally ill.

My boyfriend is bipolar and he lost a job last year during a particularly bad mania because he was too scared to let his coworkers know what was going on with him. He works in kitchens where they can be very hard on you if you aren't performing well, no excuses. He was clearly not acting like himself though. Mania isn't something you can hide, but instead of talking to him about anything they fired him.

I actually think the atmosphere in kitchens is particularly bad towards mental illness. I see a lot of people drinking at the end of every shift instead of seeking help for their mental health problems.

And we have had to hospitalized my boyfriend before to, but he was also never, ever violent.

 

Very little compassion, generally speaking, for those that can't "compete," except from their loved ones. Easy to dispose of them and move on , as Reagan did in California.

Very disquieting knowing that a certain % of the mentally ill are not being taken care of and are among us living in their own private misery. Some snap and do harm to others and the resultant conversations immediately turn to gun rights, but never some type of program to identify those for whom help is needed.

It has been said, to judge a society by the way it treats the least of its citizens will tell you much about that society. This is a very telling statement and I would include the horrible treatment of animals into the equation. Not all--but millions of them.


To add: I have given short shrift to those myriad social workers that REALLY do care about those they serve and attempt to help. They have limited resources I suppose, like many other areas of societal/governmentally driven problems.

 

Society is lazy and taxpayers are cheap, which basically equates to no funding for the mentally ill and improper help for those who can afford it - throwing pills at people to make them even crazier instead of really trying to treat the illness.

 

Well unusually only when a gun is used and it’s asked why someone such as that was able to own a gun.

Thing is that many right wing Americans seem opposed to ‘socialists’ universal healthcare which would be the best way of screening and assisting those with mental health problems. And these same people seem to be the most vocal about protecting gun rights.

 

Our mentally afflicted have always been easy targets, everywhere on Earth and down through the ages.

It is the mentally afflicted who are presented with body-bombs and then sent out to detonate themselves in crowded places.

Let us expose the handlers and manipulators of suicide bombers for the creeps they are.

 

Immersion in a "grievance culture" is no place for the mentally unstable.

I knew a US born Irishman, a Jersey Guy, who traveled to Ulster to join in The Troubles in Derry.

a disaster.