#Also: There's no such thing as a destigmatized mental illness. Some are less stigmatized than others but none are completely destigmatized.

[justaratswriting]

Batfam and Mental Health

orOkay so I love Batman and all the things surrounding it. Like the idea of a random rich man who happens to be an orphan just suddenly adopting a ton of children is ridiculous, and thoroughly entertaining.

But I am also a big fan of psychology, and learning about the mind. So mental illness and related things are fascinating to me. 

I notice that like strangely there is very little stuff about the batfam having mental illnesses or dealing with psychology or therapy. Don’t get me wrong there is still a lot addressing these things, but still with the things the family experiences you would think it would be a lot more prevalent in the writing about them, and especially fan fiction about them.

Like I think showing mental health through  beloved characters would be really cool and could be a tool to destigmatize them. Like showing hero's with them would make really great representation, people could see them and think Oh I can still be a good person and helpful even if my mental disorder makes it hard and for things like depression or ADHD showing which misconceptions are harmful and don’t work. 

I can also see this in the physical aspect, like I wish a hero would have something like chronic pain or one of the many invisible illnesses. To give representation and show how pushing through the pain can shut a person down for days. 

The specific disorders I think would be really interesting of the top of my head is, depression, Anxiety, POTS, Fibromyalgia, Chronic pain, eating disorders, nerve damage, ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, Chronic fatigue, PTSD, c-PTSD, Autism, Elhers Danlos syndrome, And the one I really think would be interesting DID. 

Like fore depression, showing how hard it is to get out of bed. Not showing constantly being sad but showing how it can be numbing. Acknowledging that in a disorder like this logic doesn’t always win even if you are the most logical person to live. 

For anxiety showing how debilitating it can be. Looking into their minds to show the thought process, the mind fight itself and logic. Knowing their fears are unreasonable but not being able to shake the feeling. Show how for different people different things cause anxiety. 

POTS or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, (super simply put it is a circulation disorder where upon standing up blood rushes to extremities and can cause all sorts of problems like fainting, pain in your feet, Dizziness, poor temperature regulation, etc. Also I am assuming people know what depression and anxiety is.) would be fascinating to me. Like having a hero that is constantly sitting down or biting down and pushing through the pain even a hero that has to slowly stand up. So in the middle of a battle being shoved down having to slowly stand up or risk fainting or vision completely blacking out for a while. Showing a hero who has learned to fight with no sight because of that very thing. 

Or Fibromyalgia (This one I am a little less educated about but from what I understand, it is a disorder characterized by muscle pain and tenderness usually with no known cause, so from what I understand it usually is diagnosed after a ton of other disorders are eliminated and the pain is still occurring, often also has affect on sleep and memory/mood.) Like showing a hero having a particularly hard patrol and having to take a couple days off and constantly going places or trying things to help with the pain. 

Or Chronic pain ( from what I understand the main difference between Fibromyalgia and Chronic pain is chronic pain has to do with the nerves and Fibromyalgia has to do with muscles, also Fibromyalgia has other thins to go with it like energy levels and mental functions so memory/mood.) Like a hero having constant pain even if they didn’t have a big fight, maybe showing them icing, heating, or taking pain meds and the rest of the family or team being super confused as to why. Before they know showing them freak out and worry that they went on a mission without telling anyone. Showing how it is a constant battle, that sometimes treatments will work and other times, for seemingly no reason they won’t. 

I would also like to see eating disorders portrayed by the bat family. Showing how it’s not always a conscious choice, sometimes it is more along the lines of choosing something else over eating. Showing how people can use it for control or to punish themselves. Letting there be a male example, reminding people that they can happen to anyone. Allowing people to have representation. Show a recovery, how it is not impossible for anyone but not down playing how hard it is. It is a true and hard fight, and show how it can sneak up on you and drag you back. Not just one easy recovery, that recovery is a choice. You have to want it but you also need help, it is a long hard process and accessibility is everything. Show a family member making them food, show them sometimes eating it and others not. Also don’t only show under eating show how people can’t stop themselves from eating. Having cabinets locked to keep people out, for their own safety. 

Or nerve damage, showing how years of their work and fighting can really mess someone up. Show someone suddenly losing all feeling or sensation in certain parts of their body or constant pain or even pinched nerves. Show how confusing it can be to not know what you are feeling. Show how weird it can be when you realize you are fine or that nothing is touching you or taking it in the opposite direction and not realizing you are hurt or someone is trying to be your attention. I would also love to see the batfam explain any of these injuries to the hero community or to the public. Maybe show the hero community really starting to look into mental and general health services. 

ADHD or also ADD, showing how people can use it but also showing how hard it can be to control and fight. How much it can impede focusing and show situations it can put people in. Show a hero forgetting a huge part of their plan and falling but because of some random information from a hyper focus they still save the day. 

Bipolar, showing the wild swings and how confusing it can be. Feeling like a different person, struggling with identity and their own decisions. Show them accidently pushing people away but also how hard they work to maintain family and friends that despite how unpredictable they can be their friends still stick around. Or if their friends can’t handle it show them peacefully and respectfully stepping out of their life. Show how hard that can be to except but that the future can end up better than you could ever hope. 

OCD is really one I wish we saw in the hero's. Show their routines and things they do. Show the thought process, like if I don’t properly put the dishes away in fourteen seconds the joker will escape arkham. Show how terrifying the thoughts can be, but show how detail oriented it can make people and the beautiful art and amazing work that they can do. Show a person putting them selves at risk to comply with their routine. Like ignoring injuries to write a report. Show them and family or friends working to change the routine. Show how hard it is the moments they want to turn back and continue and how much they want to stop but show them not giving up and making the differences they want. Show them accomplishing things, show their compulsions actually keeping them safe.

Or even chronic fatigue, Show the fight each morning. Them saving energy, the disconnect between how exhausted you are mentally vs. physically. Show a hero that 50% of the time physically is too exhausted to be in the field so they offer technical support. Show a hero crashing, suddenly just not having enough energy to finish patrol or even get home. So someone has to come pick them up. Show them getting stuck in a fight and how hard it can be to do anything much less a fight. 

Let the characters have PTSD or c-PTSD, show flashbacks and being stuck in your head. All of the bat family has lived through horrors please show it affecting them. Show how they get help how they work through it show what can happen and how bad it can get if it is unaddressed.  

Show them having autism and how it is just a different way of life that there is nothing inherently wrong with it and how the ignorance that surrounds it and similar disorders can hurt and affect people. Show how it can be simple things that can show it or affect it. Try and look at it from their perspective and what things happen that should not just because they way someone is. 

Elhers Danlos syndrome, show the pain, the misdiagnosis, the process, the fight. Show how disabilities like this and several others including ones I have mentioned can cause a person to need medical equipment such as wheelchairs and braces. Show how not everyone using a wheelchair can’t walk. Show how limiting it can be and the precautions you have to take but don’t make everything about how hard it can be. Show how using a Wheelchair while not ideal can open up so many opportunities. Show them actually being able to go on family vacations and amusement parks because they have a wheelchair. Show how important it is to have ramps and accommodations for similar things so people can participate and so people can actually go places they want. Always show how hard people with disabilities and such work. Show them trying to get treatment and trying new treatments show how it isn’t as simple as getting a knee brace or two. 

And finally coming to one that absolutely fascinates me, DID or Dissociative Identity Disorder formerly known as multiple personality disorder. But don’t do this one completely uneducated, it is already a very stigmatized disorder. Show how Alters communicate. Show how they all work together and that they were made so the body and mind could survive. Make full characters just put them in one body. Show the confusion once they find out, show them slowly realizing and learning signs and what happened to them. Show each of the Alters having different friends and maybe understanding and knowing the family different. Show the different reasons and setups systems can have. Show system responsibility and each Alter working on themselves and to make a life for the system. Show the roles Alters will take. Show the horrible process of fragmenting and what things can cause it but also show healing and people supporting and accepting systems. 

Overall showing good parts of all the struggles people can have but not ignoring how hard they can be or glorifying them to people who don’t understand. Showing misconceptions and how support can affect these disorders. And most important in my mind, giving hope and a future to look forward to for the people with these disorders.

#batman #chronic illness #mental health #batfam headcanons #batboys #bat bois #batfam

[jessica--white]

the spiral of toilet water

I read this article about bulimia once. Poor people, it really makes you sick, doesn’t it?

The lazy anorexic, the nom and vom, the supposed ‘eating disorder’.

It’s bulimia my friends, the eating disorder nobody wants to have. Anorexia on the other hand… jeez she’s in high demand from unhappy women, second only to love.

Bulimia and its stigmatized association has almost a comedic theme to it. I know I’m adding this comedic aspect to the whole situation; it’s a coping mechanism! I swear!

Humour me though, it’s not like you can say your eating disorder is about ‘control’ when that is exactly what you’re lacking.

As I write this, I feel as if everybody will understand what I’m trying to say. In reality, barely anybody will. Rather than an eye-opening piece of writing that will make the reader feel and recount back to thatrough time in their life, I’m just going to get a bit of awkwardness, and the rare sympathetic thought. Anyways, for those who don’t understand bulimia, so virtually everybody (including myself); binging and purging is mandatory, whether it is via exercise, vomiting or laxatives. I, personally, don’t have experience with laxatives. That shit’s not for me.

On a more serious note, it’s a compulsion where extremities of control are present.

Whatever serious note I just added to that was probably in one ear & out the other, or in a bulimics case, in one hole, out the same 20 minutes later. I guess it also could be out the other if you’re into that laxative thing… like I said before, not my cup of alpine tea.

This isn’t supposed to be some year 7 research assignment where the basics are stated, but here I am googling bulimia like I haven’t had first-hand experience for the past 6 years. I’m often introduced to this girl, Bulimia is her name, Mia for short. She is usually accompanied by a cliché dictionary definition. “Bulimia is an emotional disorder characterized by a distorted body image and an obsessive desire to lose weight, in which bouts of extreme overeating are followed by fasting or self-induced vomiting or purging.” But, I’m a cliché kinda gal, so I dig that for her. I’m the stereotype of an eating disorder. Female. Teenager. Divorced parents. Unhealthy upbringing. You know, all the cool stuff. Mia is thin sometimes, but on other days she resembles a heifer. Sometimes, she is determined, other times she seems dull and lost. It’s as if she needs to make up her mind, does she want to be thin, or massive? She definitelydoesn’t mind when she’s shovelling food down her throat, but, must do when it’s coming back up in the toilet bowl. Literal money down the drain…

This was how I saw her when she was drowning me. She was a person that I didn’t want to disappoint. Was she my mother, who wanted me to excel in sports rather than academics? Was she my father, who didn’t want a ‘fat’ daughter? Or was she my school, who thrived off appearances? To this day, I’m still unsure who it was that influenced the personification of ‘Mia’, but they weren’t kind.

If bulimia had a positive, you could say its lack of ability to be romanticized. For some reason, I don’t think that idealizing the vomit smell on her breath and marks on her knuckles compares to protruding hip bones and pale, delicate skin.

Clearly, none of those things should be romanticized, but this world is a sick place, I could add another pun here, but after a while of joking about bulimia, it gets a bit sad. Talk of mental illness or trauma induces this ‘sad’, awkward and uncomfortable reaction from folks on the receiving end of the speech. So, how are we able to stop the shame? As much as I preach to ‘stop the stigma’, I’m realizing what a hard task it’ll be. I could start the mission for destigmatization of mental illness with this terrible piece of writing; but the humour won’t be funny to an audience. Well, it may be funny… but then there is a sense of mockery! Mocking us bulimics?! I mean, fair, but still. If there was another tactic to destigmatize mental illness; It would be to talk about it. Again, people on the receiving end of this ‘mission’ can’t exactly say or do anything if they haven’t had first-hand experience! Agreement or ‘understanding’ without known background diminishes the purpose, hence why that approach won’t work. If you’re in to romanticize the perfect outlook for this ‘mission’ a little more, lack of agreement comes hand in hand with a lack of concern. The ideal lose-lose situation!

So, is it more funding we need? More publication? Less association? More talk? Less categorization? More, or Less?

Or, is it a magic skinny pill?

Mia tells me it’s probably the last option.

#bulimia #Jessica--white #ed #shittywriting

[btvs]

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Diagnosis

I wrote this essay as a final for my University Seminar writing class. I thought I would share it since a good amount of my followers watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, have BPD, or would be interested in the topics. I discuss the representation of BPD in television and how the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is able to portray a borderline character while destigmatizing the disorder. It’s under a read more because I have no other way of posting it. Feel free to reblog/share!

Mental illness is misrepresented in the media, especially personality disorders, which are so stigmatized that they are mostly shown as villainous. Personality disorders are actually fairly common, but a lot of people do not know that because they only have an image of a movie villain in their mind when they think of a personality disorder. A lot of neurotypical people are starting to understand depression and anxiety through the media, but the media still has a lot to work on when portraying more complex disorders, for example, Borderline Personality Disorder. Simplified, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a disorder characterized by unstable emotions and relationships.

Multiple movies and television shows have portrayed characters with BPD, but do not always directly state their disorder. One television show with a diagnosed borderline character is The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The main character, Rebecca Bunch, acts in ways that are extreme, but are also relatable to people without BPD. In one scene of the show, Rebecca’s therapist lists off the BPD symptoms to her: severe mood swings, profound fear of abandonment, instability in relationships, unstable sense of identity, paranoia or dissociative episodes, excessive and frequent anger, feelings of emptiness, impulsive behavior, and recurring suicide threats or attempts - all previously shown throughout the show. Does Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s portrayal of Borderline Personality Disorder help reduce stigma and promote awareness in the media?

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a television show that helps destigmatize BPD. People can relate to and sympathize with Rebecca before they know about her diagnosis. Since she gets diagnosed so late into the show, people already are familiar with her character and like her. That way the viewer will learn and understand what it is like to live with BPD and not judge after she gets diagnosed. It also makes the disorder seem less abstract and different. A lot of the things Rebecca goes through are common experiences that many people can relate to (THR, 2018).

Despite the misleading title, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend deconstructs the sexist term and expands on many real life topics. One of the main topics of the show is mental illness. The media has a problem of portraying mental illness negatively, which highly impacts viewers’ opinions about mental health. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s portrayal of BPD is extremely important and a huge step to improving the media’s portrayal of mental illness. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a positive, destigmatized representation of BPD, because it helps people with BPD, people who do not know a lot about BPD, and people who have the wrong idea about BPD.

A label of a mental illness can be both beneficial and unhelpful for the person who is diagnosed. The author of “A diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. who am I? who could I have been? who can I become?” writes that they have been on a path of survival rather than living since they did not have the support they needed. Although there are a lot of questions that come with a BPD diagnosis, it is good to stay hopeful (H, 2018). The question of if the label is helpful or not is irrelevant when discussing representation in the media. People want to see characters who deal with the same things they deal with, whether it is a “good” or a “bad” thing. This relates to the stigma of mental illness in television and the media in general. There are more efforts being made to reduce stigma recently in the media, and the best thing to do is stay optimistic (Robbins, 2015). Crazy Ex-Girlfriend helps people with Borderline Personality Disorder realize that they are not alone, and their disorder does not make them inherently bad.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is helpful to people who have BPD. Seeing representation of one’s own mental illness portrayed well in the media is validating, because it helps that person know that they are not alone. In the case of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s portrayal, the character with BPD is still seen as human. It is also good for people with BPD to relate to a character and see their own experiences in that character, even if the character is not one that people should look up to or aspire to be. It is especially important to also see a character get help with their illness.

Another viewpoint that the media can contribute to is recovery from mental illness. According to the article, “Staff perceptions of borderline personality disorder and recovery,” there was a study of different recovery types and which ones therapists think work best. The two types discussed are therapy directed at BPD-specific behaviors and therapy for general wellbeing. The findings of the study noted that different patients had different needs, even with the same disorder (Dean, Siddiqui, Beesley, Fox, Berry, 2018). The media is essential to this point because by showing many portrayals of BPD, viewers can learn that mental illness takes different forms and people with the same disorder can show different symptoms. In that study, the sample of people working with BPD patients was not broad enough, although there were a number of diverse opinions. Generally, the population believed that social functioning was not a necessary aspect of recovery, for example, a patient with BPD could be technically recovered despite being impaired in work and/or school. However, showing success in those areas does not indicate that the person is not suffering from a mental disorder. Rebecca from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is an extremely successful lawyer, but has severe issues with relationships, especially romantic relationships. Showing recovery in television is also important, because people need to know there is hope and a solution to suffering from a disorder. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has multiple episodes showing Rebecca at therapy and learning new skills to help her recover. In other television series, many characters’ mental illness goes away within a few episodes of their diagnosis (Gillespie, 2018). People suffering from BPD can watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and relate to the recovery process since their disorder is more persistent than other forms of media make it out to be.

A character’s personality and mental health diagnosis can change the way that a viewer feels about the character. In Villarreal’s peer-reviewed article “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creators weigh in on the exploration of Rebecca’s mental health”, the creators discuss how mental health in regards to romantic relationships in television is ignored and viewers, without thinking, will forgive toxic characters more easily if they are in love. It was extremely important to give this character a diagnosis to understand some of her unhealthy behaviors. This will result in viewers without BPD becoming less attached to her, as well as understanding relationships in a different way. Although this interview mentions that the point of the show’s diagnosis is to make viewers less attached, it is not meant to scare people away (Villarreal, 2017). The creators of the show want people to realize that mental illness is not an excuse. This is different from many sources of media, which make mental illness seem like an excuse for the characters’ unhealthy behaviors. By showing that mental illness is not an excuse for an action, people without BPD can understand that it is not just a cause of a mistake that happens once.

Although Rebecca has been manipulative and made some terrible choices throughout the whole show, she is portrayed as a person and not just her illness. The show has combated the stereotype that mentally ill people are abusive. Rebecca has not been a completely good person, but nobody really is a good person, and that is the point of the show. Her illness did not make her do those bad things; she did them. She admits during the last episode of the third season that she is not her disorder, and she is not insane. She takes full responsibility for her actions after two and a half seasons of thinking she did nothing wrong.

Characters in other television shows or movies who have BPD are usually undiagnosed and are the villain of the show. This is not a good example for people watching who have never heard of BPD because then they will associate those symptoms and behaviors with those villain characters. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend may be the first portrayal of BPD in the media that does not assume the character as the villain or an abusive person. Rebecca is definitely an anti-hero, but she usually has good intentions in her eyes. By putting Rebecca’s actions in context and thinking about it from her perspective, it is clear that the show does not add to the stigma, it in fact makes it understandable why Rebecca would do some of the things she has done (Vicky, 2018). Rebecca helps people understand what it’s really like to have BPD, and that humans make mistakes, even though mental illness is still not an excuse.

In the article “does television influence adolescents’ perceptions of and attitudes toward people with mental illness?”, the authors address the stigma around mental illness shown in television and see how people view mental illness from watching television. They think that these television shows will cause people to have a certain opinion. This is because viewing television causes people to subconsciously change their opinion because of the direct experience, especially if they do not have personal experiences with mental illness (Minnebo & Van Acker, 2004). This could just be a correlation, but knowing that a lot of people get other opinions from television and the media, this is a logical hypothesis. The way that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend addresses mental illness is easy for viewers to understand, since the character does not even know what BPD is until she gets diagnosed with it in season three.

Although some of these sources address different views of characters with a mental health condition - Villarreal’s interview addressing how people forgive the mentally ill character and Minnebo and Van Acker’s article addressing the stigma against mentally ill characters - both believe that the media needs to strive towards a middle point. People should be able to have a neutral opinion towards these characters, the character’s disorder should not excuse their actions, and the television show or movie should not portray the disorder in a negative light. This will destigmatize mental illness by combating stereotypes that already exist in the media. Reviews of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend made the point that the show already does a good job with portraying BPD. The co-creators of the show believe that it is important that people do not connect with Rebecca, which although it seems like it would not help people without BPD understand the disorder, their point makes sense considering that a lot of Rebecca’s actions are bad. In a later interview, co-creator Rachel Bloom discussed how people should be able to relate to Rebecca enough to understand her, but still be able to see how extreme her actions are (THR, 2018). Bloom may be contradicting herself, but the show’s message is very complex and multidimensional. Overall, these sources are positive towards the representation of BPD in the media and in general. Most sources are pro-recovery, meaning that although a person or character may have BPD, they should be encouraged to recover from unhealthy patterns of behavior.

Hopefully, by watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, people will understand the importance of recovery, mental health representation, and stigma in media as well as understand Borderline Personality Disorder in a more objective way. The more people watch the show, the more likely it is that someone will be inspired to make a show or movie with a borderline character. The more representation people see, the more likely they are to understand their friends and peers. Representation in one show or movie can make a huge difference to the media and society as a whole.

References

Dean, R., Siddiqui, S., Beesley, F., Fox, J., & Berry, K. (2018). Staff perceptions of borderline personality disorder and recovery: A q‐sort method approach. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12180

Gillespie, C. (2018 February 15). ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Succeeds in Portraying Mental Illness Where So Many Other TV Shows Have Failed [Article]. Retrieved from https://www.self.com/story/crazy-ex-girlfriend-portraying-mental-illness

H, G. (2018). A diagnosis of "borderline personality disorder" who am I? who could I have been? who can I become? Psychosis, 10(1), 70-75. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17522439.2018.1431691

Minnebo, J., & Van Acker, A. (2004). Does television influence adolescents' perceptions of and attitudes toward people with mental illness? Journal of Community Psychology, 32(3), 257-275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20001

Robbins, A. E. (2015). A role for media in reducing the stigma of mental illness (Order No. 3700920). Available from ProQuest Central. (1680594008). Retrieved from https://login.glacier.sou.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1680594008?accountid=26242

T. (2018, June 04). Rachel Bloom Teases 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's' Final Season | In Studio With THR. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUCBy1gz6UQ

V. (2018 April 29). Why Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s ‘Nathaniel is Irrelevant’ Was Incredibly Important in Relation to BPD [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://figuringmeout.co.uk/cxg-2

Villarreal, Y. (2017). 'Crazy ex-girlfriend' creators weigh in on the exploration of Rebecca's mental health. https://search.proquest.com/docview/1974584894/AF58C64E17A94028PQ/2?accountid=26242

#crazy ex girlfriend #bpd #borderline personality disorder #mental illness #cxg #m #ok to reblog #writing

[psychotherapyconsultants]

The New Scapegoat for Gun Violence: Mental Illness

Our President and others have latched onto the idea that mental illness — not guns — is to blame for the gun violence plaguing our country. Labeling mental illness as the cause of gun violence grossly oversimplifies a grossly complex problem. But we like tying things up neatly. We want to quickly and easily understand who’s to blame, so pointing a finger at the mentally ill makes that easy for us.

This toxic, misplaced blame perpetuates the chronic discrimination we as a society still possess for the mentally ill, who represent a large population of Americans and who, with the same rare exception found in virtually every demographic category, occasionally behave in a violent manner. It’s ironic that we, as a nation that largely ignores, delegitimizes and under-funds mental illness, suddenly draw it into the spotlight when it’s time to blame someone other than ourselves and our outdated laws. We claim to be compassionate, yet our laws, and potential attempts to require a mental illness registry of some kind, reflect underlying contempt and distrust of the mentally ill, who suffer acutely every day of their lives, and who are deserving far more of help, and far less disdain and blame.

President Trump’s response to the recent horrific mass shooting in Florida, where 17 people were killed, was to point a finger at mental health: “So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior.” Later in his televised address at the White House, he pledged to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health” and to improve safety in schools, but failed to mention the guns that killed the seventeen victims.

Putting the onus on the mental health system and implementing laws that would red flag “potential threats” is arguably a step forward to prevent violence against our children and our schools. But it’s a drop in the bucket, and it turns our attention away from the real problem, which is gun accessibility.

In the United States, whenever a plane goes down or a train derails and crashes and American lives are lost, the transportation and safety authorities act very quickly. They launch full investigations and do everything in their power to prevent the accident from happening again. They leave no stone unturned, and the search for answers often goes on for months, or even years. Yet when a mass shooting occurs at a school, a theater, a place of worship or anywhere else, nobody does anything about it. Instead we send thoughts and prayers to the grieving families. But now that we are scapegoating people with mental illness and throwing them under the bus, we can pretend that we are doing something about it.

Many people still ask why we have so many mass shootings. Are we a violent nation? Should we heighten security in our schools? Should we arm teachers? So far, every answer seems to be on the table, except for fewer guns.

A 2015 study by The National Institute of Health showed that less than 5% of gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were committed by people diagnosed with mental illness. Another NIH study from 2016, estimated that only 4% of violence is committed by someone with a serious mental illness.

A recent article in The New York Times by Amy Barnhorst, “The Mental Health System Can’t Stop Mass Shootings,” Barnhorst reminds us that “Even if all potential mass shooters did get psychiatric care, there is no reliable cure for angry young men who harbor violent fantasies.” Or people with substance abuse issues and many other factors. In short, the mental health system has no safeguards to speak of. It is not an exact science. The proposed change in law would only weed out those who seek treatment for mental illness.

Barnhorst adds, “The reason the mental health system fails to prevent mass shootings is that mental illness is rarely the cause of such violence.” Saying that is a sweeping generalization that is both reckless and unproductive. The bottom line is, whether someone has a mental illness diagnosis or if they are angry, vengeful, or have a history of emotional instability, why not make it difficult for that person to purchase a deadly weapon? As we have seen, anyone can “snap” and take their frustrations out on others. And, if the AR-15 and other assault rifles were not available to purchase, lives would naturally be saved.

According to US News and World Report, “U.S. states that have significantly higher rates of gun ownership also have higher rates of homicides, suicides and ‘accidental’ gun deaths. Countries’ rates of gun ownership almost exactly correlate with their rates of gun deaths, with the U.S. as a complete outlier in both.” The evidence is irrefutable that we simply have too many guns available to purchase and that our laws have to change.

Here’s another point to think about. In the past few decades we have come far in destigmatizing mental illness. Tagging it as the cause for our gun violence would proliferate the remaining stigma and stereotyping. The result would be that many sufferers would stop seeking help for fear of exposure and persecution. They may return to the shadows and retreat in shame to a life of isolation again. We as a country cannot afford this type of regression. We should continue to move forward in our treatment of, and compassionate regard for, those who suffer.  

The truth is that the mentally ill are not violent, and they are already the target of scorn and fear in our society. While it is true that many shootings are carried out by individuals with some form of mental illness, most mentally ill, like most people in general, never commit a violent crime. Enacting laws that go after people with a diagnosed mental illness would result in sufferers not seeking treatment for fear of being stigmatized.

Photo attribution: Lorie Shaull

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/the-new-scapegoat-for-gun-violence-mental-illness/

#World of Psychology