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Mental illness - just have a think for a second before you open your mouth.

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posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 08:22 AM
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This was going in the Health and Well-being forum until I had the same conversation for the third time in fifteen minutes, it tipped me over the edge, brought on the rage.

We all think we know what a mental illness is. We all think we know what a period of psychosis is.

If this is the case then why do we try to attribute rational behavior and explanations to situations and people who are clearly mentally ill?

What happens is someone becomes ill. Very ill. During a period of psychosis a person does not think or behave rationally. For example, a new mother suffering from post natal mental illness (I won't use specific labels, they don't work) may decide she wants to kill her baby. She kills it and ends up in court. This story is then plastered all over the media outlets.

Many of us then pass comment:

"Evil woman."

"How could she be so horrible?"

"There are some sick, sick people in this world."

"But why did she have to kill the baby?"

Even headlines reaffirm this line of questioning.

Let me tell you right now that the lady didn't want to kill the baby. The lady who is healthy and sound of mind loves her baby just like any of us would. But her brain is ill, it is ensuring she is not being herself, acting in strange ways, doing things she would normally think of as terrible behaviour. Doing things she will regret when healthy.

When the episode of psychosis is over the lady regrets killing the baby. SHE NEVER WANTED TO DO IT - IT WASN'T HER KILLING THE BABY.

So why are we conditioned into asking logical questions of the illogical?

Why do we misunderstand mental illness to such a huge degree that we hate people who need our help most of all?

This thread has clearly been triggered by the recent story that the pilot in the German Wings crash committed suicide. Everybody I have spoken to has said "But why did the b****rd have to take all those other people with him?"

Can you people not see the flaw in your logic?

Can you people think? Please just think think think!!

Don't just comment on what you perceive - think about it.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 08:38 AM
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It takes empathy to understand mental illness, something that is becoming rarer these days with so many people focusing only on their own lives in a desperate and sometimes deluded attempt to tell themselves everything is rosy.

And sometimes it's the closest to us that have the least understanding, family in particular. Perhaps because a lifetime of personal experience of a family member or partner makes it hard to see things from a different perspective away from the norm.

Mental illness is terrible....I suffer daily. The frustration of not being able to discuss it with those I wish to can be unbearable at times.

Thoughtfullness and empathy are key to understanding others, mental illness or not. Some people just don't know how and it is up to us to determine who can and who can't and not to put faith in those who can't.

Be well all.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 08:39 AM
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a reply to: and14263

The trouble with your argument is that it can lead people to do bad things and use "mental illness" as an excuse. I am not saying there is no merit behind your views, just that it is a slippery slope where we need to be careful if we are to maintain a reasonable and civilised society.



edit on 26/3/2015 by Dark Ghost because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 08:39 AM
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on a personal level, i have no idea of why i do a few of the things i do.
So to assume i know what's happening in some other person's head, especially when there is a short circuit would be ludicrous to say the least.
When you say "how can he do such a thing?!", what you are really saying is "i have no way to relate to what just happened." so maybe learn to understand instead of masking your ignorance as judgment.
But we like to for lynch mobs more than we like to understand things.
So i do feel your pain but because of what i mentioned, nothing will ever change.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 08:41 AM
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a reply to: and14263


I have a sister who is a psychologist so believe me, I have been forced to think about it.

You don't know she didn't mean to kill her baby. In that moment she certainly meant to. People like you give people like her a pass due to moments of insanity. Some people are just evil to the soul. Perhaps the woman in your scenario was.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 08:55 AM
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Personally, I don't care what was going on in that pilot's head. If I could dig him up and kill him again I would. The same goes for any crazy person that would kill a child.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:08 AM
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The world seems to have given up when it comes to treating the mentally ill.
Free hospitals for the mentally ill are all but extinct.
Families cry out for help and then are condemned when their loved one does a horrific act.

The entire world is in a state of denial
about the need for free long term mental health care facilities.
The majority of homeless who live long term on the street are mentally ill.
Our society, the world has lost compassion and empathy for the mentally ill.

True they were treated badly in the past in free hospitals,
but that was not a reason for ending free long term mental health care facilities
they should have been reformed, not shuttered.

Postpartum psychosis is real and caused by
the physical stress of labor, the lack of sleep,
both of which can cause a psychotic break.
Then add to it a hormone fluctuation the equivalent of going through puberty start to finish in a couple of hours.
The person is literally not themselves and needs long term hospitalization for their safety and the safety of the child.

The final acceptable discrimination in the world is mental health.
If one has a condition that is under control with medication,
they still must hide it from co-workers, bosses, friends,
everyone except immediate family -
because of the lack of understanding and fear that people have of them.
The mentally ill, in order to get a job MUST hide the condition
to work or end up unemployed, homeless and unable to afford the medication they need to stay well.

The person who has a mental illness is discouraged from talking about it to anyone
or seeking help because of the societal misconceptions and the legal discrimination
of those who need help. Making matters worse for the person and for society.

However, that said.
In reading about the co-pilot, suicide and mental illness was NOT what came to mind. It sounded more like the repeating of a mantra "must destroy the plane", a sort of trigger, put in by hypnosis, a deep and very professionally done drug induced hypnosis, one that the co-pilot himself would be unaware of on a conscious level. It did not sound at all like suicidal intention to me.




edit on 11Thu, 26 Mar 2015 11:00:15 -0500am32603amk264 by grandmakdw because: format



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:13 AM
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a reply to: Bone75

Perfect example of you not understanding the workings of the brain. God help you if you or your children ever become ill.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:14 AM
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a reply to: nerbot
Not trying to argue, but I doesn't take empathy to understand mental illness. I'm autistic and I understand well enough. Logic and intelligence are what you need, which is even more lacking. As for your struggle, I'm right there with you. Even why I try to open up about it, people just look at me like I'm crazy.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:14 AM
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a reply to: Ultralight

Someone who is "just evil"... they lack empathy, remorse for their actions, get a kick from witnessing damage to others or damaging others.

Sounds like a psychopath to me - a mentally ill person.

See how even you who are witness to expertise has been misled by the stigma attached to mental illness?



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:20 AM
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originally posted by: and14263
a reply to: Bone75

Perfect example of you not understanding the workings of the brain. God help you if you or your children ever become ill.




people are literally ignorant when it comes to psychosis and how it can effect a person. somehow thinking that a person still has control over all of their faculties when they are in a state of psychosis. when it's quite literally the exact opposite. they can't overcome baser emotions of anger & hate to actually UNDERSTAND instead of make snap judgements. i've known people intimately who have had psychotic breaks and i would never, never judge them for something they did during one of those breaks as if they weren't under the influence of a severe mental illness. so incredibly callous. people are so blood thirsty.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:34 AM
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a reply to: and14263




Can you people not see the flaw in your logic?


Whatever. Humans are very complicated. They do bad things sometimes, they should suffer the consequences for it. Pretending that this is a one time thing and that it wont happen again is dumb. Since obviously you cannot predict when some human with mental illness will do the unpredictable. Perhaps you have had an episode where you did something and now regret it or know someone who has? Well if you kill a 150 people, we all get to ignore your problems and put you in jail so you can't do it again. No touchy-feely BS.

Is mental illness greatly under diagnosed and under treated. Yes it is. But that doesn't mean we ignore someone who hurts other people or excuse it in any way. This is silly and it is dangerous. Do you want a reformed axe murder babysitting your children while you are at the movies? Probably not.


V



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:42 AM
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a reply to: Variable

Yes but we punish - which has put us in this situation and given you your views.

If we investigated the whys and investigated a cure then we could predict and prevent.

As for consequences... This is such a topic for debate because in this situation the consequences are someone else's - not physically but mentally.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:46 AM
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a reply to: and14263

Sheesh, that's a tough one.

Many people like to paint all mentally ill folk with the same brush. I''ll admit that i've got more than a screw loose but my friends who know of my 'condition' will still give me that look-that look that says "he's got that crazy stabby look in his eyes" and those looks hurt, once people find out you have a mental illness they never look at you the same way again despite how pleasant or helpful you may be.

However when it comes to those mentally ill who commit unimaginable crimes...people of sound mind have committed far greater atrocities. Hitler? evil. Goebbels? evil. Ed Gein? clearly mentally unstable. If every terrible crime committed was attributed to mental illness then history would have to be rewritten.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 09:52 AM
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originally posted by: Bone75
Personally, I don't care what was going on in that pilot's head. If I could dig him up and kill him again I would. The same goes for any crazy person that would kill a child.


For a change I actually agree with you Bone75. I don't care if the pilot was mentally ill, he took the lives off 150 people with him. For everyone else being all lefty about "oh its a mental illness", go and say that to the loved ones of the 150 people killed by this suicidal maniac and see how understanding they are about this pilots mental health!

Next we will be hearing how suicidal bombers are mentally ill and mis-understood! As far as I am concerned, if you take a life then you deserve the full force of the law. Can everyone stop enabling this pilot as a poor misunderstood depressed individual, he killed 150 PEOPLE, end off......

All this thread has accomplished is to state that having a mental illness gives you a ticket to do as you please. It undermines those people with real disabling depression and other mental illnesses. To put them in the same boat as this pilot is an insult to those suffering mental illness and to those who lost their loved ones in this tragic murder.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 10:02 AM
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originally posted by: and14263
a reply to: Bone75

Perfect example of you not understanding the workings of the brain. God help you if you or your children ever become ill.


That pilot was sane enough to lock the other pilot out of the cockpit so he could carry out his PLAN. So I really don't want to hear any of your "mentally ill" excuses.

Second, there's a very good chance that I just might have to institutionalize one of my children. Luckily God has put people and events in my path that have given me the strength to do what 99% of you tenderhearts won't.

You can rest assured that none of my kids will lose their sh!t and commit mass murder.



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 10:04 AM
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a reply to: and14263




If we investigated the whys and investigated a cure then we could predict and prevent.


What real mental illness can be cured? I think our medical science is completely lacking in the tools to understand, let alone fix, the human brain. I remember when i was 15 my Dad handed me the DSM III and said "Here Son, some light reading." I came away with thinking that all we did was make up a diagnosis, then apply every indication we have ever seen to it. You could, at any given time, qualify a person for all manner of issues and I think that is silly. I don't know how to describe it, maybe the simplest thing is to say it looked like a smart cave man trying to quantify lightening. I don't believe we have the tools to understand much of the brain at this point. Fixing it is like throwing darts blindfolded. Why can't we stop crazy people from buying guns? Why isn't their a test? It's because you can't test what you don't understand.


V



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 10:12 AM
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a reply to: flammadraco
edit on 3/26/2015 by CaptainTwig because: phone is being stupid , didnt mean to post anything



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 10:12 AM
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Gotta realise that psychosis will rarely lead to murder...

& those that plead insanity are usually well enough to know the repercussions of their actions will be lessened if they can fool an analyst.

Just as much as someone with psychosis can fool an analyst that they're as sane as anybody... (Personal experience)




There is also many levels to psychosis and mental illness...



Some people who kill do not necessarily have mental illness...
They have what would appear to be mental illness, but actually just selfish & abhorrent desires for a myriad of reasons.



Best example, people now want to treat paedophilia as an illness...

I don't want to live in that world to be honest.



Idiocy, now that should be treated with high doses of medication...

Quite how Big Pharma haven't capitalised on that is beyond me.


Meh, I'll kick back and read, I'm only meant to be lurking.


Just an FYI!



posted on Mar, 26 2015 @ 10:13 AM
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a reply to: Bone75


That pilot was sane enough to lock the other pilot out of the cockpit so he could carry out his PLAN. So I really don't want to hear any of your "mentally ill" excuses.

So because someone can lock a door they aren't mentally ill?

You're either trolling or you REALLY don't understand what being mentally ill is.


You can rest assured that none of my kids will lose their sh!t and commit mass murder.


Yes, because you have control over things like this.

[snipped]
edit on 3.27.2015 by Kandinsky because: Snipped ill-mannered comment




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