Treating people with mental health issues

I'd hazard a guess that people with mental health issues are less likely to be a risk to the public than 'normal' people. I can't imagine people who are depressed, anxious, suffering from phobias, OCD, or whatever, feeling compelled to go out and randomly attack strangers.

skywanderer wrote: »

Being mentally ill is the new way for Politically Correct leftists to deflect attention away from Islamic Terrorists. "He was mentally ill, and it had nothing to do with him being a migrant Muslim terrorist and brainwashed with hate".

Quiete frankly I find it appalling and there really is no low that the Politically Correct and their ilk won't stoop to, the few mentally ill people I know are the biggest danger to themselves and no one else.

That's a fair point.

It's not a fair statement.

Nonetheless, killing folk to enhance a cause is, in my book, an act of mental illness.

Still, point taken.

skywanderer wrote: »

Being mentally ill is the new way for Politically Correct leftists to deflect attention away from Islamic Terrorists. "He was mentally ill, and it had nothing to do with him being a migrant Muslim terrorist and brainwashed with hate".

Wait, are you trying to politicise this issue by citing political correctness as a conspiracy by 'leftists' to surreptitiously support terrorism?

Conspiracy theories forum thataway>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'm probably going to regret contributing to this thread.

Few years back, I was diagnosed with a mental health issue. Two, really, or an interconnected one, depending on how you look at it.

Oddly enough, I have never felt the particular need to go stabbing anyone (although I might harbour some fantasies about whapping on the head for people who feel I should perhaps be locked up! :P). On the contrary, the nearest I ever came to doing anyone any harm was myself - which was a good warning that I needed to get back on the anti-crazy pills.

OP, your first post is ignorantly sweeping. What then, constitutes a relevant mental illness? More to the point, what constitutes a mental illness that is in any way likely to cause harm to others in the way of stabbing or shooting? Yep, absolutely some mentally ill people kill people. Some perfectly sane people kill people too - for money, for revenge, for love, for hate, for an ideal, for religion, for country, to protect themselves, to protect others.

Having said that, from -how-, say, Somboly went about his attack, he seemed to be perfectly aware of what he was doing. You can tell from his long planning period. Compared to the London knifing, which appears to be far closer to someone snapping (unpremeditated, no shouting, no acknowledgement of what he was doing, -apparent- disassociation from reality).

So then! What is a mental health issue that you consider relevant to the question of what should be done about us? Any ideas? Schizophrenia maybe? Multiple personality disorder? How about depression, or anxiety or OCD or bipolar disorder or dementia (god knows, all those elderly Alzheimer's patients are a risk to society, aren't they?). Maybe autism? Aspergers? Phobias? Oh, and then there's PTSD, which can indeed cause some sufferers to lash out. It's a bit unfortunate for them that they go through a deeply traumatising experience and are then stigmatised and..ah.."dealt with" by society, but gotta protect the normals, I guess.

You speak of "bar cutting down the long waiting list for people to get medical psychiatric help". Why? Because it's bloody obvious that that might help or because it's too easy, being as wot it's the -obvious thing to do-. You may as well ask "what can we do about all these people with cancer - bar cutting down the long waiting list to see a doctor.

It's a good damn start, isn't it? Oh, and not treating them like they're a bomb about to go off and stab you in the face either, that's also helpful.

Edit: Oh, and as someone with a diagnosed "mental illness" myself, I also don't deny that people with mental illnesses have done some fairly awful things. Several of which we've seen in the past week. Denying that -some- of those people who committed awful crimes were actually suffering from a mental disorder that affected their ability to rationalise like a neurotypical person does them a grave injustice too - much like the OPs comments did in the other direction.