Not Like Me

I've been reading and listening to the radio about the guy in Virginia's mental state, and realizing what people must think about someone like me who was put into an mental hospital involuntarily. I'm not anything like that guy, but nevertheless I am lumped into the category of people discussed. It's as if people were talking about Koreans as a descriptive explanatory term for what that man did, as if that explained something, you see what I mean?

And yeah, of course, they had no idea what he would do even though he was certainly raising alarms in anyone who was around him, but all the articles seem to question the rights that the mentally ill have, such as seeking help or not, or being on medication or not, even suggesting lowering the threshold for people to be put in hospitals. I think the reporting ignores the vast majority of the mentally ill who would never in a million years do what that man did. Even the people I knew in the hospital and in the Partial Program who were psychotic were not likely to do that, in my judgement. Of course, people might have said that of him, as well.

What's my point? I don't know. It's just been bugging me, being a part of a group that is lumped together with that horrible man.

Comments

[blaize]

What you're seeing in my opinion is a knee-jerk reaction of a segment of the population who would prefer to control people rather than guns.

Cho Seung-Hui was a one in a billion case but to try target & limit the freedoms of all people struggling with a mental illness because of his actions would be a cruel injustice.

[Polly]

Once I was so psychotic that I hit some guy in the face, a guy I didn't even know, because I was having auditory hallucinations and thought everyone was making fun of me and the songs on the radio were about me... and I still would never in a million years do what Cho Seung-Hui did. I'm horrified by a couple of the things that I've done while psychotic, but punching someone is billions and billions of light-years away from mass murder.

I was seeking help during that time period, by the way. Desperately. It's not that nobody responded at all, it's that they didn't respond nearly enough.

[calpal/jerseygirl]

stereotypes suck for all involved.
The more useful approach is to know people for who they are -- individuals. you don't need to lump yourself into the "mentally ill" category. keep yourself an individual always -- it will keep you Jo and not defined by your illness. impacted for sure. a part of who you are -- definitely.

You are x, y, and z. Fill in your virtues. And of course, there is a,b,c,d, e, f, g, h, i, j,.....and so on

okay that's me from the early AM on the East Coast with no coffee yet.

[Jo]

You're all right, and I think it is being an individual that's important. I wish they emphasized that more in the media, the fact that the Virginia shooter was an individual who was horribly twisted and NOT because all people who are mentally ill are twisted in a similar way. I read that one person suggested screening incoming college students for the medications they take, and then monitoring them. How completely fascistic!