Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

The Words We Say

I've been saying things much like this about the recent shooting, just shorter.
Tags: networking, politics, safety
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  • 83 comments
...go 4 levels up... Expand
siege

siege

January 11 2011, 03:07:59 UTC 10 years ago

Mentally ill persons often abuse substances in order to suppress their illness; however that doesn't appear to be the general case (meaning, not all the people who abused substances were considered mentally ill) based on the article about that study. It makes me wonder what the true correlation is between addictive behaviors (not just drugs or alcohol, but also gambling, smoking, and so on) in the general populace and their tendency toward violent or strongly reactive behavior -- and whether there is a correlation between progression in addiction and progression in violent or reactive behavior.
ysabetwordsmith

Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

January 11 2011, 08:01:18 UTC 10 years ago

I'd guess that since mental illness can be caused by biochemical imbalance, there would be clusters of effects from a single cause. Another explanation is that the problems are sequential: the mental illness appears and is not treated (or not treated effectively) which is quite common, so then more things start to go wrong, and as you mentioned substance abuse is sometimes an attempt at self-medication.

We really don't have a good response rate for this kind of problem, as a culture, because we view it as an individual problem rather than something that society is supposed to help with. But when someone snaps -- then suddenly it becomes obvious how this IS everyone's problem, and people still want to blame the individual or some group they dislike or anybody else, rather than consider that we haven't got an effective response for handling these challenges.
ford_prefect42

Re: Hmm...

ford_prefect42

January 14 2011, 00:11:58 UTC 10 years ago

Actually, we used to have one. There was involuntary commitment to mental institutions for those that were seriously mentally ill.

The supreme court ruled that unconstitutional.

O'Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975) States could not involuntarily commit citizens to a psychiatric institution if they were not a danger to themselves or others and were capable of living by themselves, or with the aid of responsible family or friends.

There was also the "Community Mental Health Centers Act." of 1963, which ordered the closing of the large institutionalized mental institutions, and the construction of smaller, community based homes. But it didn't *fund* the building of the community based homes. Which in turn, led to the spike in mentally ill homeless that took place in the 80s.


There were some good reasons for the changes. The institutions were suboptimal and expensive. Some people were committed that shouldn't have been.