Schizophrenia and Violence
Well, as many of you know, my interview with Terry Gross followed right after the terrible and tragic shootings in Arizona. And as much as I absolutely love and respect Terry Gross (and was so thrilled and honored to be on her show!), I was a bit disappointed to see how the promo announcements for my Fresh Air interview changed, right after the AZ shootings. Before the shootings, the promos for my interview were all about a daughter whose traumatic brain injury helped her to understand her mother’s battle with mental illness. But after the shootings, the promo changed, saying that I had a “violent” mother. And everywhere you looked in the press, there was something about “the violent mentally ill.”
Yes, my mother at rare times exhibited extreme behavior, even attacking my sister and me. But those were the exceptions to the rule and she only acted out in that way during her most desperate and delusional periods. My mother was not violent person but rather, acted out violently on a couple occasions because of her illness. Most of the time she was a sweet loving person who was plagued with a terrible disease that caused her to call me over a hundred times a day, show up at my doorstep and workplace unnannounced, and many other intrusive things. She was much more apt to harm herself than others.
So are schizophrenics more prone to violence than those who do not suffer from this disease? The statistics I have read over the years have shown that they are not. But what happens when our social system lets people like the young man who killed and injured so many people in Arizona slip through the cracks? My mother spent a lifetime slipping through the cracks. According to several probate judges in Ohio, my mother was fit to take care of herself because she could buy her own cigarettes and cash her own checks. It didn’t matter that she had multiple suicide attempts, was horribly ill, both mentally and physically, had numerous institutionalizations and was delusional about 95% of the time.
Here is a recent article from the LA Times about violence and mentally ill people: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-mentally-ill-violent-20110116,0,4620946.story If any of you come across any other great articles, please post them with your comments below. I am interested in your views and stories. Please feel free to use this blog as a way to explore some of the issues in my book. I hope that my book, even in a small way, helps people understand schizophrenia a little better and helps some readers cultivate compassion for those who suffer from this debilitating disease, as well as bio-polar disorder and other illnesses. For more information on schizophrenia and how you can help, please visit the NAMI website. It’s a great organization for advocacy for the mentally ill: www.nami.org.
Thank you and I will post again as soon as I can!
Mira
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What a wonderful post! No idea how you were able to write this post..it’d take me weeks. Well worth it though, I’d suspect. Have you considered selling ads on your blog?
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