Mythbuster: Mental Health and Violence
- frontpageinitiative
- Oct 26, 2021
- 2 min read
Myth: People with mental health problems are generally violent and unpredictable.
Mental illness has been given a very twisted reputation due to an amalgamation of negative, dramatized portrayal in media and lack of education regarding mental health issues. This misperception that people with mental illnesses are violent has affected many under the notion that they pose a danger to society.
In actuality, it is proven that all violent actions committed by people with mental illness were driven by other factors, such as abuse, unemployment, or unsafe living conditions. According to Kimberly Brown, PhD., ABPP, “a growing body of research shows that when people with serious mental illness commit violent or aggressive acts, other facts besides the illness itself are often at play.” This includes factors of co-occurring substance abuse, contextual factors such as a history of experienced abuse, and more. Summarized by Paul Appelbaum, MD, and Elizabeth K. Dollard, Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Law at Columbia University, “a great deal of what is responsible for violence among people with mental illness may be the same factors that are responsible for violence among people without mental illness.”
This myth has been harmful to many people with mental illness. While the news has created a false correlation between mental illness and crime, the Canadian Mental Health Association states that “the majority of people who are violent do not suffer from mental illnesses. In fact, people with a mental illness are more likely to be the victims, rather than the perpetrators of violence.”
This convergence of mental illness and violence also stems from the declaration of potential violence in the treatment of mentally ill patients. Stated by Heather Stuart of Queen’s University in her article Violence and Mental Illness: an Overview, “[m]any psychiatrists, particularly those working in emergency or acute care settings, report direct experiences with violent behaviour among the mentally ill….However, clinical experiences with violence are not representative of the behaviours of the majority of mentally ill.” Violence has been used for fear-mongering and seclusion for a long time. It is important to recognize that this false narrative causes significant harm to the lives of many.
Mental Health Project - It is important to understand the detrimental impacts that these myths have on people with mental health. Over the course of this project, we will delve into these mental health myths and debunk them using factual data and research.
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Published September 22, 2021
Written by Fiona Xu ~ Edited by Laiba Muhammad ~ Graphics created by Laiba Muhammad
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