Okay, let's talk about something.
Let's talk about these fucking assholes who only care about mental health when they can act like only "crazy people" ever shoot a bunch of folks.
Let's ignore the gun control issue, the fact that it's pretty much only ever white dudes going on shooting sprees in public spaces, and let's ignore the way the media gives these people shitloads of attention. I would just like to talk about the implication that any mass shooter is automatically crazy, and would not have gone on a shooting spree if provided with health care.
I am not especially qualified to say if this is true or not, but here are some facts.
(x) Treatment does indeed help decrease violent acts in mentally ill folks who've been admitted to a hospital. So their premise is okay, I guess. Though it looks like, just from this table which is by no means especially comprehensive, that substance abuse might be a more telling factor in terms of likeliness/frequency of violent/aggressive acts.
As a group, people with mental health issues are not more violent than any other group in our society. The majority of crimes are not committed by people with psychiatric illness, and multiple studies have proven that there is very little relationship between most of these diseases and violence. The real issue is the fact that people with mental illness are two and a half to four times more likely to be the victims of violence than any other group in our society.
(x)
Crimes and violence are not the purview of the "crazy". Being mentally ill increases your chance of being a victim of violence by at least double. At least double. (also I can't find it right now, but I recently reblogged something that linked to studies showing that being on the receiving end of violence/abuse increases your likelihood of anxiety disorders and other things on that end of the mental health spectrum, SO THAT'S FUN)
And here's how much I hear about mental health care from these folks every other day of the year:
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NOTHING. Okay, one of these images was taken from a personal friend's facebook page. He is friends with me and my family. Round these parts, anxiety, bipolar, and possible autism-spectrum stuff (in addition to various learning disorders) are pretty much the norm. Do I see him talk about how mental health care should be more accessible when one of us has a panic attack lasting days? Or a bipolar meltdown that ends with arrest? Nope.
So dear everyone that likes to use these events as a platform for showing off how much you totes care about the mentally ill: SHUT THE FUCK UP. SHUT. THE FUCK.UP. If you really cared, I wouldn't have to choose between food and meds. It wouldn't be fucking impossible to get accommodations or disability for mental disorders. And maybe the odds of being on the receiving end of violence and abuse wouldn't be more than double for folks with mental disorders than for folks without. Instead, you don't give a shit any other day of the year and then suddenly ignore actual facts to tout your view on gun control.
So please, just shut up. Just. Shut. Up. Your ignorance is actively contributing to the problems mentally ill folks face, and yet you're acting like you know shit. You don't.
(This was thrown together after all this bullshit made me angry; I apologize if bits of it are awkwardly worded or poorly sourced. Also, please do not come to me with "oh but he/they/I didn't mean it like that"; if it weren't part of a larger pattern that I see happen EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME there is some white dude with a gun shooting up places, maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal/so fucking irritating/completely harmful.)
(cross-posted from my Tumblr)