Are you afraid of the mentally ill? And if so, why?

Answer:
No of course not..i really feel sorry for them it's not their fault...but i absolutely HATE IT when others make fun of them...how can anyone be so mean..?:(

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I'm not afraid of the mentally ill, I just don't have the time to put up with them.

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of cos..is not healthly ..

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mental illness is in the eye of the beholder. how do we know those people hearing voices aren't really being plagued by things we can't see? just because we can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there. that probably makes ME sound crazy.

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I really hate it when people use the term "the mentally ill." That's a darn broad category, and someone someplace pointed out that putting a "the" in the front verbally makes those of us with mental disorders INTO a problem. You never hear "what are we going to do with the cancer patients?" "what are some issues facing the diabetics." I think you are trying to explore the stigma issue, tho, but I thought that might be thought provoking to you.

I am mentally ill. I have bipolar disorder. I sew doll clothes for little girls and sell them at craft shows. I know a lot of other people who would never harm a fly. A lot of people who donate kidneys and bone marrow to strangers are mentally ill in some way, they give excessively to feel better. Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill were seriously mentally ill and they had control of vast military forces (but in some places today they couldn't own a gun??)

Mentally ill is a category, like infectious diseases, which covers AIDS, SARS, colds, pinkeye and mad cow disease. Viruses, bacteria, prions. A very broad category. So is mental illness.

Hope that helped!

Oh, and then I read the other answers - pity, dislike, fear, mental illness doesn't exist (guess we have ESP?). Stigma is alive and well!! And they posted it in the mental health section, too. Soooo people aren't supposed to suicide except that nobody likes them and in fact they are feared so they aren't supposed to suicide because why? People don't want to be pitied for their illness (not usually anyhow) and people with mental illnesses commit no more violence than the general public, in fact, they are much more likely to be victims of violence than the general public. And most people find the meds to make them mostly "normal."

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Nah. Why be afraid? I mean unless they're so ill that they are like gonna kill someone but Im not afraid of them. I used to tutor them everyday in 8th grade. It was kinda cool. They're actually very smart but just dont know how to show it. There's no reason to be afraid though.

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I would have to say that I am. The fact that they are not in their right mind would be the thing. They can snap at any minute and we really have no idea what they are thinking and what they have the possibility of doing to us. My cousin is a psychology major and this huge man beat her when she was in the mental hospital for class before getting her degree. Plus, I feel their maturity level isn't exactly up to par so they may act in an inappropriate way towards someone that is not acceptable. I've dealt with them and they are very hard to take care of and try to understand their needs. It depends what kind of mentally ill though, there are a wide arrangement of them. I'm talking about the truly psychotic ones that I'm afraid of.

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Just about everyone has several behavior oddities.So one can make the argument that there is no standard from which one can be measured as being totally healthy. Unless there are severe psychological disorders it's not reasonable to call someone mentally ill and this happens only in relative rare cases.

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i'm not afraid of the mentally ill because i am one of them. i suffer from ocd, bipolar disordar, and depression. i have tried to kill myself mutiple times, but other than that, i am harmless. i go to groups with people who are schizophrenic, and "see" blood and vampires and hear voices. they know that these things aren't real, but they can't shut them out. my friends are sweet, honest people who you need not fear. they just want to rid themselves of what they know is not real, yet plauges them daily.

do not judge what you do not know.
take courage to gain knowledge and truth.

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you should be a bit afraid of strangers whether their mental or not

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