Anurag Chandra, 45, followed “doorbell ditch” pranksters who were in a Toyota Prius that ultimately went off a road. Three of six teens in the car died.
What the fuck? Ding Dong Ditching is as old as time. Who gets so mad at some kids they chase them down and ram them with their car over it.
We need some comprehensive mental healthcare in this country. Damn.
So tired of seeing this bullshit perpetuated everywhere… Stop villainizing and perpetuating this stigma against mental illness… Mental illness does not make people violent!
Most people with mental health conditions are no more likely to be violent than anyone else. Only 3%–5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness. In fact, people with severe mental illnesses are over 10 times more likely to be victims of a violent crime than the general population. You probably know someone with a mental health condition and don’t even realize it, because many people with mental health conditions are highly active and productive members of our communities. Source
Mental illness did not cause this man to murder these kids… The atmosphere of pervasive fear and reactive violence against someone ringing a doorbell, delivering food to the wrong address, etc. leads to a disproportionate response of violence. It’s that a portion of the population has been spoon-fed propaganda and are ready, willing, and eager to kill others in defending themselves from an imagined threat to their life, culture, freedoms, religion, etc.
We are at this point because of systemic problems within our society, politics, news outlets, and social media. This is not a mental illness issue. This is a cultural and societal problem, driven by misinformation, corruption, and political extremism.
Edit: Want to clarify that this isn’t all addressed at you OP. I came out the gates swinging, but I’m addressing more the common arguments that perpetuate this stigma, not accusing you of sharing these beliefs.
I think it is fairly obvious that the murderer in this story would have benefited greatly from a therapist of some kind, for anger management at the very least.
Every human being alive would benefit from therapy. But that in and of itself is not a diagnostic criterion nor does it mean someone has a mental illness.
Furthermore, the existence of a mental illness in an individual who commits a violent act does not by any means dictate that their mental illness itself can be attributed as the cause.
I think you and others are getting hung up on the fact that this individual was not acting rationally and clearly had unhealthy (likely some delusional) beliefs. But that is due to an indoctrination into that conspiratorial mindset with expectations of persecution and violence and feeling justified in ‘defending’ themselves.
You can argue that this man clearly had dysfunctional thinking and I would agree with you. But this dysfunctional thinking is caused by misinformation (Fox, OAN, Newsmax) and echo-chamers on social media that rile these individuals and put them in a perpetual state of feeling like their ideals, culture, and safety are being threatened.
The misinformation in media, lies of corrupt politicians, and toxic delusional echo-chamers are the causes directly responsible for the culture we live in right now, not mental illness. And that is what it has become; a culture of extremism. Not mental illness.
This is similar to how people try to blame mass shooters on the big bad “mental illness” when there are so many actually relevant factors in play, including the media’s role itself in inspiring others thru eternalizing (and thin their minds enshrining) the mass murderers with their news coverage, plastering their names and pictures everywhere.
You can acknowledge someone is mentally unwell, but that does not mean that they acted the way they did due to mental illness. One problem I believe perpetuates the myth that mentally ill individuals are violent is the comorbidity of mental illness and substance use. Unlike mental illness, substance use is a predictor of violent/aggressive behavior… Substance use also exacerbates symptoms of mental illness. So when someone sees a homeless person who’s obviously mentally ill acting aggressively, they often think it’s the individual’s mental illness causing the aberrant behavior. But in reality, the substance use is actually what is responsible for the violent behavior as well as the exacerbated symptoms of the individual’s mental illness.
Every human being alive would benefit from therapy.
At no point did the OP say anything about mental illness. They said the nation could benefit from comprehensive mental healthcare, within which therapy would clearly fall into. Which you agree with.
So I don’t understand why you thought the OP was “villianising mental illness”.
Antisocial behavior is absolutely a mental health issue. Violence toward other humans is absolutely antisocial behavior. I think you’re inadequately educated on the topic to make sweeping generalizations as you have.
I agree that the problem extends beyond mental health, but to exclude it is counterproductive.
Ah, so therapy for otherwise “normal” people won’t help anyone?
Mental Healthcare isn’t just for people with “serious mental illness”.
I don’t know what you’re trying to get at with that ridiculous question… I never said anything of the sort.
And I know mental healthcare is not just for severe mental illness. I have formal education and years of experience in this field.
The original comment you replied to simply said “we need some comprehensive mental health care in this country”, and your reply to them was quite clearly - from this outside observer’s perspective - taking that to mean “this happened because that man was mentally ill and untreated”. That’s not what the original poster said at all, so it’s a little on the nose that you’re so upset here about feeling like someone misunderstood your point.
It’s not that you’re wrong, either. Mental illness does not necessarily lead someone to violence and it does need to be destigmatised. It’s just that OP’s comment was not the battlefield you thought it was on first read.
I would argue it was clearly implied by the original commenter. And not all my points were directed at OP himself, but the talking points I see constantly perpetuate this myth. I probably should have made that more clear…
This is just a major sore spot/pet peeve of mine, and I’ve worked so much with the population this myth affects. There is still such a stigma against mental illness (although we’ve come leaps and bounds over the last 20 years) and I feel compelled to try to combat it when I see it. I’ve seen repeatedly firsthand how stigma affects this population, and the things my clients would tell me were heartbreaking…
I would argue it was not implied, clearly or otherwise, and would counterpose that you might have read it that way because it’s a sore spot for you. This is why the other person who replied to you asked if you thought that mental health care is only for the mentally ill. Your response to OP implies one of two things:
- You read OPs comment as “this happened because the man was mentally ill and needed therapy” (which you did)
Or
- You think mental health care is only for the mentally ill (which you don’t)
So, it’s 1 then. 1 implies (whether you meant it or not) that there’s no room to read OP’s comment as “with how fucked up everything is, everyone needs mental health care, and if we had universal access to it maybe this would have been prevented”. That was basically your point, I think, and it is how I and others read OP’s comment.
Agreed, and that’s certainly how I read OP’s comment.
I never said this guy has mental illness and THAT’s why he did it. In fact I never even mentioned mental illness at all. I personally hate that term and never use it myself because it implies something is wrong with people who are having negative feelings or intrusive ideation.
The systemic issues in this country are vast and depressing and they def need to be solved. I’m not in anyway trying to dismiss them.
We can’t solve these issues if everyone is approaching them from angry defensive or defeated positions.
Getting everyone access to comprehensive mental health I would argue is the FIRST step at solving the systemic issues in the world because it will help people learn appropriate and valuable ways to cope with negative feelings.
My comment hit a sore spot with you but you just getting cart Blanche angry at me isn’t helping us have a reasonable conversation about how we get people the tools needed to cope with the systemic issues you mention here.
i think you kinda went tangential on his main point, but you’re both right. follow the money and youll find a disgusting level of military spending instead of caring for our fellow man in any capacity, and also a gross level of fear mongering for profit… im sure this will end well.
We need mental healthcare, and universal healthcare, and while we’re at it a social net that doesn’t allow the elderly to fall through the cracks…
But don’t worry, we’re building the finest military money can buy, instead.
Ironically, US military is the oldest and most comprehensive proof that socialism works really well, IF you want it to.
We’re also enriching the wealthy and big business instead.
Craig Hawkins, Daniel’s father, is quoted as saying, “Every day we sense the absence of this young man. The hole in our hearts and lives from the taking of our son’s life is staggering.”
Damn. Because they rang the doorbell bro. Hope he suffers in prison/hell
Removed by mod
It’s cool how easy it is to block users here.
I literally just read his comment and downvoted it, and then it suddenly transformed into “removed.”
Kinda love seeing that live change on Lemmy, whereas you had to refresh to see the difference on reddit.
Agreed
