#BukanGila: Your car is more likely to kill you than the mentally ill

AUGUST 3 — While perusing the Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA) Facebook page, I came across a comment accusing MMHA of not informing the public about “bipolar and schizophrenics who are terrorising families.”

Those with mental illness (MI) are often unfairly judged as “dangerous” by people who do not know any better. This was one such case. Cars are far more dangerous than the average person with MI but no, Malaysians keep buying cars anyway.

On average, 18 people die in road accidents daily in Malaysia. Think about it. Every other hour, at least one person dies on the road. In 2014, an average of 1,308 accidents happened daily, according to federal traffic police chief senior assistant commissioner Datuk Mohd Fuad Abdul Latiff.

Those numbers do not bother us, so why does the notion of living with or working with someone with MI scares us so much? We can lay part of the blame on Hollywood, with its fixation on murderous psychopaths.

People don't kill people because they're mentally ill. If that were so, God would not bother putting that big “Thou shall not kill” commandment in the Bible. Cain didn't kill Abel because he was a psychopath or crazy; he was a jealous, mean spirited human being and that was all there was to it.

Back to that lady who was ranting about bipolar and schizophrenic people. Being bipolar is not fun -- not only do you have to deal with either manic or depressive episodes, or both, you have to deal with how hard it is for other people to understand your situation.

Schizophrenic people can barely function as it is, so it is hard to imagine being murdered by one in your bed. Schizophrenia is debilitating and schizophrenics are very rarely violent, so this commenter was likely just using whatever popular terms to describe her distaste for the mentally ill.

A mental illness is pathological, disorders of the brain and no different from other physical disorders. Except that by affecting the brain, MI affects our cognitive functions which unfortunately affects how we interact with the world and people.

People are not terrified by, say, joint or skin disorders but MI? I have had former colleagues at an old workplace convinced I was a danger to them for being clinically depressed. Of course I find it amusing now, thinking about it, but back then I just felt terribly misunderstood.

Sociopaths and psychopaths do not represent the majority of MI sufferers though it can be understandable that the latter's inability to have empathy might terrify people.

So let's make this clear: you are far more likely to experience a mental disorder than be physically harmed by someone with MI. You are also far more likely to die on our roads, ranked 17th most dangerous in the world by none other than the World Health Organization.

Anecdotal as it may seem, I can say I survived a serious bus accident, being run over by a hit-and-run motorcyclist (who was going the wrong way, the idiot) and yet have never actually been physically attacked or threatened by any of the people with MI that I have encountered.

This needs saying, though. Most of the time, people murder people because they want to and there is no point blaming MI for that. Please do yourself a favour and ask the MMHA questions about mental illness instead of watching Hannibal or Dexter. Who knows? The next person you meet with MI might be the one staring back at you in the mirror.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

from Malay Mail Online | All http://ift.tt/2agsdR9

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