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MeEvilBob t1_iyqr7ux wrote

Reply to comment by urachickenhead in University of Pennsylvania student attacked in Center City; female suspect sought by JBizznass

In America, mental health is only for the rich. We used to have public mental health facilities, but the government just kept diverting their funding until these places couldn't exist anymore. There's no profit in taking care of mentally ill people who have no insurance and no family to cover the bill, so it will always be a back burner issue.

There's also the common belief that never going to a doctor and being diagnosed with a mental illness is the same as not having one. It's like saying that you know for a fact that you don't have cancer despite never being checked for it. Thanks to this, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of people who suffer from treatable mental illnesses have no idea they have one and would not be very open to the idea of accepting it. My father is a prime example of this, very clearly suffers from depression the same way I do, but "I'm not crazy, so why should I go to a shrink?", so despite having top notch health care, he won't be taking anti-depressants or talking to a therapist any time soon.

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ElenorWoods t1_iyr7zjm wrote

I would argue that mental illness is only a defense for those that we fear to call “criminal.” This woman is a criminal. This woman is attacking people, yet people use the excuse of mental illness. I know mentally ill people and they don’t attack people. I don’t imagine people allowing the Oath Keepers to use mental illness as defense of them, despite mental illness likely being present. I’m tired of seeing mental illness be a defense of criminals.

As for the public mental institutions that the “government just kept diverting their funding until these places couldn’t exist anymore,” their closures stemmed from systemic abuse and isolation of patients that occurred within them. Honestly, fuck it; bring them back, but they were no better than a jail that operated on people against their wills. Stating that the government defunded what they called “lunatic asylums” to hurt those they served is simply untrue.

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toss_it_out_tomorrow t1_iytb7zk wrote

>mental illness is only a defense for those that we fear to call “criminal.”

for real. there's a ton of mentally ill folks out there who aren't assaulting people, or shooting people, or raping people.

Mental illness is no excuse. People need to start walking with sticks

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ElenorWoods t1_iyur7ii wrote

Or they could just start locking up criminals so we don’t have to walk with sticks, but who am I.

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toss_it_out_tomorrow t1_iyvb6oh wrote

Of course, but that should be immediately after the self defense ass whoopin by walking stick. Seeing that video made me wish it was me she went after, ya know

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Sreyes150 t1_iyr3iik wrote

Government mental health facilities has some of the worst history in America. We never had it figured out!

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