(ThyBlackMan.com) In this article I want to point out a serious problem in our country that goes virtually unspoken of in the mainstream American Conversation. And at this point this problem can literally be considered a ” Plague ” and that plague being Mental Illness. The National Institute of Mental Illness stated that ” Mental Disorders are very common in the United States , an estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older , that’s about 1 in every 4 adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. The 2004 U.S. Census estimated that 57.7 million people are suffering from a mental illness , and that number is rapidly increasing.
What is scary is that millions of people we see everyday are clinically insane but do not know it. ( Why ? ) Because when everyone else around you is crazy who can tell the difference ? And only in the past century or so has mental illness been documented on a large scale. So it is safe to assume that many of the people we recognize in history were completely insane , possibly even our own parents. And not knowing that fact we have studied those people and emulated them and internalized their philosophies – in essences learning to be insane just as they were.
To My Mentally ill Brothers and Sisters , don’t be ashamed to be called CRAZY and don’t be ashamed to get HELP. Be ashamed that you are thinking of killing your children tonight and blaming it on the devil , be ashamed that you think you are Chris Brown a you are going to show your girlfriend you a real man , be ashamed that you are planning a religious revolution and want to kill half the population , be ashamed that you have been stalking a 8 yr. old girl and you are planning to kidnap her and rape and kill and cook and eat her body …. never been ashamed someone called you CRAZY .. because that’s exactly what the hell you are..
As a psychologist this article really disappoints me. You’ve jumped from talking about mental illness to crazy, to clinically insane to psychotic as if they are all one and the same. Yes one in four do experience some form of mental health problems, this includes depression, and anxiety disorders like OCD. They’re not crazy or insane they’re just normal people who happen to be going through some difficult circumstances. The majority of people experiencing mental health problems are not at risk to others but are in fact more likely to be harmed by others. Psychosis is completely different and is usually thought of as a spectrum of experiences, i.e. anyone can experience forms of psychosis it just happens to some more than others e.g feeling paranoid that someone is out to get you. The main problem with mental health issues is that articles like this reinforce the stigma of having a mental health problem and prevent people seeking help because they feel ashamed. I really wish you had done some research before writing this, although I’m not entirely sure what the point of this article was anyway.