Do you fear a mentally ill person?

@naty1941 (2336)
United States
April 18, 2007 9:27pm CST
I am writing an article on Schizophrenia and realized that I know many people that fear mental illness. They just don't understand that mental illness is treatable. Are you afraid of the mentally ill and why?
1 person likes this
3 responses
mismoney
@mismoney (130)
• United States
21 Apr 07
yes because they are unpredictable you dont know what the voices are telling them......... am i right?
1 person likes this
naty1941
@naty1941 (2336)
• United States
21 Apr 07
Each person is different and what the voices tell me could be of no consequence to the people around them. Mental illness is misunderstood by many people. Most mentally ill people are harmless.
alicebun
@alicebun (204)
• China
19 Apr 07
I am a little afraid of mentally ill person,becuase I can not understand them.And what they do is out of my thoughts,some mentally ill person will kill others,so I fear them.
1 person likes this
naty1941
@naty1941 (2336)
• United States
19 Apr 07
There are millions of people with mental illness but when one mentally ill person kills someone the news media gives it a lot of attention. There is nothing to fear as most mentally ill persons are harmless and are more afraid of you than you of them. Thank you for your response.
draconess
@draconess (650)
• Canada
19 Apr 07
There's really no good reason to be afraid of the mentally ill. Most people just don't understand the various conditions/diseases, and don't know how to react. I spent a summer working in a long term care facility, with a lot of alzheimer's patients in various stages, and saw the same fear and misunderstanding in a lot of people. It just takes a little care and understanding to realize that these people aren't so different than you, and they shouldn't be treated so poorly in modern society.
1 person likes this
naty1941
@naty1941 (2336)
• United States
19 Apr 07
Thank you so much for your comment. It is true that the people with Alzheimer's are treated poorly by some individuals.