mental illness and crime

As a person with a bipolar disorder, I cringe every time it is reported that a person who has committed a crime or presented a threat to others has a mental illness. The latest case to hit the news is the story of Rigoberto Alpizar, who was shot by an air marshall. I know the stories will only cement the myth that those of us who suffer with a mental illness are bound to be violent.

Some facts:
1 in 4 families have a member diagnosed with a mental illness.

Illnesses such as bipolard disorder (BPD) vary in severity. Many of us never suffer psychosis.

Mental illness most often can be successfully treated.

People with a mental illness do commit serious crimes but are no more likely to commit a violent crime than those without a mental illness. I never have nor desired to commit a violent crime and neither have my friends with BPD. I don't fault the media for mentioning the mental illness as a possible element of the committing of a crime because that is a fact in the story. They just should be ready to write stories that mention what I have written below.

People with a severe mental illness are far more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.

Our social welfare and judicial system is in near total disarray - as reported by a number of government commissions. The result is that many don't get the treatment they need. The move from keeping people in hospitals and depending on community health systems has been a disaster. Some people need to be hospitalized - and there are good hospitals when properly funded. The community health centers, where the de-hospitalized are supposed to get treatment are severely underfunded.

We have de-hospitalized but not de-institutionalized people with severe and persistent mental illness. They simply are now in prisons. The Cook County Jail and the Los Angeles jail are among our largest mental health institutions. Many of these mentally ill people would not be there if given appropriate access to treatment.

Our justice system has a nearly impossible standard to meet with an insanity defense, which is irresponsible. Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her children, still believed Satan lived within her and yet was described as mentally competent to stand trial.

Yates's psychiatrist had prescribed haldol, an extremely powerful drug which generally is given as a last resor, when he should have tried newer meds. Then he abruptly took her off haldol without gradually reducing her dosage and without replacing it with another drug . What Yates did is not a total surprise given the known reactions people have when taken off haldol in the manner mentioned above. Now she is spending the rest of her life in prison.

When a doctor immediately took me off a set of meds and immediately switched me to another set, I suffered mild hallucinations and night terrors.

People, with mental illness often stop taking their meds at least once. Reasons vary. When a person is "normal" again, it is easy to forget the damage (not necessarily violence) that the illness has caused the person physically and socially. Many of the meds have side effects such as impotence, severe weight gain that can be more than 100 pounds in a year or two, nausea and/or tremors. (my hands sometime shake, and people have asked me if I am having alcoholic tremors). These often cause people to stop. (These are not excuses! Just reasons that others should understand).

Most people are not properly diagnosed for 5 to 10 years. Then it is hard to find a right combination of meds, and that combination can need changing. It has taken me several years and I just changed the dosage on mine.

This is something of a rambling post, I realize, but people need to understand that those with a mental illness that is not properly treated do suffer, and that having a mental illness does not make us criminals.