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June 20, 2022 by BHP Leave a Comment

Are People with Mental Health Problems Violent?

The stigmatisation of mental health and mental illness is nothing new and can be traced back through the centuries and across cultures.

Despite much improvement in the treatment of mental illness and an increasingly open dialogue about the effects of mental illness from sufferers and professionals, the evidence shows that paradoxically increasing numbers of the general public fear violence from those who are mentally ill.

What is mental illness?

Whilst the term mental illness is ubiquitous, it is a ‘catch all’ term which fails to differentiate between people struggling with their general mental health, people who struggle to regulate their emotions and the tiny minority who have an actual illness as defined in psychiatric terms.

In its most extreme form, mental illness is an inability to ‘hold’ onto reality and is a terrifying experience for the sufferer – this would be the definition of psychosis. However, as terrifying as this is, there is simply no correlation between violence and mental illness.

Where does this fear come from?

The fear of mental illness seems to be profoundly primal. Human beings pride themselves on the rationality and intellect and to be exposed to someone who has ‘lost their mind’ triggers fear – if it can happen to them, can it happen to me? Losing ones mind can feel like losing the connection with what makes us human.

Periodically these fears are brought back to the surface, often as a direct result of some unfathomable act such as the recent school shooting in Texas where 19 children and two adults were murdered by an 18 year old gunman. How can something like this happen? Who would do such a thing?

Human beings seek to ‘fit in’. We all to a greater or lesser extent abide by the rules and laws laid down by our culture and society. Where we abide by the rules and perform well, society tends to reward us. The rewards are multiple, but are generally related to social standing and financial payment which propels us to continue to do well: fitting into culture affords us self esteem.

Many people who suffer from mental health problems have experienced trauma during their lives – it can be argued all of them. We now know, in no small part thanks for the 1998 ACE study (Adverse Childhood Experiences) conducted by the CDC-Kaiser Permanente, that the more adverse childhood experiences a child is exposed to, the higher the likelihood that they will suffer from mental illness.

However, whilst striking, it was not only their mental health that was likely to be affected, the higher the number of ACE’s, the higher the risk of emotional and cognitive impairment, physical disease, poverty, criminality, social problems and substance abuse problems, all culminating in a higher likelihood of an early death. Trauma therefore impacts on a person in every facet of their future life. Trauma is not caused by poor mental health – poor mental health comes about through trauma, accompanied with the long list of symptoms above.

All human beings harbour thoughts and feelings that we consider to be in conflict to how we see ourselves and how we wish to be seen. Psychoanalysis was the first discipline to start to talk about how we all have sadistic drives, harbour murderous thoughts and take glee in the suffering of others. Psychotherapy seeks, amongst other things, to help people know themselves and to integrate these parts of their character.

However, where this integration has not happened people can ‘split’ these parts of themselves off – as if it simply is not a part of themselves – and ‘project’ them into others: I am ‘good’, you are ‘bad’, or in this case, I am ‘sane’ you are ‘mad’.

I would therefore suggest that much of what drives the stigma around mental illness and the association between the latter and violence is driven by fear leading to the psychological defence called projection. ‘Mental illness’ or ‘mental health’ is a convenient scapegoat for the parts of ourselves that we disavoy.

What can be done to challenge the misconceptions around mental health and violence?

In order to challenge the misconception that people with mental health problems are violent, we need to be able to have a mature and complex conversation about society, trauma and how we are all collectively responsible for ‘othering’: scapegoating and ostracising certain groups of people who are vulnerable. There is correlation between childhood trauma and violence, but violence is not caused by mental illness.

Alongside this we need to use factual statistic to show that simply having a psychiatric diagnosis or ‘suffering from depression’ makes a person no more likely to be violent or to commit a crime than anyone else. What does significantly increase the possibility is childhood trauma, contributing to feelings of low self esteem, a lack of belonging in society, poverty and feelings of disempowerment.

The effects of stigmatising those with mental health problems

Through engaging in an open and honest debate around mental health and mental illness, we can not only support those who are suffering to talk about their experiences and seek help, but also acknowledge to ourselves that we are all in no small part likely to be affected by a mental health issue at some point in our lives. This makes it ‘our’ problem rather than ‘theirs’.

Where people with mental health problems are stigmatised it further alienates them from mainstream society and the opportunity to ‘contribute’ to that society and feel a sense of belonging, purpose all leading to greater
self-esteem.

Stigma and scapegoating leads to shame and shame makes it even harder for people to access help. People with mental health issues need support, compassion (not sympathy) and a pathway to belonging in society. It is no more helpful to pretend that they have no problems than it is to demonise them.

Mental illness is a social problem

As discussed earlier, trauma – particularly childhood developmental trauma – impacts on every aspect of a persons ability to lead a fulfilling, healthy life. And trauma begets trauma, meaning that it is passed from generation to generation. Therefore, rather that scapegoating those with mental health problems, perhaps we need to collectively pause, reflect and look in the mirror to see what sort society we are all contributing to.

 

Mark Vahrmeyer, UKCP Registered, BHP Co-founder is an integrative psychotherapist with a wide range of clinical experience from both the public and private sectors. He currently sees both individuals and couples, primarily for ongoing psychotherapy.  Mark is available at the Lewes and Brighton & Hove Practices.

 

Further reading by Mark Vahrmeyer

The limitations of online therapy

Pornography and the Online Safety Bill

Does the sex of my counsellor or psychotherapist matter?

How much time should I devote to self care?

Why is Netflix’s Squid Game so popular?

Filed Under: Mark Vahrmeyer, Mental Health, Society Tagged With: childhood developmental trauma, Mental Health, Mental Illness

April 29, 2019 by Brighton & Hove Psychotherapy Leave a Comment

What is Social Unconsciousness?

Social unconsciousness is a term used by Earl Hopper to describe the effect of living in a world where we are connected by our common histories, culture and social, political and economic environment.   

But how does this affect us? With so much taking place in our ever-changing world, this has a place in our experiences in the present such as Brexit as well as in our past.  When it then comes to looking at the therapeutic relationship we have, the focus tends to be on our close relationships.  Very rarely do we take time to look at our minds and the effects it has on it.

It is clear however, that economics does determine whether we can reach our potential.  The daily commentary on Brexit is primarily focused on the damage of fiscal instability on wealth, employment and the ability of the state to provide for those unable to look after themselves.  This is turn creates fear and division resulting in anxiety, which, as a community we are suffering from. All this change creates dissonance which we need to learn to tolerate and adapt too.  In a pluralistic society, psychological robustness is essential as we need to tolerate living and coping with the differences.

It is often questioned if part of the increased level of mental illness is due to the disturbances in the social matrix?  Does it form part of our experience of the social unconsciousness?  I personally wonder if social media and its potential to invade our personal space means we are unprotected from the outpourings of hatred, once confined to the mind where these thoughts can be reflected upon but has now spilt out onto the page for all to see.

We all need to take a moment and remember that not everything has to be shared publicly.  We need to reflect on contextualization and take time to examine it against reality and critical thinking.  The clinical space, its boundaries of time and location, can provide the holding and containing for our disturbance and anxiety in order to gain a better understanding of ourselves.

Thea Beech is a UKCP registered Group Analyst, full member of the Institute of Group Analysis and a Training Group Analyst.  Her work in psychodynamic psychotherapy spans 20 years in the NHS and for the last 10 years overseas in South Africa.  Thea is available at our Brighton and Hove Practice.

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Filed Under: Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy, Groups, Society, Thea Beech Tagged With: anxiety, Mental Illness

September 5, 2016 by Brighton & Hove Psychotherapy 1 Comment

Being in therapy is the most normal thing

While stigma around mental health issues remains an issue, there is an increasing willingness to talk about mental health issues both in the media and in society as a whole. Even if much of that talk centres around the woefully inadequate state provisions for mental health support and treatment, to some extent, the debate is being had. This can only be a good thing. For counselling and psychotherapy, the knock-on effect is that more people are willing to enter into therapy, prompted often by some crisis in their inner or outer world. Again, this is a good thing. However, to limit thinking about counselling and specifically therapy to a support or treatment for mental health problems or as something that is to be accessed only during times of crises misses much of the point.

Recently, a client of mine told me about a trip to the cinema at the weekend. As he was sitting in his comfy chair enjoying the prelude to the main feature, the screen flashed with three words: ‘Amazing. Awesome. Astounding.’ What transpired next was not God revealing himself/herself from the heavens (or insert whatever experience that would, quite literally, bowl you over with awe.) What came next was a preview of the films being released this summer. My client relayed this story, remarking on how nowadays everything seems to have to be somehow awe-inspiring. It no longer seems to be enough to simply state, albeit with a small degree of marketing spin, ‘Here are our new releases this summer, which we really think you will enjoy.’

This brings me back to psychotherapy and how being in therapy is the most normal thing in the world when the world seems to propel us to feeling and expecting a life of extremes. Therapy is not extreme. It is a weekly dialogue, often on the same day and time, that continues. It is a space and within that, a relationship where we can learn to be ‘normal,’ if normal means becoming curious about the subtle nuances of experience, understanding why we may react a certain way and how our past subtly but continuously influences our present until we shine the light of consciousness upon it.  And it is about how a relationship develops over time without needing the extreme highs and lows of excitement and chaos to make it meaningful; the relationship to our psychotherapist and to ourselves.

So, paradoxically, if being in therapy is about being normal and finding a way to be normal in the world outside of therapy, this is then perhaps exactly what makes it if not abnormal, then quite unique in a world where nothing ever seems enough. Being in therapy during a crisis can be very holding, supportive and important, but it is not really psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is the very normal process of being in a contained, meaningful, ongoing dialogue with another human being through whom we can get to know ourselves and recognise that we are simply normal after all, and that that is a good thing.

If you would like to explore the ‘normalness’ of an ongoing therapeutic dialogue with one of us in either Hove or Lewes, please get in touch.

Mark Vahrmeyer is a UKCP Registered Psychotherapist working in private practice.

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Filed Under: Mark Vahrmeyer, Mental Health, Psychotherapy Tagged With: Mental Health, Mental Illness, self-awareness, self-care

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