Media Manipulation Portrays People With Mental Disorders As Violent, Even Though They’re Not

There's this belief that people with mental illnesses usually commit violence towards themselves and others. Researchers, however, argued against this and claimed that mentally and psychologically ill people are seldom violent.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University said that the negative media reports about mentally ill people have influenced the society to become fearful of them. People with depression, schizophrenia and anxiety, among others, are being subjected to prejudice because of how the media portrays them, UPI reported.

According to researchers, media reports fail to mention how patients underwent successful treatments for their mental illnesses. They said it's easy to label mentally ill people as violent because "normal" people wouldn't commit violent acts like mass murder. Perhaps the most worrying consequence of these negative media portrayals is mentally ill people become hesitant to seek professional treatment due to the social stigma attached to it.

Violence Doesn't Necessarily Equate With Mental Disorders

Dr. Emma McGinty, an assistant professor of health policy and management, and mental health at the Johns Hopkins University, said killing people indicates that a person isn't mentally healthy, but this doesn't mean that they have mental illnesses. Some criminals and killers may have anger or emotional issues, as well as alcohol and drug dependence.

They may have suffered abuse when they were children, or they may have experienced poverty. Those elements "can be clinically separate from a diagnosis of mental illness," McGinty added, per Johns Hopkins University's press release.

In fact, people with mental disorders are 10 times more likely to be a victim of violence than the rest of the population, MentalHealth.gov reported. Many reporters are naïve of this statistic, not to mention the fact that violent stories get more attention. Mentally ill people involved in a violent crime tend to be highlighted more often.

To counter this, McGinty said the media should work on providing counter examples showing mentally ill people getting successful treatment, according to the Huffington Post. This way, majority of the people would stop believing that mental illness and violence is linked to each other.

Gun Violence

Around 12.8 percent of adults with mental illness are not allowed to purchase firearms due to their conditions, according to a Health Affairs study. That restriction includes people who underwent mental health treatment unwillingly, those inept to endure trials, those who are declared not guilty of a crime because of an insanity plea, and people who are considered mentally incapable of accomplishing some aspects of their lives.

Despite these restrictions, mentally ill people continue to obtain firearms. That is usually attributed to enforcement law's shortcomings.