Murderous acts and mental illness
The complete awfulness of the plane crash in the Alps can have left none of us untouched.
Events of the past 2 days eliciting a response, from the core of our humanity, of sympathy and absolute horror at the dreadful loss of innocent life. A response heightened by the vulnerability it brings home to each, that it could have been any of us, our families, our friends on that fateful flight.
We all mourn the lives lost and share the grief of those left behind trying to come to terms with such a completely senseless loss of life. The pain of loss made worse by hearing the reports and imagining the terror loved ones may have felt in their final moments of life, hoping it was not so, left unable to comprehend how anyone could have committed such a murderous act.
It's hard, even for those not involved, to be unmoved by the initial briefing reporting black box recordings of the final minutes of the flight, hard not to create a vivid film reel in our minds of those events.
The collective response that it had to be a deliberate act, the conclusions of suicide or terrorism seem reasonable to all but facts and a fuller story are still to be uncovered, to try to brings sense to the horrific senselessness of it.
Included in that collective response are people who live every day with mental illness. People who are 'us', our family, our friends, people who are also appalled by this tragedy, the terrible loss of life, people who 'feel' it as the rest of us do.
Unlike the rest of us though, these people also have to cope with the 'demonisation' of their illness, the added stigma brought by a media doing what it sees as it's job. A job done in every tragedy, the pouring over of minutiae, elicited response from anyone with contact however tenuous to the main players, speculating and outdoing each other with the drama of their headlines, often with scant regard for victims, facts, recommended reporting guidelines.
People ill with depression, (a word littering headlines, screens and column inches, as part of the job to create content to make profit), also share the horror felt, they too feel empathy and sympathy for the families dealing with unbearable tragedy. They do not however deserve to also have to tacitly share the blame for the act of one individual because he too had been ill with depression, nor the negativity and stigma against mental illness, media reports reinforce.
It's already tough enough in their lives, there is already enough discrimination, negativity and stigma out there against those with mental illness.
I feel it's perhaps worth considering and asking, if it was any other illness, would we see the illness headlined and demonised (as mental illness is) or would we simply see the act of one individual for what it is ?
RIP to those who's lives were so tragically taken and deepest condolences to their families and loved ones.
March 27, 2015
Events of the past 2 days eliciting a response, from the core of our humanity, of sympathy and absolute horror at the dreadful loss of innocent life. A response heightened by the vulnerability it brings home to each, that it could have been any of us, our families, our friends on that fateful flight.
We all mourn the lives lost and share the grief of those left behind trying to come to terms with such a completely senseless loss of life. The pain of loss made worse by hearing the reports and imagining the terror loved ones may have felt in their final moments of life, hoping it was not so, left unable to comprehend how anyone could have committed such a murderous act.
It's hard, even for those not involved, to be unmoved by the initial briefing reporting black box recordings of the final minutes of the flight, hard not to create a vivid film reel in our minds of those events.
The collective response that it had to be a deliberate act, the conclusions of suicide or terrorism seem reasonable to all but facts and a fuller story are still to be uncovered, to try to brings sense to the horrific senselessness of it.
Included in that collective response are people who live every day with mental illness. People who are 'us', our family, our friends, people who are also appalled by this tragedy, the terrible loss of life, people who 'feel' it as the rest of us do.
Unlike the rest of us though, these people also have to cope with the 'demonisation' of their illness, the added stigma brought by a media doing what it sees as it's job. A job done in every tragedy, the pouring over of minutiae, elicited response from anyone with contact however tenuous to the main players, speculating and outdoing each other with the drama of their headlines, often with scant regard for victims, facts, recommended reporting guidelines.
People ill with depression, (a word littering headlines, screens and column inches, as part of the job to create content to make profit), also share the horror felt, they too feel empathy and sympathy for the families dealing with unbearable tragedy. They do not however deserve to also have to tacitly share the blame for the act of one individual because he too had been ill with depression, nor the negativity and stigma against mental illness, media reports reinforce.
It's already tough enough in their lives, there is already enough discrimination, negativity and stigma out there against those with mental illness.
I feel it's perhaps worth considering and asking, if it was any other illness, would we see the illness headlined and demonised (as mental illness is) or would we simply see the act of one individual for what it is ?
RIP to those who's lives were so tragically taken and deepest condolences to their families and loved ones.
March 27, 2015