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Quayana Dennis

Ms.kenly

British Literature

22 March 2018

“Does Mental illness really exist? And is it the cause of most crimes today”?

Mental illness has become a major part of most America’s cases with guns and violence.

Mental illness is a wide range of behaviors, moods, and your thinking. Mental illness is

spreading rapidly; more than 450 million people have mental issues if it is depression, anxiety,

bipolar and etc. Over the 10 years, mental illness has become more and more prominent mental

illness leading to most violent acts. However many people agree that mental illness is not the

cause of many major crimes that have happened over the recent years. They believe that it is just

an excuse for the criminal to just get off the leash and receive less time. Mental illness is real and

could possibly be the cause of the crimes that most people are experiencing. Although there is

conversion this topic, mental illness is real and is the cause of many crimes. Mental illness

happens to every 1 to 5 people, crimes that happen are from people not in their right state of

mind.

There are many things that have contributed to mental illness today, it was first came up 10 years

ago, when first bringing up the situation of this even existing everyone who had this condition

were thought to being crazy and nobody really took them seriously they were just told “oh they

need to go to the crazy/mental hospital” then became a thing about mass shooting, mass

shootings are when you have people that kill more than 10 people at once. The first major mass

Back in 1966 when a student sniper shot down at a University of Texas killing 17 people, ever
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since 1966 we have had 150 shootings in the united states of America and its only getting worse

and the main issue that they are trying to portray is that MENTAL ILLNESS is the leading

cause, they have did an research suggesting that many people who have mental illness is likely to

kill or hurt anyone.

In most shootings, we think yeah that person knew exactly what they were doing. But are mass

murders really insane? Usually not researchers say (Carey 10). We have also found that many

people that claim to not be in their right mind usually know exactly what they are going to do it.

If you were saying that you wanted to get revenge on someone you are going to plan out exactly

how you are going to when you are going to and lastly where you are going to. That goes for

mass murder shooter as well they exactly how they are going to do it and there are usually some

signs they might even say I am going to do such and such and you would think they were just

playing but they have just given you a hint and you missed it.

Most people are going through a serious mental illness but do not get help which results in them

going to get there own help, which would have to be going to get opioid drugs to help keep them

sane and keep them going through everyday life, they begin to fall off and starting living on the

streets and having to live from homeless shelter but most homeless shelters requires you to have

certain things to enter and if you don’t then you will not be welcomed. All of this is a result of

why we have major crimes that we have today people can kill once or hurt somebody once and

will eventually do it.

Also, a lot of mental institution have become extremely empty and prison have become

extremely packed and that is why they continue to build more and more jail because of the

number of people that are doing crimes. “There are at least 15% of state prison inmates suffer
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from mental illness” (Marshall 10) Most people do not understand the struggle having mental

illness and can not control what you are doing and this is the result and they end up killing.

When you are in jail and your inside it’s really important that you do not get into any trouble

because it could make your sentence longer many people don’t care about that but it’s bigger

than that and you have solitary confinement that you also will have to face if you don’t do

something right. If you get into to much trouble they will indeed put you in solitary confinement

and that is when you are in one room by yourself for who knows how long. It could be for days,

months even a year depending on what you have done and how bad that it has gotten and the

catch is the officers do not care and nobody can do anything about it not even your family.

To begin, we recently had a situation with a young guy name Kalief Browder he was a young

guy 16 years old when he was arrested for “allegedly” stealing a bookbag and the witness asked

him to ID kalief and just said he is not sure exactly how he looks but he was a black man

probably in his late teens and kalief just so happen to be around when the police was looking and

he was arrested. Kalief was a victim who was mistreated while in jail, he was kept locked up on

Rikers Island and prison known as the worst prison on the east coast. He was kept in solitary

confinement for more than 2 years as and a result of inmates wanting to fight him and the

corrections officers not liking him. Once kalief was released from jail after being in jail for 3

years for something he did not do, he ended up killing himself 5 years later in 2015.

To continue, kalief explained his time in jail as the worst time every he spent most of his time in

solitary confinement where he was alone most of the time he explained how the guards would

not always feed him, he couldn’t talk to his family, he ended up talking to himself and not

knowing who he was anymore and that was a big issue, he started to develop a mental illness

while in jail. It wasn’t anything wrong with kalief before he was sentenced to jail and was in
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solitary confinement, he started to begin talking to himself, hearing noises, couldn’t sleep at

night, his mom described him as being there but not really being there he wasn’t himself he was

just a body but no kalief. Mental illness is also a result of solitary confinement.

If you had a family member that has any of the mental illnesses that are most common what

do you think about it? Are you helping that person cope with their mental illness? Do you think

that person is in their right state of mind? Do you think the person could possibly one day hurt

someone? The most popular disorder that many people have today is bipolar disorder. Bipolar

disorder is when you have mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic high. 5.7 million

people have bipolar and 2.6% of that are 18 and older. Many people start off just not feeling like

themselves anymore and that is when it began that with changing to have a mental illness.

We recently saw that Trump made a statement saying that “the veterans that have gone

overseas and that have come back and act as if they are crazy and cant get help are “crazy, not

strong and cant handle it and they are we weak” (Katie 4). Most of our veterans that do go

overseas to fight for the use they adapt to the environment of being over there and then when

they come home it's like a whole new place that they are no longer familiar with anymore. They

get used to hearing bombs all the time, and explosions. The most common illness that most

soldiers bring back home would be PTSD.

To continue, we do not relate to how soldiers feel once they have been over in war zone for so

long. In 2010 2,445 soldiers were diagnosed with PTSD. A soldier stated, “that was core and hurt

that Trump would say we are not strong and cant handle the pressure because we were diagnosed

with a mental illness”. Most people once have come from the warzone begin to drink a lot and

can’t mentally focus and lose themselves. That is also why many people do not go to war

because there is a chance you will have PTSD. As said many people who have gone to the army
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and come home and become homeless and began to get on drugs this doesn't happen to all of the

men and women that do go to the army but it does happen to most people.

Also, we had a shooting that happened back in October of 2017. The shooting involved

Stephen paddock who went and shot down from a hotel room into a concert killing 58 people.

They later found out that mr.paddock has a family history of Crimes his dad was a bank robber

who was on the FBI most wanted list. Once again as I stated earlier most mass shooting killers,

take the time to scan where they are going to commit the crimes they plan everything out before

it is done. As which mr.paddock had done he had visited the same hotel a month before to check

out the different angles of the hotel also he had went to Chicago and had done the same but he

just did use it. They believe that mr.paddock did have mental issues but they just were not

recorded.

In the united states alone we clearly have a huge issue with guns and how they have affected

the economy itself. Nowadays it is so easy to get guns, guns are everywhere and we do not even

know it. Nowhere is safe, not the schools, not hospitals, not the police station, not your

workplace also not even your home. Everywhere there is someone that is watching and doing

something to harm others or even plotting to harm others and we don’t even know it that is why

you watch your surroundings no matter where you are watch and be cations because you never

know who is where and what could happen.

Mental health treatment is the key to slowing down gun violence “not everybody picks up a

gun with mental illness but most do” (David 4) Most people who have really bad health

problems don’t understand what they are doing until after they have done it. We have to help

these people who have mental issues because it is only getting worse the people who do have

mental issues don’t want to get help or don’t want people to know because they don’t want
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people to think they are crazy and that nobody to judge them. But those people need help people

can’t handle stuff like that on their own they need someone to be there with them through those

hard times.

We have to stop these killings that are happening in the united states. The world have become

a very dangerous because we have people on the streets that need help and can not provide for

themselves this is because the government has abandoned the they didn’t care when they told the

patients “oh you have such or such mental illness it cost this amount of money do you have it or

not if not then we will not be able to treat you so these people turn t drugs and then the drugs and

the mental illness makes them do things that they would not normally do if they had gotten the

treatment that they need to ensure that they would have the right care and at least be able to live a

normal life without being judged for something that they can’t control that has happened to them.

We as a people have to help these people get the right treatment so we will bring down our gun

killings rate.

To begin, I recently did a survey asking people about mental issues I had about 40 people take

my survey I asked about 10 question that I asked that stuck out to me was my last question, I

asked a question stating “Do you or someone in your family have a mental illness”? The choices

were Bipolar, Dementia, Autism, PTSD, and Schizophrenia. The results from that questions were

most people voted bipolar disorder, which is stated to be a common disorder that most people

have. Another question that I asked that stuck out to me the most was “If someone in your family

was to commit a mass shooting would you be against them or with them?” The average
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percentage that I received was 43% meaning most people would be with their family member but

most people would not. And my question is why? Is it because you feel that people would judge

you for being behind your family member or because you just don't support someone going and

killing 10+ people? Well you have to think about it that is still your family right or wrong you

still have to be behind them because they are about to face time in jail and they need someone to

be there for them in such a difficult time not only for you but for them because they did the crime

and now they have to do the time. Another question that I asked, “How does mental illness

contribute to violence in the world today”? Most of the people that responded to this question

said things like “Most people who have a mental illness go untreated which cause them to do

things that they normally would do” “Most people can't get the help that they need” “What

happens in the family continues to happen in the family (violent crimes). I also had someone say

“It's not disabled, I feel as if they use that as an excuse,”I think what that person is trying to say

is that they feel as if they just use mental illness as an excuse. That leads me to me another

question that I asked as well “Is it true that mental illness is the cause of most mass shootings”?

29 people out of my 40 said yes and 11 people out of 40 said no. I do believe that some people

have a mental illness but it is not always the cause of mental illness, not everybody has a mental

illness some people sometimes actually planned to do something (Mass shooting). Another

question that I asked was “Why do you think the government is not helping people with mental

illness” the choices that I had out were A) They want to continue to let people suffer and harm

others B) they don’t care C) They want all the money D) all of the above. Most people voted for

D. all of the above. The government is not doing everything in their power to make sure that

these people have the help that they need because with the help we wouldn't have so many

people on the streets and killing others and also on drugs. Many people think it is all about
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money nothing else matters the government just want to make more and more money. Why do

you think that we have so many prisons and jails and why they are so big they say that they base

the prison population based on your 3rd data? So most prisons already know how many people

will be in their prison in the next decade. Another question that I also asked was “Do you think

in today's society that many people are being targeted with mental illness”? 52% said likely 35%

said neither likely nor unlikely 15% said unlikely. I don't necessarily think they are being

targeted but a lot of people in today's society are definitely struggling from a mental illness and

we have lots of people who have mental illness who are homeless because if it. Last but not least

my final question was “What age do you think people typically begin to have mental illness

issues my age range from under 18 to 65. 71% of the people said that under the age of 18 you

begin to have show signs of having potentially had a mental illness. Studies did show that you

will have sign earlier in age and then you would just grow into having that mental illness and that

is why many people say that you will have a mental illness and not even know it but you have

had that mental illness your whole entire life it's just now growing and really showing now that

you are older.

Nevertheless, we have to find a way to get these people help instead of bringing them down and

letting them just go on the streets having them result in doing drugs, messing up their brain, even

more, having the drugs take over their body and then it's too late its nothing that they could do or

their not going to want to get help because they are going to be so used to just dealing with their

problems with drugs. There has to be something that we could do to help them.

Furthermore, well in the state of Oregon they choose to expand and actually help these people. A

guy name Blott was molested by another boy at the age 8 and he found himself trying to kill

himself and later on now he is 31 and he is now diagnosed with having bipolar and borderline
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personality and PTSD from what happened at the age of 8. And just like most people who have a

mental illness he didn't have the money to pay for the medication so he began entering himself in

clinical trials. Then he began to get Medicaid and now he only pays $1 for medication when he

would be paying $3,000 instead. More people have begun to start using Medicaid in about 3

months more than 60% of people.

In addition, (A.1) more than 30 states have expanded their Medicaid up under Obamacare 11

have not including Georgia. Governor Nathan Deal said that Georgia doesn't have the funds to

expand it would cost 2.5 million to expand their services and Georgia cannot afford it.a recent

Georgia state university study shows that Georgia would expand have expanded from just paying

the 2.5 million they would have gotten $35 million in funding and also created more than 50,000

jobs in just the first decade alone but they didn't want to do that they felt like they would lose

money but this is a big deal and this could have possibly changed many lives from people who

are fighting for their lives every day.

In summary, mental illness does exist and it is definitely the cause of a mass shooting and most

crimes alone. Once again many people do not get the help that they need they government

doesn't care unless it is making them money as we stated with Georgia not wanting to expand

and help those with mental illness get help by expanding the help to them that need the help.

Many people have this disease and it is expanding rapidly where more and more people are on

the streets and killing each other and not taking care of their health. If you have someone that has

a mental illness and cant get help try and help them get on any Medicaid. Pay monthly with a

low fee so that you can help that person out it is better to have someone who is getting help

instead of having someone who is on the streets and getting in trouble you would want to help

that person out. We have to make changes to our community we usually overlook our people
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who are on the streets but those people are on the streets for a reason they are not just there

because they want to be there, something resulted in them being there and 9/10 it was mental

illness or lack of money that came from them having mental illness to them resulting on getting

on drugs and not being able to fend for themselves so they just give up.

In the state of georgia we should start a program where when someone is diagnosed with a

mental illness and don’t have the support and the funds to help themselves we send then to this

place where there are other people just like them who are having the same problems and they

will be able to talk to those people and relate to hem and it will be a small fee or it could even

become paid with your insurance or you medicaid or it could just already be paid for and those

people just come and get help, we would have food and drinks and also could possibly sign those

people up who have turned over to drugs with getting into rehab and changing their life around

because just because you have just found out you have a mental illness does not mean you are

crazy, have to turn to drugs and killing people there are people who want to help you.
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Works Cited

Frank, Marshall. "Do Empty Mental Institutions Mean Crowded Prisons?"

Florida Today, 23 Sep, 2017, pp. A.10, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Friedman, R. A. (2017, 12 Oct). Psychiatrists can't stop mass killers.

New York Times Retrieved from https://j\sks.sirs.com

Zezima, Katie. "Democrats, Veterans Criticize Trump's Remarks about Troops' Mental.."

Washington Post, 05 Oct, 2016, pp. A.4, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com

O'Donnell, Jayne, and Terry DeMio. "Mental Health, Addiction Coverage in Jeopardy."

USA TODAY, 09 Jan, 2017, pp. A.1, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Rochford, Martha C. "The Mental Illness Bias." Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 10 Dec,

2017, pp. L.5, SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks.sirs.com.

Wiltz, Teresa. "Is Solitary Confinement on the Way Out?" stateline.org, 22 Nov, 2016, SIRS
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Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Skibba, Ramin. "Solitary Confinement Makes Prisoners Behave Badly and Screws Up.."

Newsweek, Apr, 2017, SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks.sirs.com.

Whiting, David. "Mental Health Treatment is Key to Slowing Gun Deaths." Orange

County Register, 15 Jun, 2016, SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks.sirs.com.

"Study Links Greater Opioid use, Mental Disorders.” Washington Post, 26 June, 2017,

pp. A.2, SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks.sirs.com.

Carey, Benedict. "Are Mass Murderers Insane? Usually Not, Researchers Say." New York Times,

09 Nov, 2017, pp. A.10, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Dillard, J. A., and Lisa A. Tucker. "Is C.T.E. a Defense for Murder?" New York Times,

23 Sep, 2017, pp. A.21, SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks.sirs.com.