An Open Letter: Mental Illness is not Equal to Violence (Guest Post)

Article by Joseph Fusaro
Photo and Blog Design by Christy Zigweid
Edit by Maureene Danielle

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To Whom It May Concern, 

In my experience of mental illness and psychosis, I was scared to death and paranoid of violent things happening to me and around me. Even at my worst I may have neglected to take care of myself, but I would never lay a finger on anyone else. Please do not classify me with the other side that needs to see and thrives off of causing violence. There is a huge difference.

There needs to be a way of distinguishing this during the diagnoses. Or maybe you need to stop grouping us together in your interviews with “professionals.” About 40 million of us do not even know what you are talking about when you say that people with mental illness are more likely to commit a crime. The correct way of stating this would be to say that, people who commit violent crimes may have a mental illness; because the reality is that, people with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of a violent crime than the perpetrator. Having mental illness does not equal being a criminal. In fact, for most of us with depression and/or anxiety as symptoms, it is the complete opposite. I cannot even stand playing war video games or watching violent movies. I do not associate with crime, so do not associate it with me.

It really hurts every time I hear people say, "…we need to do something about mental health…" and they mean everyone with a mental illness should be contained or something. I agree, we have to do something about mental health and that is to be honest. Most of those who judge would never even admit if their close family member had a mental illness, for fear of being stigmatized.

We must stop dancing around the topic and face it head on. Those of us who live with mental illness can't keep being sad for the rest of the world. We must stop using the terms "bipolar, OCD, psycho, or mental," to describe those individuals we do not like. These words are not meant to be used as adjectives.

What we need is more funding to go into mental health research, education of primary care doctors, natural and holistic healing, update of all mental hospitals, full insurance coverage, and enough disability money to live on.

As a society we need to stop judging and ranking everyone and everything. Regardless of illness, we are all original. We are all beautiful. Until this is realized by everyone, we are just going to keep going back and forth calling each other crazy; and that is pretty immature if you ask me. I will not participate in name calling, shaming, blaming, judging, ranking, or hating. I ask that you please join me. Thank you for your time and understanding. 

Sincerely, 

Joseph Fusaro

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About the Author

www.hellopoetry.com/jsfusaro

Joseph S. Fusaro credits writing with helping him dig his way out of a serious bout with bipolar 1 (manic depression) in his late teens and 20's. Joe was a cast member in the 'This Is My Brave' New York City show this past October and looks forward to using his experience with mental illness to help others realize there is hope for a positive and productive future. In addition to music and poetry Joe has blogged for the mental health organizations NAMI, Conquer Worry, and This Is My Brave. Joe published his first book, a chap book featuring poetry and lyrics he's written, called A Little More Time and it's available for purchase on Amazon.com. A portion of the proceeds from the book are donated to This Is My Brave.