How do we decide whether a shooting is caused by mental illness or terrorism? What if it’s both?
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I was stunned when I learned about the Beruit and the Paris attacks. Days later, I am torn apart trying to make sense of it all. Like many, I find some comfort that the world is in mourning and that most people are setting aside their agendas. For now.
For me, the post-attack media coverage is sickening. I try to avoid it because the detailed accounts of who shot who and who blew up what causes my mind go to dark places. The coverage itself will generate a firestorm and cause unintended collateral damage.
And it might blow up in our faces.
The blame box: terrorism or mental illness
When terrible acts of violence occur, we have a few easy targets: terrorism or mental illness.
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Right now, the events in Paris and Beruit are being investigated. Terrorist forces seem to be clearly responsible. But that is only part of the story. When terrible acts of violence occur, we have a few easy targets: terrorism or mental illness.
How do we know whether the terrorist does not suffer with their own mental illness? Or whether their mental illness has become their personal terrorist?
It is tempting to blame fundamentalist religion, or mental illness for terrible things that happen. But what if it is both or neither?
Perhaps terrible attacks are conducted by misguided people who decide that aggression will help their cause, or their pain?
The questions should bother us
I tossed and turned last night and finally I woke up at three AM. A question pierced my mind: If at some future date an attack occurs in my city, could I be a suspect?
Why me? Because I live with a mental illness.
Most who live with a mental illness just want to live their lives in peace. They are less violent than the general population, and are more likely to be the recipients of violence. And most people with strong religious views are also no more violent than anyone else. The world is a better place because of the actions of people who vibrantly live with a mental illness and those who are passionate about their faith.
It is stigma that causes violence, aggression and war… not religion or mental illness.
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It is stigma that causes violence, aggression and war… not religion or mental illness. And stigma can only be crushed by connection: we have to get up close and personal with someone whom we formerly wrote off.
The boxes are broken
Every person has to live with and nurture their own mental health. Fundamentalism can mess with a person’s mental health, but religion is not the cause of mental illness. For most people, religious beliefs are a refuge and a support. Our internal worlds are complicated and can never be understood with nice easy boxes that explain our actions.
Can those who have fervent religious beliefs be left to live their lives without suspecting that their Bible is a bomb, their Quran contains a knife or their Torah makes them a terrorist?
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Like bloodhounds, the media are desperate to get the scoop and check off the box: terrorism or mental health? Whatever we hear will only be a part of story. Any attack on another human being is a terrible decision. Can we just leave it there?
The choice we have
Can the millions of us who live with and thrive despite our mental illnesses be left to live our lives? And can the billions who have strong (even fervent) religious beliefs be left to live their lives without suspecting that their Bible is a bomb, their Quran contains a knife or their Torah makes them a terrorist?
The attacks are terrible, horrible, aggressive and destructive. An attack should not change how we view passionate religion, or mental illness. If they do change us, that should keep us awake at night.
Only love can destroy stigma, and love risks it all. The choice we have is to be defined by our boxes, or we can love.
“There is suffering and there are reactionaries and it’s our perceptions that can change the world. Choose love every time. We may not see change in this generation or the next but the fact is that we’re not exactly winning as a species right now.”
Louise Thayer
Please, lets Keep it Real
Photo by Johnathan Petit
Hi Sean
Daesh now occupy large areas of land and they also have money.
The world , including me ,do not see this as a group of people with a mental illness.
They exactly what they are doing.
Silke, Thank you for your reply. The issue is incredibly complex. I am trying to resolve in my mind the different ways that we respond to attacks. Terrorists may experience mental illnesses (ie: PTSD, anxiety, etc) as a result of wars or other traumas they may have faced. This is a part of their action. A terrorist names their cause and their enemy. Most shootings are narrow in scope, sometimes motivated by mental illness, involve issues such as bullying or rejection. Terrorism is much larger than this, global and potentially threatening to many more people. My thoughts and prayers are… Read more »
Hi Sean
Here is a fresh and interesting article about Daesh, published today in The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/15/terrorists-isis
Silke … This surprised me. A July 2014 ICM poll suggested that more than one in four French youth between the ages of 18 and 24 have a favourable or very favourable opinion of Isis, although only 7-8% of France is Muslim. It’s communal.”
Tom
I do not understand it.
But young men and women travel Jihad and join Daesh in Syria.
In a small town in Norway , seven boys in the same street has travelled to Syria to live and be a member of this so called Islamic state.I prefer to use the word Daesh ,because they hate that Arab word .
The parents do not understand what is happening.
Some simply look for a “cause.” The couple of generations before mine, we had WWI and WWII … they fought for obvious reasons but it brought people together. The early 60’s brought segregation to an end … something people had a purpose and something to stand for. My generation had Vietnam and whether it was for or against war, young people had something to again to stand for. We all “think” we want utopia, everything to be warm and fuzzy but in reality, for many simply having a home and family isn’t enough. The kids you speak of may live… Read more »