So, there's this post:
http://weirdlyghostly.tumblr.com/post/120323175755/did-u-know-being-mentally-ill-doesnt-give-u-aHere's one reply:
This is ableism within the mental health community at its finest.
Are we just going to ignore the fact that sometimes unfavourable behaviour towards others are actually symptoms of disorders or nah
Like PLEASE go tell my cousin with severe autism who can’t even talk that him hitting someone bc he literally does not have any grasp on social norms is his fault.
Just because one individual with two ~*~*anxiety~*~*~ disorders or someone with depression is not only able to critically analyze their behaviour (believe it or not, not everyone can) but as a result change it, does not mean that every single individual affected by mental health problems can do the same or that every single mental disorder manifests itself in the same way.
It won't be your cousin's fault, but it can be the responsibility of whoever's caring for him. Mental illness doesn't supersede other peoples' right to health and safety.
And then there's this response. I won't post all of it because it's long as hell, but here are some highlights.
It’s sort of the equivalent of “Just because you’re queer doesn’t mean you can’t sometimes be mean to straight people about other stuff!”
. . .
Instead of BS PSAs like this further guilting people who are often already cripplingly afraid of hurting people, we need to educate more as to what an outburst looks like, how to deal with it. If people know that an attack isn’t personal and isn’t a conscious choice(unlike most “unintentional” transgressions) it becomes a lot easier for people to deal with it.
. . .
Having run a small trans group for some years, I’ve had to learn to that too. Some people will try and push me away completely and say horrid things even though I’ve always supported them. They are usually in a state of intense self loathing, and the absolute WORST thing I could do to resolve this situation is follow OP’s advice. Please stop telling this to Neurodiverse people. We already hate ourselves enough.
. . .
I’m honestly fearful for how people will react to me even saying this. I was genuinely shit scared when it came to this section of my talk, because some Feminists(especially White/Cis Feminists™) can be genuinely frightening when you challenge stuff like this. People need to stop conflating mental illness with abuse in general because more often than not, statistically we’re the ones who end up suffering abuse. But we’re not allowed to challenge the dominant narratives of who we are and what we do, we don’t own those, we don’t own ourselves.
If this shit was about almost literally ANY OTHER marginalised group, it wouldn’t fly. But for ND people it seems to.
As long as you want to make comparisons, saying "NDs are more likely to be abused than be an abuser" to stop messages like this is sort of like saying "women face more out-of-prison rapes and abuse than men" to stop reminding people that men can be abuse victims, too (and this is something radfems like to do).
I think this person does have some good points, but the overall message seems to say "ND people suffer more than NT people, so NTs are obligated to endure harmful behavior for the sake of NDs especially if it's out of their control". A person who is so mentally ill that they have uncontrollable, physically violent outbursts isn't hitting you because they're an asshole, but you'll have a broken nose regardless; unless it's your actual job to handle these people, you have every right to remove yourself from the danger they present. It's not their fault, but it's not yours either, and you don't deserve to be injured any more than they deserve to be harmed in retaliation for their uncontrollable outburst.
The same goes for mental and emotional health. Harmful behavior is harmful behavior, and no amount of self-loathing will change that. It also won't change the fact that the OP's original message is true; mentally ill people can be outright shitty people, and will use their illness to avoid repercussion.
