AccessContributor
Why is aggression and violence considered part of the package with schizophrenia?
Lack of insight and education into schizophrenia is the main cause of people's belief relating the behaviours of all sufferers as violent and dangerous. If more people self-educated about common physical and mental illnesses then people could avoid the onset of many symptoms and diseases. In today's online world, education comes easy, perhaps it's just as easy to avoid learning about topics which do not hold relevance for individuals, in so causing the stereotypes and identities of people with schizophrenia as a collective of symptoms. If people were to self educate about many things, stigma and bias could be avoided. If only the media followed peoples interest in identifying people's success in surviving mental illness, instead of portraying all the worst possible symptoms and outcomes of the disease. Then, maybe hope would be installed with those with serious mental illness, like there is hope for people with physical illness. It would be sad enough for people to have an illness, let alone be identified as the illness. Only, has health professionals recently made the transition from identifying people as 'schizophrenic', that say's a lot, which is why a collective of stigma and bias are responsible for everyday Australian's having the view that people with illness are a collective of symptoms.
