A small sampling of the 97% of the mentally ill who are not violent

[Cetacea]

Last edited Tue Dec 18, 2012, 09:03 PM - Edit history (2)

http://amandagreenauthor.co.uk/300-famous-people-celebrities-who-have-suffered-with-mental-illness-or-issues-help-highlight-the-stigma-in-our-society/

The percentage of mentally ill people who actually have shot and killed people is probably less than one percent.
on edit:
http://old.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20000507mental8.asp

Feel free to add to the list. It does not have to be a famous person. It can be your brother or your mother.

Bill Oddie: bipolar
Billy Joel: alcohol and depression
Billy Joel: clinical depression
Boris Yeltsin: clinical depression
Brian Wilson: bipolar disorder
Britney Spears: bipolar and post natal depression
Brooke Shields: postpartum depression
Burgess Meredith: bipolar disorder
Buzz Aldrin: clinical depression
Calvin Coolidge: clinical depression (speculated)
Carly Simon: social phobia
Carmen Miranda: clinical depression
Caroline Aherne: major depressive disorder
Carrie Fisher: bipolar disorder, substance abuse;
Cary Grant: clinical depression
catherine zeta jones: bipolar II
Charles “Buddy” Bolden: schizophrenia
Charles Darwin: severe panic disorder
Charles Dickens: clinical depression; bipolar disorder (suspected)
Charles Faust: schizophrenia
Charles Schulz: clinical depression
Charles Schwab: dyslexia
Charley Pell: clinical depression
Charley Pride: bipolar disorder; alcoholism
Clara Bow: clinical depression
Cole Porter: clinical depression; alcoholism; paranoid delusions; obsessive-compulsive disorder (speculated)
Connie Francis: clinical depression
Courtney Love: drub abuse, clinical depression
Craig Ferguson: alcoholic
Craig McCaw: dyslexia
Dame Kelly Holmes: depression and self harm
Damon Wayans :clinical depression
Daniel Johns :clinical depression; anxiety disorder;eating disorder
Danny Glover learning disability
Darryl Strawberry :clinical depression
David Boies: dyslexia
David Bowie :crying but not diagnosed but lots of family mental health issues
David Murdock: dyslexia
Delta Burke: depression and compulsive hoarding
Denise Welch: nervous breakdown
Diane Arbus: clinical depression
Dick Cavett depression – found electro shock therapy helpful
Dick Clark: clinical depression
Dimitrius Underwood: bipolar disorder
DMX: bipolar
Dolly Parton: clinical depression
Donald Trump: possible OCD
Donny Osmond: clinical depression; social phobia
Dorothy Day: clinical depression
Doug Ferrari: borderline personality disorder
Doug Flutie, Jr.: autism
Drew Barrymore :clinical depression; alcoholism, substance abuse;
Drew Carey :clinical depression
Dwight Gooden: clinical depression
Earl Campbell: panic disorder
Edgar Allan Poe: clinical depression (speculated); alcoholism
Edward McVaney: dyslexia
Elizabeth Hartman: clinical depression (speculated)
Elton John: substance abuse and bulimia
Emily Carr: various speculations, neurasthenia; hypochondriasis; clinical depression; conversion disorder; schizophrenia:
Emily Dickenson: depression
Emma Thompson: clinical depression
Eric Clapton: clinical depression
Ernest Hemingway: clinical depression
Eugene O’Neill: clinical depression
F. Scott Fitzgerald clinical depression
Fiona Phillips: depression
Frances Lear: bipolar disorder;, substance abuse
Francis Ford Coppola: bipolar disorder
Frank Bruno: bipolar
Frank Lloyd Wright: clinical depression
Gaetano Donizetti: bipolar disorder
Gail Porter: post natal depression
George Eliot (Marian Evans): clinical depression
George Michael :depression and fear
George S. Patton: clinical depression; dyslexia
George Washington: learning disability
Georgia O’Keeffe : clinical depression
Graeme Obreez; depression
Halle Berry z;suicide attempt
Harrison Ford ; clinical depression
Harry Andersen: learning disability
Hart Crane: clinical depression; alcoholism
Heath Ledger: depression, anxiety and sleep depravation
Henry Winkler: learning disability
Herb McCauley: bulimia nervosa
Hermann Hesse: clinical depression
Herschel Walker : dissociative identity disorder
Howard Hughes: OCD (clinical depression and psychosis both speculated
Howard Stern: obsessive-compulsive disorder
Howie Mandel: obsessive-compulsive disorder
Hugh Laurie: depression
Hunter Tylo: clinical depression
Irving Berlin: clinical depression
Isaac Newton: bipolar disorder (suspected)
J.P. Morgan bipolar disorder
Jack Dee: depression
Jack Farrell: clinical depression
Jack Irons: bipolar disorder
Jack Kerouac: clinical depression, substance abuse, severe alcoholism;
Jackson Pollock: clinical depression; substance abuse
Jaco Pastorius: bipolar disorder; alcoholism; substance abuse
James Dean: Bradfield bipolar
James Forrestal: clinical depression
James Garner: clinical depression
James Taylor: clinical depression; bipolar disorder
Jane Fonda: bulimia nervosa
Jane Pauley: bipolar
Janet Jackson: clinical depression
Jean-Claude Van Damme: bipolar disorder
Jessica Alba: OCD and eating disorder
Jessica Lange: clinical depression
Jim Carrey: clinical depression
Jimmy Piersall: bipolar disorder
Joan Rivers: clinical depression; bulimia nervosa
Joey Kramer: clinical depression
Joey Slinger: clinical depression
John Chambers: dyslexia
John Daly bipolar disorder; alcoholism, gambling addiction;
John Forbes Nash: schizophrenia (paranoid-type)
John Gibson: bipolar disorder
John Kenneth Galbraith: clinical depression
John Madden: specific phobia (flying)
John Mulheren: bipolar disorder
John Nash:schizophrenia
John Quincy Adams: clinical depression
Jose Canseco: clinical depression
Joshua Logan: bipolar disorder
Judy Garland: clinical depression;,substance abuse
Jules Feiffer: clinical depression
Julie Krone post-traumatic stress disorder; clinical depression
Justine Bateman: eating disorders
Karen Carpenter: anorexia nervosa
Karen Kain: clinical depression
Kate Millett bipolar disorder
Katie Price/:Jordan post natal depression
Keisha Buchanan: depression
Kendall Gill clinical depression
Kim Basinger: panic disorder
Kitty Dukakis bipolar disorder, alcoholism; substance abuse;
Kris Kristopherson: clinical depression; substance abuse
Kristy McNichol: bipolar disorder
Kurt Cobain: attention deficit disorder and bipolar depression
Kurt Vonnegut: clinical depression/bipolar
Kylie Minogue: depression
Larry Flynt: bipolar disorder
Larry King: clinical depression
Lawton Chiles: clinical depression
Lenny Henry: depression
Leo Tolstoy: clinical depression; hypochondriasis; alcoholism; substance abuse
Leonard Bernstein: clinical depression
Leonard Cohen: clinical depression
Lewis Preston: dyslexia
Linda Hamilton: bipolar disorder
Lionel Aldridge: schizophrenia (paranoid-type)
Lord Bragg: depression
Ludwig van Beethoven: bipolar disorder
Macy Gray: bipolar
Marc Summers: obsessive-compulsive disorder
Margaret Trudeau Kemper: bipolar disorder
Margaux Hemingway: dyslexia; alcoholism; clinical depression (speculated)
Margot Kidder: manic depression (Bipolar) and paranoia
Marie Osmond: clinical depression, post-partum
Marilyn Monroe: clinical depression/suicide
Mark Rothko: clinical depression
Marsha Linehan: bpd
Meg Mathews: depression
Megan Fox ??? She hasn’t been diagnosed
Mel C: depression
Mel Gibson: bipolar
Melinda Messenger: depression
Meriwether Lewis: clinical depression
Michael Phelps: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Mike Tyson: depression and severe insecurities and anger
Mike Wallace: clinical depression
Morrissey (S.P.) clinical depression
Murray Pezim: bipolar disorder
Natalie Cole: clinical depression
Ned Beatty: bipolar disorder
Neil Lennon: depression
Neil Simon: clinical depression
Nelson Rockefeller: dyslexia
Nicole Kidman: panic attacks on the red carpet
Norman Mailer: clinical depression
Ozzy Osbourne: bipolar
Pablo Picasso :clinical depression
Pat Lafontaine: clinical depression
Patricia Cornwell:bipolar disorder, anorexia nervosa, anorexia bulimia;;
Patrick Kennedy: clinical depression
Patsy Palmer: depression and panic attacks
Patty Duke: bipolar disorder
Paul Gascoigne: clinical depression
Paul Simon: clinical depression
Paula Abdu:l bullimia nervosa
Paula Deen: Agoraphobia and panic attacks
Pete Harnisch: clinical depression
Peter Gabriel: clinical depression
Peter Greene: schizophrenia
Phil Spector: clinical depression/bipolar (well, he MAY have shot someone)
Pierre Péladeau: bipolar disorder
Princess Diana Bulimia nevosa, depression and multiple suicide attempts
Queen Victoria: clinical depression
Ray Charles: clinical depression
Richard Branson dyslexia
Richard Dreyfuss: clinical depression/bipolar
Richard Simmons: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa;
Richey James: clinical depression, anorexia nervosa;;alcoholism
Rick Springfield: clinical depression
Ricky Williams: social phobia
Robbie Williams: depression
Robert Boorstin: bipolar disorder
Robert Campeau: bipolar disorder
Robert Lowell: bipolar disorder
Robert McFarlane: clinical depression
Robert Munsch: bipolar disorder
Robert Young: clinical depression; alcoholism
Robin Williams: clinical depression, learning disability;
Rod Steiger: clinical depression
Rodney Dangerfield: clinical depression
Roseanne: dissociative identity disorder (aka “multiple personality disorder”); obsessive-compulsive disorder; clinical depression; agoraphobia
Rosemary Clooney: bipolar
Ruby Wax: depression
Russell Grant: depression
Sandra Dee: anorexia nervosa
Sarah Lancashire: depression
Sarah McLachlan: clinical depression
Scott Donie: clinical depression
Shayne Corson: panic attacks
Shecky Greene: bipolar disorder, with severe panic attacks
Sheryl Crow: clinical depression
Sigmund Freud: clinical depression
Sinead O’Connor: bipolar
Sir Anthony Hopkins: clinical depression
Sir Elton John: bulimia nervosa; substance abuse, alcoholism;
Sophie Anderton: drug addiction and depression
Spencer Tracy: clinical depression; alcoholism
Spike Milligan: bipolar disorder
Stephen Fry: bipolar depression
Steve Blass: social phobia
Steve Sax: social phobia
Sting (Gordon Sumner): clinical depression
Susan Powter: clinical depression
Syd Barrett: schizophrenia
Sylvia Plath: clinical depression
Tammy Wynette: clinical depression, substance abuse;
Ted Turner: bipolar disorder
Tennessee Williams: clinical depression
Theodore Dreiser: clinical depression
Thomas Alva Edison: dyslexia
Thomas Eagleton: clinical depression
Tiberius: clinical depression (speculated)
Tipper Gore: clinical depression
Tom Cruise: dyslexia
Tony Slattery: bipolar
Tracey Gold: anorexia nervosa, attention deficit disorder;
Tracy Thompson: clinical depression
Trisha Goddard: depression
Tulisa’s mum .Tulisa’s mum had scizoaffective disorder
Uma Thurman: depression
Vaslav Nijinsky: schizophrenia
Veronica Lake: schizophrenia; alcoholism
Vincent Foster: clinical depression (speculated)
Vincent van Gogh: clinical depression; bipolar disorder (speculated)
Vivien Leigh: bipolar disorder after miscarriage
Walker Percy: clinical depression
Walt Disney: dyslexia
Whoopi Goldberg: dyslexia
William Hewlett: dyslexia
William Styron clinical depression
Winona Ryder: clinical depression; anxiety
Winston Churchill bipolar disorder; dyslexia
Woodrow Wilson: dyslexia
Yves Saint Laurent: clinical depression


You may wonder why there aren't more peole with more severe forms of illness in this list. Well, the reasons are many, including shyness due to increased stigma, less ability to function well enough to contribute to society, incapcitation, and institutionalization and wrongful incarceration.

It bares repeating on this forum that the more severly mentally ill are twice as likely to be the victims of violence rather than catylists of it. Given that statstic, one has to wonder how many of the tiny fraction of mentally ill people who wind up doing something violent are simply defending themselves, and/or reacting to serontonin overload brought on by SSRI medications, as well as side effects from other mind and mood altering medications. (see black box warnings, PDR entires on various medications)

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Me, bipolar 2/anxiety. Have had a bad reaction to _some_ SSRIs, still didn't kill anyone.

[Denninmi]

2. Bipolar II

I did massacre 2 pounds of cherrystone clams the other day. Does that count as violent behavior?

I guess I'm just nuts and should be locked away for the good of society, but hey, the chowder was great.

[justiceischeap]

3. I'm mentally ill too--Clinical depression

attempted suicide twice but have never harmed another soul. I also used to carry a concealed weapon but when my depression got bad, my parents and I made the decision that I should no longer own a gun and I voluntarily gave up my right to bear arms. Not because I'd be harmful to other's but to myself. I haven't been suicidal in close to 20 years but I still would not own a gun.

[Posteritatis]

4. I have some trouble believing that as many as 6% of them do shoot people. (nt)

[Confusious]

5. Me too

What about the people on drugs, or the people who shoot people because of hate or jealously, or people trying to steal, or a whole bunch of other reasons.

All those people are "sane."

[Cetacea]

35. My bad. Oveall violence number is 3%. Overall gun related probably less than a fraction of 1%

Thanks for pointing that out.

[Cetacea]

6. Lincoln : depression n/t

[PADemD]

7. Why do you include dyslexia as a mental illness?

[galileoreloaded]

16. I wondered the same thing?

[yawnmaster]

23. Surprisingly, it is often considered one. eom

[FreeState]

24. By who?

I've never seen a mental health professional call it anything other than a learning (reading) disability.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002379/

[yawnmaster]

38. Well, by the OP for one and the author of the article the OP links to... but generally...

"It is important to reinforce the difference between a learning disability and mental illness as these are often confused even in today's society"
emphasis added by me.

From:
Working with People with Learning Disabilities: Theory and Practice
by David Thomas, Honor Woods


Mental health professionals make up a very small part of society.

[Cetacea]

34. Not my list. Don't think sociopaths and their ilk are mentally ill in the traditional sense either.

And I think they are one of the biggest sources of the confusion and skewed perceptions. But that is another debate altogether.

[Brickbat]

8. Doug Flutie's son has autism; he does not himself, AFAIK.

[The Link]

9. I don't think the 94% is correct.

Seems like it is way too low.

[Posteritatis]

11. Okay, I'll play. What percentage of "the mentally ill" do you think are murderers? (nt)

[Posteritatis]

18. ... Grah. I'm going to invoke the "was walking in freezing rain for 45 minutes" defense.

BRB, rebooting brain.

[The Link]

19. No prob.

I didn't see your post until after I posted.

[ck4829]

10. Adam Lanza and other shooters like him were clearly profoundly disturbed

They should not be put in any list with any law-abiding citizen regardless of mental health, if you or someone you know has a mental illness, they are not going to be interchangeable with Lanza unless it is very obvious.

[Lex]

12. You should see the list of people that Lanza didn't shoot.

It's pretty long actually.

[Fumesucker]

13. Proud to be the second rec to this

I've read some remarkably ignorant things said about mental illness and those who suffer from it here on DU in the last few days.

[OneMoreDemocrat]

14. It looks like that list is a who's who of celebrity types who could probably afford treatment...

so as far as these folks are concerned it would make sense that they didn't shoot anyone.

Anyhow, ANYONE who shoots someone else with the intent of causing harm or death is mentally ill to some degree or another.

[Lex]

15. and of course most mentally ill folks don't shoot people

and no one has disputed that anyway

[Jamastiene]

22. Actually, there have been many on DU who have

lumped all of "the mentally ill" into the same category with mass shooters. It has been pretty disgusting here lately.

[Lex]

25. Wait, they say that most mentally ill people shoot people?

Because my post was just saying that it's a given that most mentally ill people don't, in fact, shoot people.

[OneMoreDemocrat]

32. No, of course most mentally ill folks don't shoot people...

But everyone who shoots people is mentally ill.

[Cetacea]

36. Intent is a criminal value.

It's what determines guilt in crime.

[backscatter712]

37. I disagree with that premise.

I hate to go Godwin, but look at the Third Reich.

In Nazi Germany, millions of nominally good, well-adjusted people were manipulated into participating in the Holocaust.

Look at the Stanford Prison Experiment, or the Milgram Experiment.

Look at the bad old days of Jim Crow - a lynching in the worst of those times was considered a fun outing for the entire family.

Most people have neurological/psychological "safeties" that prevent them from hurting or killing people. And just about everyone has neurological/psychological ways to turn those safeties off.

There are lots of criminals in our prisons today that are in there for murder and other horrible crimes that are not mentally ill.

[Jamastiene]

20. I was ready to Rec your post until the part against SSRI medications.

SSRIs have been known to cause problems in kids, but they help millions of adults. And for every 1 example of someone who took an SSRI and did something violent, there are millions who do not become violent after taking SSRIs.

I pretty much agree with the rest of your post, just not dissing the SSRIs. You would be relegating my life to pure misery without my SSRI medication, because it has been the ONLY one that has ever helped my depression. I have tried just about everything else. The one SSRI that I take is the only one I have found that helps me. I'd hate to see it get banned and be sentenced to a life of hell because of what only a small percentage of people do, because people reacted with a knee jerk reaction.

[Cetacea]

30. I am pro-medication, and an educated consumer. "Better living through chemistry" is one of my mottos

But I do a lot of research before I take a medication. And I suggest the same for everyone I know, regardless of the condition being treated.
In psychiatry, thanks to an overloaded system, months can go by before a psychiatrist can see how a particular medication is affecting someone.

SSRI's have helped me for limited times, but I find that after a while they become agitating.

They have been a life-changer for many people and I am happy for you that you are among that group.

Thanks for the feedback.

[FarCenter]

21. "mental illness" is a collective term for a wide ranging assortment of disorders

It's probably way more complicated than cancer, which is another collective term that only denotes the fact that some collection of cells is no longer constrained to behave like the tissue they were derived from and can multiply rapidly to the detriment of the host.

So obviously, lots of mentally ill people with lots of different mental illnesses will not be a danger to others.

That doesn't mean that some mentally ill people with severe mental illnesses do not become aggressively violent and endanger others.

That is why hospitals have controls and restraints.

BTW: you don't have any "A"s. How about Adolph Hitler: suffered from post traumatic stress disorder following being gassed on the western front in WW I.

[Cetacea]

28. So is normality. It doesn't change the percentages. People keep moving the goal posts

Last edited Wed May 13, 2020, 02:12 PM - Edit history (1)

Although many conflate "serious" mental illness with more horrible acts, but it is precisely this group who are 2 1/2x more likely to be victims of violence than perps. (I would think largely due to our uneducated assumptions. And they are usually too ill to plan and carry out complicated actions)

If you want to argue that there is a sub-group who are more prone to violence, than you are getting down to fractions of a percentage point.
There is already talk about restricting ALL forms of mental illness, including depression, from access to guns. I don't think that is fair, given the numbers. I know other professional media persons who suffer from depression who feel the same way. Of course an outright ban would be ideal but I am being realistic...

[TheMadMonk]

33. Not to mention multiple assasination attempts. /nt

[progressoid]

26. 94%? Where'd that number come from?

[Cetacea]

31. I took certain liberties to keep it relative to recent events. The real number is much lower.

I should correct it to read "violence".
I believe that number is 3% of all mentally ill people.

The number of mentally ill people who have shot people is probably below 1%.

[HereSince1628]

27. If you want a Z I don't think Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald every shoot anyone

You could reunite her with husband F. Scott Fitzgerald by putting my schizophrenic relative on the list.

[mrsadm]

29. Please add to your very good list

Anthony Hopkins - alcoholic, sober through AA
John Laroquette - alcoholic,'sober through AA