Most of my anxiety and other symptoms also come from very real fears of it happening again. I wasn't in picture perfect mental health before being attacked, but I didn't have the anxiety, panic attacks, or the PTSD before I was attacked. I had clinical depression, but could not find one of the antidepressants available at that time that would work. Since then, I have found a medication that has made my quality of life go up an immeasurable amount. I know it was a commercial on TV, but finding a medication that actually helps me long term is priceless.
I have had very real fears since being violently attacked, that it may happen again. It seems lots of people who have been victims of violence, end up being labeled mentally ill, while the perpetrators get a slap on the wrist if anything for what they have done to us. Shouldn't those who perpetrate violence against us be punished instead of just labeling us as mentally ill for having problems after being attacked? It seems backwards to what it should be. Yes, we should be able to get help dealing with the issues that we have to cope with after being attacked, but to label us mentally ill then sweep the violence, that caused a lot of our problems, under the rug without doing something about the violence seems counterproductive to me.
The truth is a lot of people have mental illness, but our society routinely sweeps violence under the rug, refuses to address the gun issues, refuses to help some people who have been violently attacked for bigoted reasons, refuses to offer a living wage, and numerous other injustices. I wonder if there was less violence would there be less mental illness. I don't get why people equate mental illness with violence the way they do. In a lot of cases, violence against the person led to the person's mental illness.
If anything, I think all of this violence could be causing more mental illness because of anxiety, fears, and other effects from the violence itself. I think the opposite of those people who equate people with mental illness with mass shooters. I think our violent society is leading to more mental illness because of the anxiety and fear of the violence, not because mentally ill people are hellbent on violently attacking people. We are more likely to be the victims of violence, not the perpetrators.
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