Is mental illness only in America?

Question

I've got this question for those trying to figure out what it is we can do to prevent situations like Virgina Tech. from ever happening again. I've been hearing that we (USA) seem to be the only country in the world that seems to have a problem like this. Why? As far as I know mental illness isn't limited to the USA its somthing that effects people all over the world, in every country.........so why don't you hear about mentally ill people in other countries going on rampages like we witness occasionally here at home. This country prides itself on being the leader of helping the world ect. Maybe it's time we took a real hard look at ourselves realizing we are going down a wrong path someplace and see why other countries aren't having this horrific problem...........MLJ

Answer 1

from what i have read somewhere, the reason why things like this viginia tech incident happen in the states is because of the freedom to do a lot of things such as purchasing guns and lesser parental control american people experience. as the freedom sometimes becomes a relative term, people get to a point wherein they think they can do anything they want, moreso when there's a law that backs it up. though freedom is good, there should be things such as the gun control law which should prohibit teenagers or young adults from purchasing deadly weapons when there is no reason to acquire one. things like this virginia tech happen in other countries as well but aren't highlighted as these events might be considered commonplace events than exceptions.

Answer 2

A predominently American phenomenon?
That is a fairly widely held misconception.
One of the world's most "prolific" serial killers was Andres Chicotillo (probably not spelled correctly), and he got away with decades of serial killings in the former Soviet Union just BECAUSE the "authorities" didn't connect the dots, and they considered serial murder to be an exclusively American problem.
How many MORE cases like this are going undetected and unidentified in other countries right now - for that very same reason?
I DO recall hearing about some gunmen holding school childred hostage (again, I think it was Russia) and the whole mess ending with the militia storming the school resulting in children and hostage-takers alike being pretty much ALL wiped out.

Also, when psychopathic behavior IS detected and identified, it may not be as well publicized in other countries as it is here.
And/or if news of it DOES reach us here, chances are that it will get scant mention, and be overshadowed by our own headlines.

And, not to forget, in countries where our civil liberties don't exist, and there is no substanially connected "mass-media" structure in place to broadcast the details into every home with thrice-daily newscasts, it is a simple matter for local authorities to deal with their own home-grown psychopaths in secret. Even the neighboring towns, much less the rest of the world, may never find out.

Answer 3

NO way. Mental illness is everywhere. I was from Vietnam (East ASia). The mentally ill in my country were considered as "outcasts" and was taken from society. Society(other countries) is considered a disgrace have mental illness and is left alone/unnoticed for that matter. I think we hear quite a bit about mental illness in this country is because we are more sensitive to the type of illness than other country. Other country do have these type of problems. The fact that there are still communists countries in the world which means that the media is controlled by the communist parties. That is why we don't hear much about some other countries.

Answer 4

Americans have greater access to information regarding mental illness and diagnosis.....also, many other societies would shame a person with a mental illness so I doubt they feel ok sharing it with people like they do in the USA.

Other countries don't have this problem starting with the lack of guns(trying to get a gun elsewhere is FAR harder and prohibitively expensive, let alone illegal), significantly lower population(300 million here!), and the way the society works....

Don't automatically assume they're better society for not having this problem....If you can't even afford the gun for the job, that right there disables 100% of would be killers in most countries.

Answer 5

I seriously doubt mental illness is solely an American (or Industrialized Nation) problem. This kid at Va. Tech was South Korean and had spent his formative years there. If it were purely an American phenomenon, then we'd hear about Americans gunning down people in other countries all the time...which we don't (Iraq doesn't count..haha). But I do think that your question raises a good point about our culture: Does our "American" culture provide an environment which 'causes' more cases of mental illness? I'd be hard pressed to answer "no" to that one. Great Question!

Answer 6

It is not only limited to the US, we seem to have more of these problems because it is so easy for Americans to get their hands on a gun. Mental illness is everywhere and in every country but, here you can do more damage to many people because the crazies are armed.

Answer 7

Could be worse, Police could be going house to house dragging families out into the street and executing them, or perhaps women could be mutilated for exposing their face in a crowd or men not growing their beard long enough. This is reality in Islamic nations...

Answer 8

well i think maybe its just teh american attitude. i have been living in europe for 4 months now and i will tell you, when you live here, you feel small and insignificant and you would never think of doing somethign liek that. but in america, peopel are like, well i´m suffering, so i´m gonna go kill a bunch of people! i dont think theres anything we can do about it, except try to help these people when we find them and also tell everyone the 11th commandment, thou shalt not shoot up thy school.

Answer 9

It's all over the world. Other countries just don't report it as publicly as we do. He was Korean. His teacher reported it to several people & they all ignored her. They had a "heads up" & ignored it. Remind you of 9-11?

Answer 10

Other countries have retarded people....Just take a look at Ahmjihad er however you spell the Iranian prime minister.