Question about the fear of calling 911 for mental health support

[Oz67]

Why are people in the mental health community afraid of me calling 911 to get mental help?

I tend to hide my symptoms of Bipolar Disorder and am always careful not to be too odd in front of police officers. I am a little confused, because I don't do risky behaviors when manic, I tend to look at the mirrors a lot when I have the delusion of grandeur.

But other than that, I am calm, trying my best to be on my behavior.

What should I have done better if I have mental health crisis again?

 

[Neonatal RRT]

One would hope your community would have some place to call. This happens to be one example in Michigan, US. See someone in crisis? You don't have to call the police. Here are alternatives.. I would do some research, find those contacts, and have them readily available if you are that concerned about your situation. 911 is typically reserved for situations where a person or persons are in imminent danger. The police are primarily trained in "safety and security" and although they often find themselves in situations where they have to deal with someone with mental health issues, this is not really their area of expertise. Certainly, if someone in a mental health crisis is "acting out" it can lead to physicality and even death, and may be part of the reason for fear of the police. There's been incidents where police have confronted an ASD-2/3 teenager on a playground, the poor kid gets anxious, starts "stimming" and acting out, and ends up with a clip of bullets in him, or choked out, asphyxiated, dead now, from an overly anxious police officer. This happens.

 

[Oz67]

One would hope your community would have some place to call. This happens to be one example in Michigan, US. See someone in crisis? You don't have to call the police. Here are alternatives.. I would do some research, find those contacts, and have them readily available if you are that concerned about your situation. 911 is typically reserved for situations where a person or persons are in imminent danger. The police are primarily trained in "safety and security" and although they often find themselves in situations where they have to deal with someone with mental health issues, this is not really their area of expertise. Certainly, if someone in a mental health crisis is "acting out" it can lead to physicality and even death, and may be part of the reason for fear of the police. There's been incidents where police have confronted an ASD-2/3 teenager on a playground, the poor kid gets anxious, starts "stimming" and acting out, and ends up with a clip of bullets in him, or choked out, asphyxiated, dead now, from an overly anxious police officer. This happens.

Now that makes sense.

I am sorry that I asked, because even though I have ASD level 1, I tend to mask it. I don't have enough good experience to understand that situation as I never had that situation. Luckily the cops where mice to me when I had delusion of guilt, but spoke smoothly.

 

[MildredHubble]

I agree with @Neonatal RRT, emergency services tend to have training best suited to crisis situations and are mostly concerned with solving situations in the most expeditious method possible. The issue is, when your only tool is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail. So if you were manic and were talking to everyone in the street and someone became worried about it and called 911 you could get emergency service responders swooping in and making the situation worse.

Things have improved a little in modern times and police etc should know when to carefully and diplomatically make sure they get mentally ill people to the appropriate mental health providers. But in the past, mentally ill people may have been arrested, put in cells and suffer violence.

It's a lot less prevalent these days but sadly you hear about mentally ill people dying in cells after being bull dozed by several enthusiastic police officers attempting to subdue them.

Fortunately for me, mania has usually been mostly just having high energy and trying to achieve more than is sensible, though there have been rarer episodes where I've been suffering delusions and having very wonky thoughts. If I had found myself surrounded by police I would probably have freaked out.

I think emergency services are really there for when you are in a severe crisis where you are a risk to yourself or others. At least in those sorts of situations the police etc may have more applicable training.

In the UK we have local Crisis Teams who can be called when you are worried about your safety. In my experience they can be a bit hit or miss. Some have been good, others not so much. But it may be worth trying to find out if there are any services that could help you if you need it and storing their numbers on your phone or card to keep in a wallet or purse so you have them handy.

 

[Oz67]

I agree with @Neonatal RRT, emergency services tend to have training best suited to crisis situations and are mostly concerned with solving situations in the most expeditious method possible. The issue is, when your only tool is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail. So if you were manic and were talking to everyone in the street and someone became worried about it and called 911 you could get emergency service responders swooping in and making the situation worse.

Things have improved a little in modern times and police etc should know when to carefully and diplomatically make sure they get mentally ill people to the appropriate mental health providers. But in the past, mentally ill people may have been arrested, put in cells and suffer violence.

It's a lot less prevalent these days but sadly you hear about mentally ill people dying in cells after being bull dozed by several enthusiastic police officers attempting to subdue them.

Fortunately for me, mania has usually been mostly just having high energy and trying to achieve more than is sensible, though there have been rarer episodes where I've been suffering delusions and having very wonky thoughts. If I had found myself surrounded by police I would probably have freaked out.

I think emergency services are really there for when you are in a severe crisis where you are a risk to yourself or others. At least in those sorts of situations the police etc may have more applicable training.

In the UK we have local Crisis Teams who can be called when you are worried about your safety. In my experience they can be a bit hit or miss. Some have been good, others not so much. But it may be worth trying to find out if there are any services that could help you if you need it and storing their numbers on your phone or card to keep in a wallet or purse so you have them handy.

I live in USA, I forgot to mention that, my bad.

 

[Oz67]

I do admit that I was violent when I had delusion that the military police are after me, I was 15 years old at that time, but the thing is that I still knew that attacking police officers is a felony.

 

[Outdated]

One would hope your community would have some place to call. This happens to be one example in Michigan, US. See someone in crisis? You don't have to call the police. Here are alternatives.. I would do some research, find those contacts, and have them readily available if you are that concerned about your situation.

This was the very first thought that popped in to my head as well, in Australia the emergency number is 000 but it's not who you call for mental problems or social issues, we have other hotlines for that.

Certainly, if someone in a mental health crisis is "acting out" it can lead to physicality and even death, and may be part of the reason for fear of the police. There's been incidents where police have confronted an ASD-2/3 teenager on a playground, the poor kid gets anxious, starts "stimming" and acting out, and ends up with a clip of bullets in him, or choked out, asphyxiated, dead now, from an overly anxious police officer. This happens.

This also happens in 4 states in Australia, in NSW there's a couple of cops currently facing murder charges for exactly this sort of reaction. The rest of the country has really good cops that are better trained.

 

[Judge]

Have to agree that it might be precarious to contact 911. Then again I see similar comments pertaining to dialing 988 for mental health assistance. Very perplexing...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/11/1116769071/social-media-posts-warn-people-not-to-call-988-heres-what-you-need-to-know

 

[Oz67]

So, if I were to be charged with a crime of being aggressive today that happened in 2016, my question if I would still be legally sane.

The reason why I asked, is because even though I had a delusion that the military police is after me, I still knew it's a felony to attack police officers.

I hope that you know where I am coming from.

 

[Oz67]

Now that makes sense.

I am sorry that I asked, because even though I have ASD level 1, I tend to mask it. I don't have enough good experience to understand that situation as I never had that situation. Luckily the cops where mice to me when I had delusion of guilt, but spoke smoothly.

I meant to say that police officers were at least helpful in my crisis.

 

[Judge]

So, if I were to be charged with a crime of being aggressive today that happened in 2016, my question if I would still be legally sane.

The reason why I asked, is because even though I had a delusion that the military police is after me, I still knew it's a felony to attack police officers.

I hope that you know where I am coming from.

I remember how embarrassing it was for my father (a Naval Officer) telling me about when he had to answer the door only to find that it was two military police looking for his AWOL brother (army enlisted).

MPs/SPs can be relentless. It's no joke.

 

[lovely_darlingprettybaby]

Why are people in the mental health community afraid of me calling 911 to get mental help?

I tend to hide my symptoms of Bipolar Disorder and am always careful not to be too odd in front of police officers. I am a little confused, because I don't do risky behaviors when manic, I tend to look at the mirrors a lot when I have the delusion of grandeur.

But other than that, I am calm, trying my best to be on my behavior.

What should I have done better if I have mental health crisis again?

It depends.
Calling 911 is for an absolute emergency so if it is not an emergency, people should go to the doctor or hospital themselves.
However if you are hurting yourself or out of control in a way that is harmful to self then it is ok to call them if the person is in danger.
If a person with a disability makes a mistake and calls them in the wrong situation then that is ok because they cannot help their disability.
However..they should be kind to both people with physical and mental health matters in a crisis because both cam be equally severe like if a person fears they will commit suicide or is a danger to themselves then they should call them and they should be polite and treat a mentally ill person just like a physically ill person.
There is still a lot of stigma attached to mental health

 

[Oz67]

It depends.
Calling 911 is for an absolute emergency so if it is not an emergency, people should go to the doctor or hospital themselves.
However if you are hurting yourself or out of control in a way that is harmful to self then it is ok to call them if the person is in danger.
If a person with a disability makes a mistake and calls them in the wrong situation then that is ok because they cannot help their disability.
However..they should be kind to both people with physical and mental health matters in a crisis because both cam be equally severe like if a person fears they will commit suicide or is a danger to themselves then they should call them and they should be polite and treat a mentally ill person just like a physically ill person.
There is still a lot of stigma attached to mental health

That is an amazing answer, thanks!