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by gammatrigono 2844 days ago
This is the saddest thing I've seen all year, easily worse than any gore video. I can't believe this is real.
1 comments

It saddens me that people are more comfortable watching videos of gore than a person suffering from a mental illness.

It saddens me that America lacks mental health awareness.

> I can't believe this is real.

About 1% of Americans suffer from schizophrenia [0] and for many of those, this video shows what they and their family face on a daily basis. You and the people around you probably don't ever experience what happens in those gore videos, but we are surrounded by people who suffer from schizophrenia and other mental disorders.

There is currently no cure for schizophrenia and the best treatment is therapy and antipsychotic medication. If the person who is suffering from schizophrenia decides to pass on the medication and therapy (for reasons related to the disorder or because the side effects are worse than the benefits), it can be difficult to prevent situations like the one in the video of Terry from happening.

Imagine you are in a room with 100 other people. It is likely that someone in that room has experienced paranoia or groundless thinking similar to what you saw in the video. Both them and their family have to learn how to deal with the symptoms and often do not get enough support. I encourage everyone to educate themselves on mental health and consider donating to an organization that supports people with mental illness [1].

Terry uploaded a video the day before he died [2] and also removed all of his previously uploaded videos from YouTube. That leads me to believe that he committed suicide. I don't know much about his situation, but I can't help to wonder if he would still be with us if he was given more support and resources to help him deal with his illness.

Thankfully Archive.org [3] has saved a great amount of videos and links related to Terry's life if anyone would like to learn more.

[0] https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Sch...

[1] https://www.nami.org/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH41gGBVpkE

[3] http://ia800600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleOS...

Goddamn that hurts.

I’m going to puke if I see one more tweet from Fred Wilson saying “the startup community needs to be open to talking about mental health” and then he talks about some trendy, socially acceptable “depression”.

I had someone I cared about on a 5150 hold. That shit breaks your heart when you know you need much more then 48 hours, and you are helpless.

Terry had people that cared about him, and what ended up happening to him is an indictment of the system.

The system failed Terry and those that cared about him.

>The system failed Terry

"This is not an issue of mental health in America. American society decided that Terry Davis was not a threat to himself or others, and thus permitted him the freedom to choose whether he would get help for his condition or not. That freedom may be clouded by his condition, but it is a freedom he is afforded none-the-less. Terry Davis is a success story in America being tolerant of the mentally ill." --random internet guy