Do Crazy People Exist for Entertainment?

Posted on August 5, 2009 in Stigma

There are a lot of yuckety-yuck sites around the Internet that celebrate failure among other things. They ask visitors to give a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down on submissions from readers or give them a numerical rating. I confess that I visit a few of such sites for laughs, but I was stopped cold by emails from crazy people which is dedicated to making fun of the mentally ill.

efcp follows the usual format of showing the example and then opening it up for public ridicule. A recent entry showed the letter of an obviously distressed man who used some rather creepy Star Wars metaphors to woo a woman. The comments laughed at the note or debated its authenticity, but except for me, no one raised the question of how to help the writer of the note or its recipient.

I find myself facing a puzzlement. Do I make this site part of my weekly visitations now — reminding people that mental illness is no laughing matter and needs help — or do I just write it and its goth owners off as hopeless causes?

To their credit, they did post my comment. Maybe some links to NAMI would be appropriate as well.