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I’m hesitant to label all of it a side effect of mental illness, because if I was legitimately being fucked with and no one believed me I’m sure my mental health would rapidly deteriorate.
It’s hardly mutually exclusive.
People living in high stress situations tend to develop cooping mechanisms. And if you’ve been assaulted by the police before, that’s bound to create some lingering PTSD. How many times do you need to be Rodney King’d before you start jumping at shadows?
On the flip side, if you express symptoms of a mental health crisis, then it’s possible you’re attracting attention from law enforcement. Police see your paranoia as suspicious activity and end up reinforcing it. Particularly true in neighborhoods that already employ Broken Windows policing and Stop And Frisk police harassment.
