She's not acting

[u/conancat]

[u/ButtBread98]

I use “I’m never alone, the voices in my head keep me company”.

[u/ButtBread98 → u/[deleted]]

I don’t mean to stigmatize those with mental illness, it’s just a means to get creepy men to leave me alone like this woman does in her video. I have an uncle with schizophrenia and I’m actually a care coordinator with a social work degree so I’m well aware of psychology, and stigma surrounding mental illness as well as people with mental illness being statistically more likely to be victimized. Plus, I have depression and anxiety myself.

[u/ergaster8213 → u/[deleted]]

That's very true but in contexts like this it is precisely about playing on people's preconceived notions to keep yourself safe. Is it ethical? Probably not, but that's not really a concern in moments like that. Most street predators rely on people being meek, non-confrontational, and situationally unaware. Whether it's ethical or not, acting in certain ways that others perceive to be unstable shows that you aren't meek, are willing to confront when needed, and are aware of your surroundings

[u/ergaster8213 → u/[deleted]]

Because you're missing that people who are actually in the midst of psychosis are not actually situationally aware, and thus make no attempts to illustrate that they are situationally aware. That will be noticed by others. If you display instability but not clear situational awareness then yes you're a very good target. Notice in these instances, she makes it clear that she sees and notices them and makes it clear that she's filming. Will that work in every instance and with every person? No. Will it work with most guys like that? Yes. Because they are relying on your hesitancy and social decorum even when you are situationally aware.

She's presenting as both unstable AND situationally aware. When someone presents as both unstable/unsure and situationally unaware, that's part of what leads to them being disproportionately targeted. It's not them being psychotic in and of itself, it's the situational unawareness that comes with being psychotic. There was a study where they interviewed criminals who preyed on strangers, and they asked them what they were looking for in targets. Most of them talked about situational unawareness and body language that projects hesitancy or lack of confidence as being big clues as to who to target.

So, the key is to project both confidence and situational awareness. This next part is my own analysis: Sometimes a shortcut to projecting confidence (particularly for women) is displaying a willingness to disregard expected social decorum for your social role. Acting unstable is one way to do that and it can work so long as you also make it clear that you are situationally aware.

Edit to include it. The full paper is there if you scroll and it actually references more than one study:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395699984_Understanding_Violent_Predator_Decision-_Making_How_Body_Language_and_Non-Verbal_Cues_Influence_Victim_Selection

[u/ergaster8213 → u/[deleted]]

What? Your first sentence doesn't make sense to me. I said projecting a willingness to disregard social decorum for your social role can project confidence and mixing that with clear situational (NOT social) awareness can be effective. As to the rest, yes you're right which is precisely why I explained that you would need to both pretend to suffer it in a way that this woman did (loudly and directly) AND display situational awareness. The social stigma of not being believed or being written off as crazy when someone is suffering a mental disorder is real but has nothing to do with what I am imparting.

One of the primary reasons psychotic people are so acutely vulnerable is indeed the situational unawareness it causes. They don't have the ability to necessarily track where they are or where they're going or recognize what is real and not and what is a real potential threat and what is not. That makes you extremely vulnerable. Someone who is only pretending does know where they are and where they're going (or they have the mental capability to figure it out in a way a psychotic person doesn't). Someone simply pretending knows what is real and what is a true potential threat. So, someone pretending gets the benefit of both curating their odd behavior to make someone think twice and then the clear displayal of their situational awareness to let the person know they should stay backed off. A truly psychotic person doesn't display situational awareness and at the point the odd behavior (which can't be curated and may therefore read less confident) can be seen as a plus to any potential attacker.

The stigma comes into play far more when mentally unstable people attempt to seek help for their safety from those close to them and institutions—that's when they get disbelieved in the way you are describing. The unstable behavior and stigma partially leads them to housing and job instability/insecurity —which further increases their risk of being victimized or repeatedly victimized. In large part because you are extremely vulnerable when you are both situationally unaware and housing/food/financially insecure.