We're not as clueless as we think we are or want to think we are. I started a music website several years ago, before the breakdown. I have been very slowly bringing it back together - very slowly.
Alot has been talked of mental illness in the wake of all these tragedies. Obviously the culprits are mentally ill themselves and the way to contain such individuals is on every one's mind.
However, think about this: These acts create more mental illness in the form of PTSD. PTSD is post traumatic stress disorder.
The pharmaceutical industry and organized psychiatry act as if the greatest challenge today is to identify new psychiatric disorders, to promote the supposedly high prevalence of existing disorders, and to find new blockbuster drugs, all the while heavily promoting current moneymakers. Even the United Nations is involved in "World Mental Health Day," announcing that depression is a "global health crisis."
I'm pleasantly surprised by some of the reception here. After I had my breakdown, I did alot of reading about psychiatric medication. What I found out was - disturbing.
I read about toddlers literally being given anti-psychotic meds and I started to honestly wonder if the world was rigged against life. It's one thing to be depressed yourself but where I was at - good Lord, man. It seemed like the world itself was in decay.
"To have a child hooked on speed ... meaning Adderall, Ritalin, or Strattera, etc. ... to boost focus and impulse when they haven’t even hit puberty can only lead to a destructive path. These drugs aren’t good for adults so why in the hell would they be advised for children? How about parenting, the lost art form? Can we start there before throwing our children on drugs? Are better grades worth the risk of turning our schools in warzones?"
This is another piece about mental illness. I have gotten a mixed reception from all of you here. This makes alot of people very uncomfortable. The last thread about mental illness did really well and I really learned from all of your stories - however - I know from experience posting here that the subjects I pick aren't what some want. I've been encouraged to post here and wouldn't do so if I thought I was imposing.
If this makes you uncomfortable, please just skip over. The subject is complex and needs to be discussed out of necessity for what it is.
As mental illness comes back in to the national discourse given all the tragic shootings, it's worth noting how pervasive mental illness really is. Mental illness doesn't necessarily mean schizophrenia - where a person stops being tuned at all in to reality and starts to talk incessantly to themselves.
Holmes reportedly had as much Vicodin in his system as killed Heath Ledger. His psychiatrist had been reprimanded for prescribing medications very liberally - including to family and friends.
You know it, I know it. The world is broken and falling in to chaos.
During World War II, economic collapse and deterioration led to most of the world's leading nations falling in to dictatorships. People back then were very different than they are now, however. People now are used to being independent, of telling themselves what to do, of buying what they want and having what they want. They don't need a fascist or communist leader to be nasty for them - they know how to do it themselves.
Almost as disturbing as the massacre in Connecticut has been some of the response to it. One article called "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother" is by a woman who has an intelligent son prone to violent and scary moods. As far as it seems, those bad moods haven't gone to the point of murdering grade schoolers but she nevertheless acts as if it has.
David Frum recently posted another one of these by a reader - it was called "I Was Adam Lanza:"
Geneticists not directly involved in the study said they are likely looking at Lanza's DNA to detect a mutation or abnormality that could increase the risk of aggressive or violent behavior. They could analyze Lanza's entire genome in great detail and try to find unexpected mutations.
