how can a mentally ill person walk into a store and buy semi-automatic guns with no questions, background check or wait period but an average "joe on the street" can't walk into a drug store and get a couple of drugs to ease post nasal drip without having to show proof of i.d. and getting their name, address and phone number put on a national medication database to make sure that they don't buy more within a certain time period.something is really freakin' wrong with our society.
Yes. And it's our complete refusal to deal with mental illness in anything resembling a sane fashion (pun intended). Either mental illness is a joke, or it's not "real", or it's a sign that the person is not to be trusted. There's almost no middle ground.
And then to make matters worse, people who dare to speak up and talk about their struggles with mental illness do so at the risk of losing their ability to earn a living. It's small wonder that the few who do generally wait until they're rich enough, famous enough or respected enough that people are willing to overlook it. Someone less rich or successful who is open in the workplace about their illness risks losing any ability to further their career at that (or any other) company -- the ADA notwithstanding. That's a really good reason to keep your mouth shut and let the stereotypes perpetuate.
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Talk to my cousin. He'll tell you that the problem isn't mental illness, it's the psychiatry-pharmaceutical complex that has invented the very concept of mental illness in order to sell pills. It's the pills that make people sick.
Yes, he's a Scientologist. And his community considers the killer's dabbles with anti-depressants to be a great trimumph.
Posted by seamus | April 20, 2007 8:52 AM