The second major issue following the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy is mental health in America. My focus in this post is not on the various types of mental health but on how it is treated and handled in America. When I first heard of this atrocious crime I asked myself what kind of sick monster would do such a thing. Eventually as the proper details have come out it turns out the gunman was in fact sick. The alleged gunman in this travesty was diagnosed with Autism and Aspegers Syndrome. Before I continue on let it be known I had two family members with varying degrees of Autusm. I do not believe that having these disorders makes you dangerous but lack of proper care and treatment can.
The alleged gunman's mental disorders gave him a reduced ability to feel empathy and emotion. Which unfortunately allowed him to commit heinous acts without his conscience. Dealing with an autistic child is frustrating, as a result his mother has been documented as frequenting a gun range (with the shooter in question) to connect with her son. That decision was as negligent and poor as it gets. The mother holds responsibility (in my humble opinion) for these crimes alongside the gunman himself. In what may have been a good hearted (yet undeniably negligent) attempt at connecting with her child she introduced a dangerous activity to someone with known mental health issues. I love my autistic family members but I know that they have no business at a gun range let alone handling one.
In this country I believe there are millions of people living with mental health disorders and have never been diagnosed. People tend to think of mental health problems in the extreme (I.e. severe autism and mental retardation, schizophrenia etc) when there are so many common yet complex issues that every day "normal on the outside" people struggle with. These issues range from depression, bi-polar disorder, attention deficit, hyperactive, and Obsessive compulsive all the way up to the major life inhibiting disorders. Half the battle is being able to accept and identify them. People avoid talking about or checking for them due to the negative connotations associated with them. By identifying these issues you can change ones life for the better with simple treatment or therapy or even the strong support of aware loved ones.
I am not one to claim to know what the gunman's mother was going through or what pushed her toward the idea that playing with guns was good for her and her child. It can be increasingly disheartening to deal with a debilitating mental disorder. It's hard enough to have a relationship with someone who may be bi-polar or depressed let alone something like autism. We as a society must continue to bring light to mental health in order to promote and identify mental well being for the sake of all society.
On any given day a "normal" person can be driven off of the "deep end" so another thing we must consider is how we deal with and interact with strangers and especially our loved ones. You never know what a person is going through when they are having a bad day, make a mistake or even lash out themselves in anger. You never want to be the person who sets someone off. We will never know what pushed this gunman with known mental health problems into this atrocity, but what we can see is that he was mishandled by his care takers. Please do not confuse mishandle with abuse because I am sure that his mother most likely loved him very much and only wanted for his well being however mistakes were made.
A series of unfortunate events pushed a mentally challenged person into this monstrous act that had changed lives and ultimately America. We as a society must raise awareness of mental health issues to the forefront of everyone so people can be identified and treated. In doing so we must be careful however to not begin witch hunts especially with our youth. When I was in middle school I had an incident where I could hardly remember what another classmate had done to anger me. I remember walking out into the hallway to calm down, when followed by the teacher she asked me to return to class. I told her I needed a minute, when she asked why my response was "they keep pissing me off, makes me wanna kill somebody". This poor choice of words prompted multiple interviews with school officials and my mother. I couldn't imagine the response such words would have in today's world, needless to say I continued on just fine after some uncomfortable conversations due to my figure of speech.
School children will forever be mean, inappropriate and cruel to each other. Some will ignore and forget and some (especially those with mental health issues) harbor and internalize in unhealthy ways. People of all ages must learn to love and care for each other properly. Mental health awareness and support is the first step toward helping a rising problem in this country. Treating each other with respect and dignity on a daily basis is the next. School children are immature but the adults have no excuse. We should be teaching our children to set examples and never be the bulky or the clown who makes fun. We as adults need to practice such behavior in public ourselves. I believe that simple kindness and simple awareness of health issues can help make the world a better place, and possibly prevent the next tragedy and that is my Profound Perspective.
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