Since there are about 10 threads on Gun Control and zero on this issue, I thought I'd at least throw it out there for discussion. Government funding for it is being cut, it is a taboo subject in our culture, and very hard to properly diagnose young people with signs of mental health conditions. It seems to be a driving factor in many of our mass murderers, if not all. What are we doing wrong that other nations are doing right?

Seems to me we made a mistake back in the 80’s when we cut federal funding for facilities and also moved away from facilities because some did not “feel good” about locking the mentally ill up. So, we feed them full of meds and send them home, or out into the streets, or place them in prison and call it good. I’m guessing whatever the solution is it will cost a lot of money.

I believe this is the No. 1 issue that should be focused on in regards to mass murder if we, as a nation, are truly serious about stopping it.

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I would think that most people would agree that the common denominator with these rampages is a mental health thing, even if it's something as twisted as needing that type of attention. If we don't do something proactive instead of reactive like armed teachers there isn't much else that could be done to deter the issue. But as 12evanf stated it is such a taboo subject that most don't even want to go seek help even for minor things that could escalate.

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2013 AAR: Chris Harper

Is there even a place, besides juvenile detention centers, for adolescents with violent behavior? I wouldn't have any idea of where to take my kid if I began to grow afraid of him.

Agree with this assessment. Very good articulation of what we're looking at.

Along with this is the dual problem of abuse, bullying, and a lack of respect for others. We see instances of bullying all over the place. The school where my children went previously was horribly rampant with it, to the point where the kids really hated going to school. The current school is completely different - they love it and say it's a 100% better place to be, but they still see instances of bullying and kids abusing other kids. It's quite prevalent in schools, and even (such as in the case of the YouTubed incident) cases where the teacher participates in the abuse.

Add to that abuse and bullying in the home, and the total mindset of pushing it under the table until something happens, and you've got a society which, in larger and larger numbers, churns out these types of misfits. They're misfits because they've never been allowed to fit in. I've seen some horrible effects of bullying, and it seems to be getting worse and worse, while we only do something about it in the rarest of circumstances.

Kids find coping mechanisms, be they alcohol, drugs, seclusion, or a combination of them. And when they cope, they are left to find solutions by themselves. What better a solution than to take out members of the society that made you like you are? What better way to retaliate than by sheer force and terror, the only thing that seems to have any effect at those bigger, stronger, and more popular than you?

Congratulations, you've just churned out another serial school killer, folks.

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Mental illness is only one of the commonly cited six factors present in almost every school shooting according to a recent Harvard study. Others include the shooter being a loner or bullied, a school culture devoted entirely to sports, and accessibility to guns.

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Does anyone attribute bullying into the equation?

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All of which I think other than accessibility to guns, could very well stem from Mental health issues. Think about it..... kid can't fit in with other students BECAUSE of mental issues. Kid doesn't take place in sports because of relationship with peers, and the tendency to isolate oneself away from them, due to mental Illness.

So, in my mind the way we address mental health in this country is one of the top issues in why these things are happening.

We can't pump kids full of drugs that we don't always understand why or how they work, and then completely leave the root of the problems untreated and expect these kids to grow up perfectly fine.

Not all people who have mental illness snap. Not all kids with warning signs become very Ill, and/or demented...... but with the poplution so high that one kid in the huge bunch that will snap is going to be ever more common. It's going to get worse as the population grows and the ability to diagnose and treat becomes harder.

Just my two cents.

While the Harvard study suggests that removing just one of those six factor can change the likelihood of a tragedy, my fear is that some of those factors are tough to change. We can't force teenage/young adult society to be inclusive (they're notoriously otherwise). We can't do much about those dumb communities that obsess on sports. We can't eliminate violent video games and movies that acclimatize people to violence. These are difficult, difficult things to affect, and while the near-complete majority of kids don't turn into serial killers because of these factors, they do help create the one that does.

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Agreed on all points.

It's definitely a part of the equation. One that I hope is NOT over looked during the Vice Presidents team meetings.

Kids can be MEAN and that can stick with the targeted child a LONG time into adulthood.

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Schools all over the country launched anti-bullying initiatives just this month.

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Do any of you watch violent movies or play violent video games and want to do those things?

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RIP ROAD WOES 12/2/2012

Can't vouch for the veracity of this site, but it raises some interesting questions. In our mad dash to blame guns as the root of this "epidemic" are we conveniently ignoring (or being mislead) about the real causes of this type of violent incident?

http://mobile.wnd.com/2013/01/the-giant-gaping-hole-in-sandy-hook-reporting/

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Seems like a problem we should address before gun rights issues, that is for sure.

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Only when I read your posts.

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Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

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ba doom chhh

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You mean like Seahawks.net?

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I'm not ashamed of who and what I am, so I will share this.

Speaking of one who has been "in the system" (mild case of bipolar), I can attest it sucks. It was bad in the 90s when I was diagnosed and it's only gotten worse. Worse still, the drugs they give are from drug companies that really could give a crap about helping people; profit is the bottom line, fuck some mentally ill person eh, we got our cash! I was put on lithium at first (the ONLY thing that ever truly helped me), but I still would have some symptoms, nothing unmanageable, but they decided (because it was the new hot drug), to put me on Depakote (valproic acid). That stuff never worked and I told them over and over that it didn't and it fell on deaf ears. It's pretty fucking scary when you are in their office and the lady is drinking from a coffee mug that advertises Depakote, writing me notes on a pad advertising Abilify, and this kind of thing, but I tell you, it is extremely common in publicly funded mental health agencies. Worst of all, I was on Depakote long enough I gained a shit-ton of weight (far more than I was genetically predispositioned to), and I am still battling that 12 years later.

When I say "mild case" I mean to say, that before I fucked myself up with meth, I'd likely have never been diagnosed. Meth has a way of making bipolar worse, no question about it. Even so, we are talking about not sleeping in the springtime (getting clean, over time improves things immensely), can't keep to a schedule, spending too much money, or sleeping with women of questionable virtue (the fun part), this kind of thing. In fact I never even came close to hospitalization; that is until I was put on Lamotrigine. For two years they pushed it like it was some wonder drug, but I found I needed to just take more and more to curb symptoms in the spring, and even so, the sleep deprivation, makes it difficult to remember if I took it or not. I ended up getting a "rare but serious side effect", called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, which then resulted in what we suspect was "Aseptic Meningitis", two years in a row (was only hospitalized one, for a week, but this year it broke up my 20 year marriage which I'm still sore about).

This is a full blown severe case of Stevens-Johnson:



Trouble is, my rash was in less visible places and they never believed me. Your mucous membranes dry up, and the epidermis of your skin falls apart. I had blisters on my feet for a month, it wasn't fun!

A fucking drug company pushing a drug, damn near killed me, lost me my home, damn near everything. So you think I'm bitter? Yeah I am, not so much at the mental health people, but at the drug companies, and myself for not seeing it sooner. Hell if anyone knows a good attorney who might be willing to talk about it, LMK. If only I would have insisted on Lithium, or someone had believed me when I said that stuff was messing me up (I'd complained about thinking I had Stevens-Johnson on five separate occasions before anyone listened). It's painful to even talk about still because this was just last September. The thing is, Lithium isn't even a drug, and there's no money to be made. Never mind that its pretty safe, and effective. Damn I should get off the drug companies before I really blow a gasket! Long story short, back on lithium, back to being fine. I know some symptoms will come in Spring, but at least I know it's manageable this time.

The funny thing is I spent a night in jail for felony firearms charges (which were later dropped). That's quite a story but one for another time. They dropped them, not because I wasn't guilty, but because they finally realized I wasn't interested in hurting anyone. Was all just an elaborate horse trade.

I have a friend in AA, she is a mental health counselor. She says, that the cost to society, financially and otherwise is exponentially more than just spending the money to treat people. She says, she had clients who are going to be a danger to themselves and others when they can't come in, get their meds prescribed; yet the state, in it's infinite wisdom, made cuts so deep many of these people no longer qualify for ANY services at all!

So yeah, the system is broken, and broken badly, and austerity is NOT the answer. Drug companies clearly aren't either.

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