Psychological Stigmas

I recently read an article by Liza Long, who comments on her experiences as a mother of a mentally ill child.  She wrote this article in light of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School this past Friday.

You can read her article here: http://gawker.com/5968818/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother?post=55294867


Though I never submitted it, I wrote the following as a response to her article along with some very critical responses she received from other readers:


In lieu of all the criticisms towards Liza Long's article, I think Ms. Long shares this article with us as a glimpse into her life as a single mother of four, one of whom has special needs.  This is not the entire story, and I am sure there is much more going on than we, as readers of this brief glimpse are missing out on.  All that to say, one should not be so quick to criticize Ms. Long.  Her argument is not undermined by her singleness nor by the statistics she shows about mentally ill people involved in mass murders with firearms.  I think Ms. Long raises an excellent point: What are we doing to care for the mentally ill in this country? And their families who are in need of help and solutions as to how to care for them?

Is this not the question we are asking?

Mental illness is almost taboo in this country.  Nobody really wants to talk about it, and certainly, nobody knows how to deal with it (nor do they want to).  There is a huge stigma on psychological disorders.  If you have one, you are inferior, and it is somehow a result of something that you did in your life.

That's crazy to me. 31.2% of American adults will suffer at some point in their lives from an anxiety disorder.  And a lot of people don’t seek treatment, so this number is probably higher in actuality.  Anxiety disorders are the most common disorders among all ages and is equally distributed among Hispanics, African-Americans, and whites in the US.  It's onset age is 11, and people who experience it frequently have comorbidity issues, that is, the the presence of one or more disorders in addition to the primary disorder.

A lot of people who have an anxiety disorder never seek help.  They never seek therapy, mainly because it would make them look inferior or whatever it is that we have thought of psych disorders to be.  Therapy is a good thing.  It is helpful.  And it is helpful to a person who has a disorder that he or she did not bring upon himself or herself.  Seeking therapy is healthy, and avoiding it is what causes people to remain in the crevices of illness.  70% of people who receive cognitive behavioral therapy for an anxiety disorder improve.

Obviously, anxiety disorders are not the mental health issues that are at work in this article.  Yet, I bring this up to illustrate a point.  There is such a stigma to psychological disorders within this country, and it is becoming a problem.  It is burdensome to the families of mentally ill patients, and it can quickly become tragic to communities affected by it, as we have seen several times within the past couple of years.  Can we not step up to this problem and address it?  To care for those who are mentally ill?  To care for those families and communities who deal with these issues?

Certainly, the tragedy that has shaken this country dealt with firearms, and that is definitely an issue to be addressed.  Yet, as Ms. long suggests, this is about more than firearms.  It is about the people.  It has always been about the people.  Yes, guns, in and of themselves do not kill people(although, I would like to point out that the sole purpose in their design is to kill something).  It is when they are placed within the hand of a human being does something terrible happen.  The gun issue needs to be addressed, but I think that choosing to address the issue of guns before choosing to address the people behind them is a sign of priorities that need to be reorganized.