The mentally ill.

Originally posted by EvanB
You have created the source for your own demise..

suck it up..

Enjoy the fruits of your liberal second ammendment.. Kids dead because your brainwashed asses need a gun coz of the self perpetuated arms race you have bought on yourselves and excuses to keep gun coz you are all giant cowards who hide behind them..

I guess the guy who massacred all those people in Norway was American also?

That is the WORLD view btw.. Not that it matters because the same will happen mext month.. But thats ok right?..

Holy S###, Is that you Ban Ki Moon? Look out America, sanctions are coming..

I know that psychological examinations might not be the answer. I just wanted to put that on the table in an attempt to look at all possibilities.

I mentioned the desensitizing earlier. Whose fault is that? Was it the media that slowly broke down our disdain for violence and then, like drug addicts we began to beg for more?....to the point now we are totally unaffected by violent scenes of blood and gore?

I remember back in the day, good horror movies only implied guts and gore...it was left to the imagination. Now...if a movie doesn't show realistic decapitations, evisceration and gallons of blood...it flops at the box office. Our appetite for destruction is gluttonous and like a roman gladiatorial mob...we shout for more.

But yes, the idea is...we have a mental illness problem....because I feel that extreme acts of violence requires an unstable mind...perhaps I am wrong. I do not think removing this weapon or that implement of destruction from the hands of the public will reduce the desire to do horrible, violent things. i thin the problem is way deeper than that.

Can we go back? Can we find it within ourselves to return to the days of safe and harmless entertainment...backyard bar-b-ques with our neighbors...and family vacations to the beach or the national parks? I'd like to tell myself that we could roll back the societal damage to a better day...but deep inside, I don't think we can. I think we have to diagnose the problems...address them...and forge a new "good ole days"...

I do think we can be less violent if we find out the causes and address them.

I'm gonna top the list here with:

1) De-valuation of human life.

When you have too much of anything, it loses it's value. When there was only one guy in a town or village that could do a job...he was valuable. When there are now ten or more people waiting to do that job...their value is nothing. When we lose the value for human life, it become easier to be violent against someone else...

Ok...you guys are next...

any ideas for a number 2?

2)

What you suggest is no better than locking people up on farms.

You are asking for the Government to have more control over peoples lives. And like the other poster said, what about depression? You are targeting a large chunk of the population. And what are you going to do? Monitor these people 24 hours a day? How do you ensure that prescibed medication is taken? How do we determine who is targeted?

Are you going after the autistic? The attention deficit people? The bi-polar people? Schizophrenics? Every person with a mental condition? Where will it end? Will every person in the whole nation have to be 'screened'? What other restrictions will be placed on these people apart from loss of gun ownership?

How many Vets have mental issues when they return from service? Are conservatives going after the troops again? Why wont conservatives just support the troops? And not just when they are risking their lives for the government. Most Veterans that return from service are going to own a gun Do you want to take them away? Why target the Vets? Why try to take guns away from Vets? Shouldnt Vets be allowed to own a weapon? Can you imagine the scrutiny that would be put on Vets by your Orwellian 'panel'?

reply to post by Jeremiah65


The good old days is a fallacy, there is no such thing. People tend to want to remember the good, and forget the bad. That is why people think back to the good old days. Also, we are totally connected now, so if something out of the ordinary, especially bad happens, we hear about it, no matter where it happens. We used to only hear mostly local news back in the days before the internet. It makes the bad stuff seem like it happens more and more, when in reality it is just that more and more places are getting connected to the net.

reply to post by spangledbanner


I def see your point and I hope that you will read a little deeper to realize it is an opening statement. Putting it out there for review and discussion...I am not married to the idea.

I do not want people to demand to amend the Constitution in fits of outrage, horror and panic. I want to explore other ways to deal with the violence we seem to see growing each passing year. In order to deal with that violence, we need to look at the causes of it and how to heal or prevent it.

But thanks for your opinion.

reply to post by seeker1963


Eventually even the mental state we currently call "being happy" will be labelled something like recurring seretonosis and will be treated as a mental disorder. Society has gone nuts, i think i want to get of now

Originally posted by Jeremiah65
Your mental health professional (or a panel), after diagnosing your condition, could then decide if you are capable, stable and competent to own a firearm. They could also, at that time...prescribe the necessary treatments and medications...

Here in Australia, all it takes to de diagnosed as "mentally ill" is to go to your doctor and tell them you had a hard day at work. I'm not joking. That's all it takes to get a prescription for antidepressants and therefore be "mentally ill".

Most people are quite fine when they start taking them, it's when they STOP taking them that they lose it.

Don't be fooled into thinking that somehow doctors have your best interests at heart, that they somehow care for your wellbeing. They are nothing but trained saled reps for pharmaceutical companies.

Big business doesn't love you or care for you. I don't understand why most people can't quite grasp that simple fact...

Originally posted by GreyGoo
Eventually even the mental state we currently call "being happy" will be labelled something like recurring seretonosis and will be treated as a mental disorder. Society has gone nuts, i think i want to get of now

It will only be labelled a mental disorder if it makes people unproductive and has negative effects for the economy. At the moment, a happy worker is a productive worker.

When it gets to the stage that people are that happy that they simply quit their jobs and sit in a park all day playing guitars and singing and dancing, they will fabricate a condition for it.

Originally posted by zroth

It is my honest opinion that 'civilized' society is mentally ill by design.

I second the motion.

I blame the petroleum products. Something about it irritates the human body and causes mental problems. The majority of people have surrounded themselves in a cloak of crazy-making textiles and have adapted their entire lifestyle to it. Whole industries around crazy.

Go to a spiritual guru in another country, he will promote natural fibers over synthetics because he senses what others don't. In the west especially, synthetics are everywhere, and so is synthetic ways out of the invented world. Drugs. Modern magic potions, which, by the way, are made with synthetic materials, to help the maladjusted adapt (or wither and fade away). Take out the root of the problem, take out the disease, more than to treat it into a genocide.

You know those psych meds, you can't breed while on them. They ruin the libido as a side effect. They lower IQ and actively clog or erode synapses to enforce an unnatural functioning. And they mess with brain hormones so much that people gain weight, making them unattractive. The drugs are designed to silence the critics of society.

I had an epiphany and figured it out, threw out all the polyester and synthetics I could and the crazy wasn't there as much anymore. Which, of course, makes me look crazy compared to all the consumers out there who declare they don't feel a thing wrong with their products, but it worked. I changed my mind when I changed my environment.

That went off on a tangent but I was making a point that the crazy is in a product more than a person. Some people have strange allergies that manifest as mental illness.

I hope people get the point that mental illness isn't evil, and evil isn't mental illness. If only the doctors could define mental wellness.

Here is my experience with the mental care system in America.

I was going through a rough spot, didn't have anyone in my life that I wanted knowing all the intimate details of the things going on. So I decide I'll go talk to someone on a professional level, figured it would be freeing to get some things out that were going on in my life to an outside 'professional' source.

They have to do this initial evaluation to see which counselor I get assigned. First thing the first person I speak to asks is if I want some medication, anti-depressents or anxiety medicine. I'm like no, I just want to talk to someone. They go into this presentation about the benefits of various drugs and I make it clear I have no interest in them.

I go to 3 or 4 sessions, each one ending in the offer of medication. Turns out I miss an appointment due to my schedule. I am a week or so late on paying the 'missed appointment' charge, and receive a letter saying something to the affect of 'due to my failure to pay they can no longer have me as a patient.'

As long as patients' mental state is less important than money and pushing drugs, I don't think we'll see much positive progress.

I have paranoid schizophrenia. I've been dealing with this illness for the past 17 years. I had a normal childhood growing up. I got good grades in school and I even played football for 6 years. No one had a clue that when I turned 19 my world would be turned upside down by this illness. I have no family history of schizophrenia. The illness progressed at a steady pace over a year. My family couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I was paranoid and wouldn't walk in front of the windows if the blinds were open. I thought the CIA was watching me. It just got worse and worse. I didn't leave the house for 6 months.

I lived in my parents basement and the whole time I was coming down with this illness there was a unlocked gun cabinet in the corner of the basement full of ammunition and guns. Not once did it cross my mind to use those guns in any way. At the time my parents had a lot going on they were going through a divorce and my mom was working a lot of hours. No one was really paying attention to what was going on with me. I finally had some discussions with my mom about what was happening. She tried to get me help. She started taking me to see doctors. None of them could help me. The doctors always asked if I heard voices and I said no because I wasn't at the time.

As time went by I got worse and worse. One day it was like a switch went off in my head and I started hearing voices. I told my mom and within hours she took me to the hospital. I was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia. I was so far gone by that point one doctor told my mom to put me in a home and that I would never be the same. The prognoses that was given was very poor.

I got out of the hospital after 30 days. My mom found me one of the best doctors she could. Within 6 months I started to recover. After a year I started working. Within 2 years I was living on my own.

My mom took ownership of the guns in the cabinet after the divorce. I've always been a sportsman and love to hunt and fish. My mom gave me the guns 10 years ago. I sold most of them but I kept a couple for hunting. She knows I have them and she would get them if I ever had a relapse. I had to take a psychological exam to get funding for school. I passed with flying colors.

Even though I have schizophrenia I am not stupid. The last place I want to be is locked up in a psyche ward of a prison. I am in no way homicidal or suicidal. Most schizophrenics are not violent.

Mental health is not taken serious in this country. There are a lot of people that slip through the cracks and don't get the treatment they need. A lot of them end up homeless or in the prison system.

10 years ago the Governor of my state closed all of the state run mental institutions. They dropped a bus load of mentally ill off in front of my grandmothers church downtown. They didn't even give them medication to take with them. They just dumped them on the corner.

There's a lot of stigma's and stereotypes associated with mental illness. Society as whole just doesn't want to deal with mental health issues in this country. They'd rather sweep it under the rug and when ever something bad happens they find something to blame it on. They blame it on guns video games or movies but no one ever mentions how these people didn't get the treatment they need.