We see it nearly every day of late: a mother kills her children due to mental illness. A student goes on a shooting rampage killing his peers and then turns the gun on himself. A father shoots his children, his estranged wife and then kills himself. And every day, people threaten the same only to be ignored, yet their pain is very real, and their words should be taken very seriously. But they rarely are. They rarely are until it's too late, and then people cluck their tongues and ask "well, why didn't she ask for help?"
These headlines are commonplace these days and only promise to become even more so. But what is behind it all? For one, stigma. Untreated mental illness and the stigma society puts on mental illness.
When we hear cops describe someone who has committed one of these acts they use words such as "lunatic", nut", crazed madman", "psycho" and many other such similar unkind words.
It's time to listen and take mental illness very seriously. Mental illness in any form is very real, is not a choice, and is an illness as real and serious and valid as cancer, AIDS, MS, and anything else. Society simply cannot afford to continue to turn a blind eye to the millions suffering from any number of forms of mental illness. One day, it could be your loved one who is affected, whether it be directly or indirectly- one never knows.
Research, education, funding, tolerance, acceptance, more help for those who cannot afford to be treated by a doctor and need medications to be more functional; all are required in todays world. Mental illness is not going away.
Living even one day with any mental illness is not a choice, and it's a huge challenge just to get through a single day- sometimes even a single hour. We deal with many different things on many scales- much more so than anyone who is fortunate enough to not suffer from any mental illness. Oftentimes, we suffer from more than one form which makes life unbearable, and of course, some of us snap, and we kill our children, our spouse, our peers, strangers, ourselves. We can no longer work, no longer care for ourselves properly at times, we lose our jobs, our homes, everything we've worked a lifetime for, we lose our children sometimes, and sometimes, we lose our lives. And most of us end up having to fight a disability system that forces us into losing everything I've mentioned above.
It's time, World. It's time to face up, look mental illness in the eye and choose to accept that it's going to be a part of everyone's lives because it's going to affect everyone. Let's all fight it together and stay safe together instead of allowing it to keep killing our children and loved ones.
LifeWriter is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers.
She writes frequently on issues of child abuse, mental health and animal issues.
Source: www.a1articles.com