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Mental Health in America


bengalrick

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So the current debate about what happened in CT is starting to really irritate me. The only thing anyone seems to want to talk about is either banning or defending guns. I myself do not hunt but fully support peoples rights to own guns and hunt. I just don't do it myself. But if I had to pick a 'side', the second amendment should stay in tact.

But the real problem with what happened ISN'T guns because there is a huge amount of people in this country that has guns that are not massacring Kindergardeners The real problem is this guys mental state and the way it is treating in this country.

I don't want this to turn into a gun thread so if you have a problem with any I said above, steer me towards one of the many threads that are already created for that. If won't be easy b/c I've purposely not posted once in any of those threads. I want to talk about mental health.

I have someone very close to me that has Schizophrenia. All his family and friends have known this for about the last decade but anyone that is close to someone with serious mental problems knows this isn't an easy thing to deal with. In the past 7 years, he has had many breakdowns including brawls with his parents and brothers, stealing his parents car... stuff like that. The list could go long but these are the main incidents that we all have been through. He was put into mental health facilities probably about 4 or 5 times in the past 7 years (since it really started getting bad). Each time he committed no crime and it was b/c his parents had no clue what to do except get him professional help. He would stay in the hospital for any where from 3 - 14 days... The facility would then say "ok, he seems like he is taking is meds and is reacting well to it" and would release him. The parents are like any parents and wanted to believe he was better so they would take him back in. As I said, this pattern happened numerous times and each time he would be institutionalized, treated, and released.

Then about 2 years ago, his parents woke up and realized he stole their car, credit cards, and an unloaded gun of his fathers. His parents wake up and realize what all happened and decide to cancel the credit cards. In hindsight this probably wasn't the right course of action b/c with credit cards, it at least leaves a trail. But no one knew what was happening. So what happened next? He decided to walk into a bank with a note that said "Give me all your money. I have a gun."

Long story short, he didn't hurt himself and was later caught and imprisoned and is currently serving a long term sentence in a mental health hospital/prison. Only God's grace saved him from hurting himself or anyone else.

So my point to this story is that talking and seeing him now, he looks and sounds as good as I can remember. He is taking his meds consistently and getting real professional mental treatment daily. But he had to commit a crime to receive this kind of help. His parents are on the low side of middle class and doesn't have the money to pay for long term and constant mental care. They had no choice but to depend on the state to help them, and they (the state) didn't see the need to keep him after he showed signs of getting better. He is a different person when he takes his medication. Problem is, he hates the meds (as almost anyone with Schizophrenia does). His parents would force him to take it in front of him and he would. He would then either hide it in his mouth or throw it up... Not sure what he did but he did something b/c he wasn't taking it.

The real debate should be about mental health and some real solutions on what to do to help people that don't have the money and/or time to deal with serious mental illness. This is a serious problem and while it pisses most people off that he had guns around him, it severely pisses me off that the extreme mental illness this kids was going through is being brushed under the rug. He didn't commit this crime b/c he had guns, he did it b/c he had a mental illness and had accessibility to guns. We can't understand why he did it b/c he didn't think like you or I. They don't understand why we think the way we do.

Not sure what happened before the fact in Ct or if this could have been prevented with professional mental health help. I do know that what happened to my friend could have been prevented and I suspect the same can be said for the boy in Ct. I'm not defending either person here, just want people to understand a little better and debate and think about the right things here. Just wanted to get that off my chest.....
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It has been my contention from the beginning that this was and is a behavioral health issue rather than a gun issue, though guns exacerbate the situation.

I lay a lot of this at the feet of Reagan and his defunding of the [size=3][font=arial, sans-serif]NIHM which effectively gutted our behavioral health delivery system... [/font][/size]
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Old posted a good article in the school thread by Fareed Zakaria showing this is a gun issue more so than a mental health issue.

However I am fully on board with making our health system, to include mental health, better, with oh i dont know a public option. And before you say I'm politicizing healthcare, im not I believe both gun contol AND providing decent healthcare for all.

I also think the breakdown of the family unit to the point that many families have to have both parents working simply to survive is a problem.

We really need to stop being such a selfish society.
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[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1356209657' post='1196368']
Old posted a good article in the school thread by Fareed Zakaria showing this is a gun issue more so than a mental health issue.

However I am fully on board with making our health system, to include mental health, better, with oh i dont know a public option. And before you say I'm politicizing healthcare, im not I believe both gun contol AND providing decent healthcare for all.

I also think the breakdown of the family unit to the point that many families have to have both parents working simply to survive is a problem.

We really need to stop being such a selfish society.
[/quote]

Quoted for truth!
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[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1356209657' post='1196368']
Old posted a good article in the school thread by Fareed Zakaria showing this is a gun issue more so than a mental health issue.

However I am fully on board with making our health system, to include mental health, better, with oh i dont know a public option. And before you say I'm politicizing healthcare, im not I believe both gun control AND providing decent healthcare for all.

I also think the breakdown of the family unit to the point that many families have to have both parents working simply to survive is a problem.

We really need to stop being such a selfish society.
[/quote]

True. America is great at making people believe they need things that they don't really need and don't need things that they really do.
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[quote name='MichaelWeston' timestamp='1356200577' post='1196340']
We used to have many facilities for people to go to. They have been defunded and closed.
[/quote]

To be fair, there are still plenty of facilities for people to go to. And many of the mental health facilities (asylums) back in the day were barely above torture chambers, what with shock treatments, lobotomies, abuse by staff, heavy and often unnecessary sedation with psychoactive drugs...

The problem as I see it now is is a "paying for it" issue as many people cannot afford to keep their loved ones that are mentally ill in a proper facility for actual treatment.
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[quote name='MichaelWeston' timestamp='1356221104' post='1196383']


True. America is great at making people believe they need things that they don't really need and don't need things that they really do.
[/quote]

True. One of my mentors put it best, everybody is so concerned with status, and status is buying shit you don't need, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't like!
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[quote name='kennethmw' timestamp='1356222365' post='1196386']
True. One of my mentors put it best, everybody is so concerned with status, and status is buying shit you don't need, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't like!
[/quote]

There is a great book called the 7 pillars of self esteem and it talks about how for many of us our self worth is determined about how much money our brother in law makes.

How many of our decisions are determined by trying to keep up with our neighbors, brothers, or friends from high school we see twice a year.
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[quote name='Bunghole' timestamp='1356221403' post='1196384']
To be fair, there are still plenty of facilities for people to go to. And many of the mental health facilities (asylums) back in the day were barely above torture chambers, what with shock treatments, lobotomies, abuse by staff, heavy and often unnecessary sedation with psychoactive drugs...

The problem as I see it now is is a "paying for it" issue as many people cannot afford to keep their loved ones that are mentally ill in a proper facility for actual treatment.
[/quote]

I don't have the numbers but I don't think their are plenty of facilities. Certainly the numbers have been going down. But you are correct about the wack shit that used to happen.
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[quote name='MichaelWeston' timestamp='1356221104' post='1196383']
True. America is great at making people believe they need things that they don't really need and don't need things that they really do.
[/quote]

Were also really good at convincing the folks who are getting screwed by the system that they have to defend those doing the screwing.
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