Comments: On Copping Out
Mental illness can drive a person to do what they would often not do. The force behind some mental health illness patients, their minds, so to speak, (talking here from experience with my own daughter)can change a person we know and love and make them appear evil, yet they are not, they are still the same person they have always been, yet driven, by mental illness, of which they or no one has control over, cannot repair, fix or love away. My daughter, a kind and loving spirit, caring, compassionate, warm, generous to the extent of volunteering for homeless,food banks and humane society, has appeared to some, as an evil person when: what I know is the mental illness taking over. Mental health in this society is often mixed up with evil. People are not evil. If there is an illness, the evil appearance is the symtom of the illness, the illness that robs, cheats and steals lives, not just lives that have been sadly taken by the recent Cap Hill tragedy, but also lives of others that silently suffer, ending up in County facilities, signed in by loving parents like myself, who have witnessed before their own eyes, the torture, the robbing of their child's life. Mental illness is the worst kind to afflict a human being. It is not evil, it is a biological, real illness, and a damn hard one to control, and treat. The stigma that surrounds it is out of control. Bless the ones who were innocent victims, and please also appreciate the life of the one who took their lives, it is an equal tragedy, and one that some will blame on the shooter, and others like me will know he was sick. There are no answers, it is just shit.
Posted by Stephany at April 1, 2006 01:13 AM