It's Time to Fight Mental Illness

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.