General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica: Where It's Easier to Get a Gun Than Good Mental Health Care
http://www.alternet.org/story/155724/america%3A_where_it%27s_easier_to_get_a_gun_than_good_mental_health_care/_640x426_310x220
Last spring my younger sister Kathy jumped off a freeway bridge in Phoenix. For better or worse, she lived. Kathy made her first suicide gesture in high school, when she took a handful of, I think, aspirin in reaction to a bad haircut. At the time, she was already, obviously, mentally ill. In middle school, anorexia had drawn her down to a skeletal 38 pounds. Her hair fell out. Her sunken face took on a plastic texture from fat-soluble vitamins that her body couldnt process. Force-feeding brought her back from the brink, but couldnt heal her. In the years since, even during three pregnancies, she has never topped 100 pounds, nor has she ever been free of compulsions, body-loathing or debilitating bouts of depression.
Since that first handful of analgesics, Kathy has made an effort to die somewhere between 12 and 15 times: prescription pills, threatened jumps from an apartment balcony and a communications tower, an attempt at drowning, a car set on fire. Kathy is alive because even in the heart of Arizonas Wild West no one will sell her a gun; a fact she finds immensely frustrating at times that her bipolar illness takes her into another trough of despair.
For three days, Seattle has been reeling, grieving a wave of senseless violence that left five dead, including a shooter who was, from his familys description, bipolar like my sister. Mentally ill women are most likely to exit this world alone or try to take their children with them. Some men prefer to go out in a blaze of rage and blood. Either way, access to a gun makes the impulse more lethal. Firearms are two and a half times more effective than the next method of suicide, suffocation. According to Centers for Disease Control statistics for 2003-2007, gunshots represented only 3 percent of suicide attempts, but almost half of fatalities. So far this year, over 40,000 people in the U.S. have been shot. By December 31, we can expect to bury about 9,500, each dead at the hands of someone pulling a trigger. Guns were designed to be effective, efficient killing machines, and they work very well.
When someone kills we ask why? Its a worthy question. A part of the answer that haunts me (because it seems so preventable) is the way we choose as a society to prioritize our resources. We build for-profit prisons across the country, with lock-up room for minor drug offenders. But while prisons are growing, prevention and treatment services are disappearing.
DrDan
(20,411 posts)and both are continuing on their unfortunate slopes
hack89
(39,171 posts)leeroysphitz
(10,462 posts)Phhhtttt
(70 posts)Your supposed to be "happy" in the land of plenty,instead we live in a sick society.I read in a NAMI(National alliance for the mentally ill)article that half the American population suffers from mental illness.
People are so paranoid in our culture they think they need a gun.If that isn't mental illness I don't know what is.
agent46
(1,262 posts)Americans spend every waking moment being lied to and manipulated. Every moment.
Phhhtttt
(70 posts)rfranklin
(13,200 posts)Thought I would post it and save the NRA shills the effort.
Response to rfranklin (Reply #4)
bupkus This message was self-deleted by its author.
OneTenthofOnePercent
(6,268 posts)FYI... Ammunition IS protected under the umbrella os "arms" by the 2nd Ammendment.
It would be as equally difficult to ban ammo as it would be to actually ban guns.
Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)to diagnose and treat mental illness.
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)marmar
(77,129 posts)nt
Response to xchrom (Original post)
bupkus This message was self-deleted by its author.
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)I suffer from Major Depressive Disorder and a host of stuff that goes along with that. There is such a stigma in both our countries attached to mental illness that I didn't get treatment until my partner insisted when I was inb my mid-20s.
OneTenthofOnePercent
(6,268 posts)In a free country, if someone chooses that they REALLY want to die shuold they be allowed to die?
LuvNewcastle
(16,869 posts)they just want better lives. Some need help to make a better life.
OneTenthofOnePercent
(6,268 posts)are the ones using guns.
malaise
(269,356 posts)Thanks
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)than to get health care. So what? Apples are not comparable to health care at all.
NickB79
(19,301 posts)More regulations and bans on guns is a band-aid solution to the mental health problem in this country that has little real impact. It's also been shown to be a real dog when it comes to public support for such measures.
What we need is single-payer health insurance like every other civilized country on this planet. I suffered with depression throughout my 20's, and there were times it was a bitch to get to see a doctor. Either he'd be booked for 3 months straight or my health insurance didn't want to cover a visit. It was a nightmare, and I thank God I was able to recover.