Page 12
February 28, 2018
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Shouldn’t Be the Only Time We Talk About Mental Illness
The aftermath
after another
mass shooting
J ill r iCharDson
After every mass
shooting, we repeat all
of the same things.
Some call for gun
control. Those against
gun control say this
isn’t the time to talk about it. The
Onion reprints its story titled, “‘No
Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only
Nation Where This Regularly Hap-
pens,” and updates the dateline to
reflect the location of the new mass
shooting.
When the shooter is white, we
talk about mental illness. If they’re
not, we talk about terrorism.
Then, Congress does nothing.
But, so long as we’re discuss-
ing mental illness, I’d like to weigh
in. That’s something I know a bit
about. I suffer from anxiety, PTSD,
and depression.
I’m not a potential murderer.
Mostly I just hide in my bed and cry
and get down on myself. My mental
by
illness paralyzes me and keeps me
from getting work done, and then I
heap shame on myself for not get-
ting work done.
There are an awful lot of mental-
ly ill people like me who are not po-
tential security threats. We’re
already stigmatized enough
without being suspected of
mass murder too.
From where I stand, there
are two problems with “solv-
ing” mass shootings in this
country by simply keeping the men-
tally ill from owning guns.
First, banning the mentally ill
from owning weapons only takes
guns away from people who are
diagnosed with mental illness. That
includes a lot of people like me
who’ve sought out help. We’re un-
der a doctor’s supervision. Many
others aren’t.
Second, taking away guns while
not actually fixing how we treat
mental illness isn’t much of a solu-
tion. That basically says it’s OK to
let millions of Americans suffer so
long as they don’t shoot anybody.
We have a system in place that
deals with only the most extreme
cases.
Fix Your Sidewalks
My late wife, Enola Gay Badrick, was be-
ing treated for cancer. She was enduring both
radiation and then chemotherapy treatments at
OHSU. Finally, I noticed some signs of her
We can lock up people who com-
mit violent crimes, or take kids away
from parents who abuse them. We
provide (some) help to the most se-
verely disabled mentally ill people,
through Social Security disability.
And we can temporarily put people
who are dangerous to themselves or
others in a mental institution.
What about everyone else?
If you’re insured, it’s relatively
affordable to get on medications for
problems like depression and anxi-
ety. Medication, when it works, lit-
erally saves lives.
If you’re not insured, it’s tricki-
er. And when there’s an underlying
problem that needs to be addressed
through therapy, medication is a
Band-Aid.
I still wonder why no adults no-
ticed my problems when they were
developing when I was a kid. A sim-
ple screening in my school could
have gotten me started on treatment
much earlier.
Even teaching mindfulness med-
itation or yoga in school would have
helped.
It took until age 34 to discover
the treatment that works for me: a
form of psychotherapy called So-
feeling better.
She made a short walk to our neighborhood
store one evening. But she didn’t recall that I
had reported to the city on at least two occa-
sions about a block of uplifted sidewalks.
Well, an uplifted sidewalk caught her foot
and she fell very hard. There was never anoth-
matic Experiencing and a form of
bodywork called myofascial re-
lease. Together, these two therapies
are changing my life in a way I nev-
er even dreamed was possible.
But they cost $10,000 per year if
I go every week.
I’m not so sick that I need to be
on Social Security disability, but
I am too sick to work full time at
most jobs. I struggle to earn enough
just to live in general, so coming
up with an extra ten grand a year
is almost impossible. I’ve relied on
crowdfunding to help.
I’m lucky I have friends who can
afford to help. Not everyone does.
Survivors of the shooting in Flor-
ida are leading a courageous new
call for gun control. Maybe this
time will be different.
But if we’re going to talk about
mental illness in the mean time, can
we really talk about it? It’s not OK
to let millions of Americans keep
suffering and call it a success so
long as none of them kills anybody.
OtherWords columnist Jill Rich-
ardson is the author of Recipe for
America: Why Our Food System Is
Broken and What We Can Do to Fix
It. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
er sign of recovery.
The city does not have the time or the fi-
nances to fix these sidewalk problems. I say to
homeowners, fix your sidewalks. It may save
a life. It’s also the decent thing to do.
Bruce C. Badrick
Northeast Portland