What the U.S. is missing on mass shootings and mental illness -- Vance Meyer guest column
NAMI Jacksonville exec:
What the U.S. is missing on mass shootings and mental illness
On Oct. 26, Americans woke up to the details of yet another mass shooting, and media experts were predictably ready to remind us of the link between mental illness and murder. For those who pay attention to such things, what generally follows is a steady drumbeat of the same commentary for about three weeks. Then it subsides ― until the next tragic slaying.
Sadly, few experts go on to explain that more than one in five adults in this country lives with mental illness (roughly 50 million people). In addition, 1 in 25 adults have been diagnosed with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, severe depression or bipolar disorder. There is also an alarming and growing number of young people who also experience very difficult symptoms.
Worst of all, most fail to emphasize the reality that very, very few people with mental illness kill people; they are far more likely to kill themselves. The number of suicides roughly doubles all homicides, and just about every suicide has the underpinnings of acute or chronic mental illness.
We also don’t hear about the other critical societal problems created by mental illness, including homelessness, billions of dollars in lost worker productivity, family turmoil, broken homes, school problems and dropouts, substance use, physical health conditions, non-homicidal crime and more. Instead, we remain fixated on murder and even relied on a national gun control bill to deliver substantial mental health funding to states and communities.
The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and its investments in programs that support people with mental illness are welcome news to professionals and volunteers on the front lines ― despite the unfortunate connection to heinous crime.
From the perspective of folks who know first-hand what mental illness is and does ― friends and families who are constantly seeking ways to help their loved ones ― the ongoing mental health/murder storyline creates its own huge problems. It creates stigma of the ugliest kind, causing people to lay low and not get the help they need.
It can result in solutions that don’t take the much broader problems into account, instilling unnecessary fear in all people. It can also suck hope out of millions of our friends, neighbors and co-workers who may be quietly but painfully ill.
The good news ― if Americans are willing to heed the call ― is that we can put a huge dent in one of the most massive problems facing our nation, our world and our friends.
We can make it our business to understand the basics of mental illness. Like every other illness, its symptoms can be treated and addressed with medication, therapies, rehabilitation and many other modalities, including yoga and meditation. It is connected to the physical body and helped or hindered by things to which we expose ourselves.
As with our physical health, every human being can be more mentally healthy by having meaningful interpersonal connections (loneliness has been shown to have the same negative health impacts of smoking 15 cigarettes a day), by eating the right foods, by sleeping enough, by exercising and by engaging in work or activities that are positive and don’t trigger us.
When we are concerned that a friend or relative is unusually down or distracted, we can take them out for a coffee and ask if they’re OK. We can tell them what we’re noticing and offer to help them find resources, or even go with them on a first visit to a mental health clinic. More critically, we can follow through. Communities of faith and other organizations can step forward by hosting support groups and making discussions of mental illness as routine and normal as heart disease, cancer and other illnesses.
Individuals and organizations can contact any nonprofit mental health-related services in town to see how they can make a difference using their time, skills, passions, experiences or resources. Most people probably don’t realize that legislated funding for mental health often flows down to these same organizations, while only partially supporting the growth in services required to make a difference.
We can form our own opinions about what’s needed to solve the big problems and share them with decision-makers in the public and private sectors.
Finally ― and this is a tough one ― we all need to take down the temperature in our culture. What may cause a “mentally healthy” person to yell at the TV or computer may lead another person (who already has far more noise, distraction and confusion in their heads) to respond in a way that does not help themselves or anyone else. We are all consuming far too much information, much of it inordinately destructive.
Let’s take on this problem together in a way that is inspired by each other and the far-reaching societal benefits we can create.
Vance Meyer, board president, National Alliance on Mental Illness - Jacksonville
This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.
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