Guns, Mental Health & Social Consciousness

I started this blog post on December 14th, 2012 , the night of the Sandy Hook masacre.  Tonight I've decided to revisit my unfinished posts and picked this one, I'm now ready to share my thoughts.

I had a lot to write, it was flowing like the Niagara river this morning while I was driving to work but now that I am sitting infront of the computer I'm speachless, or should I say, thoughtless!  Guess this happens all the time.  Note to self- pick up a voice recorder for car since I get my best ideas in the car!!  Dont know if absorbing and processing the horrible news of yet another mass shooting has anything to do with it, but funny thing, I was thinking along the same lines this morning even before I learned about the shootings.

I have not been formally schooled on any of these topics, but I do read and I am able to comprehend, analyze and put subjects in perspective.  I am very  perceptive  and since in my twenties I became interested in the area of human behavour, spirituality and the convergence of science and spirituality.  I became bored and frustrated with "religiosity" and started a journey of spiritual awakening.  I believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and believe whole heartedly that if christians really observed Jesus' teachings we would not have most of the problems that we do today.  The thing is, many people "believe in Jesus Christ, but they do not "believe Jesus Christ"!  Think about it for a second here.  I do concur that spiritual awakening  is a journey, not a destination and not everyone will "wake up" at the same time.  I also have a gift of detecting b***sh**t.  

Now about this latest mass shooting.  I must give credit to the one person who has been relentless in pursuing this topic lately - +Piers Morgan of the Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN fame.  I do not get the American gun culture one bit, and none of it makes any sense whatsoever!  On the one had, most of these folks are "consevative" bible thumping Christians and on the other hand, they believe they need to be loaded down with arms for protection - are we missing something here?  From what I can see, America has long past the wild, wild west stage of its formation.  It has also passed the hunting for food stage, and even the agriculture sector is now controlled by huge multi-national conglomerates so that argument is mute.  City folks do not need to carry guns, people living in fear will believe they need guns for protection, but how much of this protection does a gun give it's owner?  Christians needing the protection of guns, ha, what a contradiction.  Where is the love?  And where is the faith?  And what about the belief that you trust the Lord to take care of you?  Confilcted, conflicted, conflicted!  No wonder people are confused, because the "new" brand of Christianity is preach one thing, and live another.  On second thought that's not so new, it's called hyprocrisy.

The other issue is mental health.  Mental health challenges+weapons = deadly combination.  We have seen this over, and over, and over again.  So why is this so difficult to get consesus on this from the lawmakers?  Research is saying about 20% of the population now have, have had or will experience some degree of mental health crisis in the future.  My uninformed, unscientific guesstimate would say it way higher, and I am basing this on the number of people I encounter in my daily life who have teens, young adults and or spouses with extremely difficult behavour and personality challenges but who would not think of seeking counselling let alone  seeing a psychiatrist/psychologist.  They'd rather live unfulfilled, unproductive lives and potentially deadly existence than seek help.  There's the stigma, and then there's the cost.  Even people who can I think can afford it balk at the thought of forking over money for this type of thing because in their mind "it's not going to work, it will be a waste of money" without trying.  There are folks who genuinely cannot afford counselling not covered by health plans.  There has to be a way to get these individuals the help they need.  You know the saying, pay now or pay later, either way you pay?  If access to care is provided, the cost to society would be a lot less not only in dollars & cents but in tragidies and suffering.

The Mental Health Frontier needs drastic changes in different areas of society in order to stem the tide of people suffering from debilitating mental health challenges and help foster happier, healthier citizens. I believe the Government has a large role to play in this, not just publishing pretty pamphlets about mental health, but in making policies, mandates and directives strategically put together to encompass the whole range mental health welbeing.   Start by working tirelessly to eliminate the stigma.  After all, I believe mental health should be viewed no different from cancer, heart attack or any other disease of the body.  No matter what the cause, be it genetic, trauma  physiological at the end of the day the resulting malidy is a bio-chemical situation.  One are that needs addressing pronto is teaching people to deal with stress - starting with the children.  There seem to be a significant number of children suffering from anxiety, panic attacks and depression.

I give due credit to +The Toronto Star and +The National Post.  These two papers are the ones I read the most and I can say they've been a source of education for me and on the subject of Mental Health, fantastic.  Both papers have run great series on the topic, I've actually referred people to these articles when having discussions about social/health issues. 

Another eye opener for me was What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole (2006) - IMDb Getting all these brilliant people to do this video which deals with issue of science, spirituality and religion was amazing.  I try to watch it ever so often just to refresh myself and each time I watch I see something I missed before.

My prayer, my wish, my hope is for a world with a lot more love and compassion.

MissSam