Joni Mitchell

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

         - Joni Mitchell

In my last post, I ranted about how the increase in gun violence can be directly attributable to our failing mental health system.  My darling niece, who has bravely faced her own struggle with mental health (and with the assholes in t her Health Insurance Carrier’s Claim office) pointed out to me that not all people who face mental health challenges are violent.  She is, of course. 100% correct on this, and I apologize to everyone if I somehow implied this in my last post.

Let me elaborate further by looking at the Flip Side of the Sandy Hook tragedy.   The gunman who slaughtered the innocents obviously suffered from his own demons, but he was (thankfully) in a violent minority of people with mental health issues who are somehow intertwined in this tragedy.  Witness if you will the throngs of the Westboro Baptist Church, the tiny independent fundamentalist Christian church based in Topeka, Kansas.  Seems that they planned to ‘protest’ at the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and declaring“God sent the shooter.”  You may recall that this is the same group that has protested many funerals of slain American soldiers.  ‘Freedom of ‘religion’ aside, these people, are, in my layman’s opinion,  as mentally troubled as the shooter himself.   

Sadly, there are even more mentally unbalanced groups who are being drawn to the Sandy Hook tragedy like moths to a flame.  There apparently a group of ‘Truth Seekers’ who are organized and are demanding the ‘truth’ about what happened at Sandy Hook.  Yhey are apparently harassing and threatening some the Sandy Hook first responders and their families.  They somehow feel that the events of that awful day are not being reported truthfully, and they are demanding that the ‘real’ story be told.  Mind you, these people have no other connection to Sandy Hook – they are just self-appointed guardians of ‘the truth’, and they therefore feel that it is their duty to investigate imaginary alternative scenarios that explain the awful events of that day.  Some say that Sandy Hook was a the start of a government plot to take their guns away.   Obviously, there isn’t a rational person among them.

I know that ‘conspiracy nuts’ have been around for a long time, but it seems that this country is growing a bumper crop of these mentally unbalanced folks.  Of course, their actions will no doubt further upset the real victims and families of Sandy Hook, and drive many of them further towards the cliffs of sanity.  Mental Illness can be contagious – in many cases, it can be downright virulent.

Many dismiss these conspiracy theorists as harmless ‘nuts’, but this is not the case at all.  I shudder when I imagine the additional pain, anguish, and emotional damage that they are bringing to the grief stricken families.


Must be because I had the flu for Christmas
And I'm not feelin' up to par
It increases my paranoia
Like lookin' at my mirror and seein' a lit up police car
                                   -- David Crosby

These unbalanced individuals also can bring a great deal of harm to themselves.  I knew a Doctor who was a skilled diagnostician, well respected by his peers, loved by his patients and staff.  His whole career unraveled when he became involved in a 9-11 conspiracy group.  Fueled by meetings of like-minded individuals and internet postings, his obsession with 9-11 conspiracy became all consuming.  He soon could not have a conversation with anyone – including a patient – without espousing the latest 9-11 conspiracy theory.  This once sober minded physician’s eyes would open wide, his nostrils would flare, and he would literally dance around as he regurgitated the latest ‘theory’.  In spite of repeated warnings from the clinic administrators, he just could not control himself.  Ultimately he lost his job as a result of his inability to control his obsession.

The mass hysteria continues to proliferate throughout our society.  There are now several television shows about ‘doomsday preppers’ who spend ungodly amounts of money (often which they do not have) to build expensive underground bunkers to protect themselves and their families from Armageddon.   

There have always been a small group of conspiracy theorists  living on the fringe of our society, but with modern communication fueling their fire and limited ways of controlling their angst, it seems that their ranks have been growing at an alarming rate.  The mental health crisis continues to grow, largely unchecked, due largely to the mental health being ‘managed’ by health insurance carriers.  Certainly, these conglomerates are making windfall profits, and their executives make salaries that would make Carnegie jealous, but at what cost? 

I am beginning to sound like I’m starting my own conspiracy theory here, so let me dial things back a few notches.  Am I 100% convinced that there is a direct cause and effect between lowered mental health coverage and the growing number of paranoid people in our society?   Absolutely not.  However, I do believe that it’s time that this phenomenon is studied by persons more learned than myself.  At the very least, our leaders need to start having the conversation.

It’s the rational thing to do.

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