Mental Illness

Within less than 24 hours of time the issue of mental illness stared me in the face and stirred my heart. I was in an ordinary meeting in the pastor’s office at my church. Suddenly a significant eruption of angry noise blared from the reception area. A very angry person was screaming, threatening bodily harm to humans and physical destruction of the property. It doesn’t really matter what the issue was but it seems that the person was looking for a different person than one to be found at our church offices. Pastor went out to assist. The ruckus continued and in spite of excellent intervention skills by pastor was escalating. Someone said: “Do you think we should call the police?” The Director of Family Life at our church replied, “That would solve our problem, but it surely would not help the mentally ill person.” How true.

When I arrived home I had a message on my answering machine. The caller had not identified herself, but said she was calling at the request of another. I, of course recognized the name. My mind made an assumption “This would be a call from the emergency room of a local hospital. The person leaving the message had probably attempted suicide.” Four times in the past I have been in that hospital ministering to the person whose name was in front of me. Each time this person had attempted suicide and each time had failed. Severe bi-polar disorder. When drugs are taken the disorder is somewhat controlled. When drug are not taken, deep suicidal depression often comes. I knew that if I went I would feel better, but would it really help the sick person?

Later in the day I watched some Tucson Memorial events. Concurrently I read the newspaper. It contained an article with the news that the sale of Glock pistols was up at a record high. I recalled Sandy’s comment: “That may help us, but it surely won’t help the mentally ill.”

That same day another person asked me, “Mel, have you really looked into the eyes of the person who allegedly shot those persons in Tucson? He reminds me of---. “ She was right. The person referenced often had that vacant look in the eye, which betrayed a hole in the heart. That person was very functional in some aspect of life, was able to be a university professor. Yet was not well mentally. Two of the children of this family are mentally ill. I don’t know why they suffer this, but I am assuming that it might be a combination of heredity, environment, and family interactions. I knew about this long ago. I was never able to help.

That evening I opened a book recently given me about service men and women with posttraumatic stress disorder. It contained the startling statistic that more Viet Nam veterans have committed suicide than the number who were killed in action. What will be the number during/post Iraq/Afghanistan?

So the thought comes back to me, How can I respond to Sandy’s remark that sometimes we protect ourselves when dealing with mentally ill, but how are we helping them? I felt disheartened until I did come up with a few things I can do: 1. I can support early intervention, especially in our school systems. I can insist that we provide public funding for children with special needs. 2. I can at least be there with people who are suffering, especially also those with whom it is sometimes difficult because of their mental state. I can give them my presence and my prayers. 3. I can promote parenting styles that are healthy and that tend to result in adults who have healthy coping mechaisms. 4. I can be a spokesperson/volunteer at my church and elsewhere for the ministry of reaching out in support of all veterans and especially those hurting from PTSD. 5. I can be an advocate for all who assist the mentally ill: mental professionals, special ed teachers, parents whose children show symptoms, congregations and other organizations which include the mentally ill in their outreach.

The mentally ill. There are too many of them. I am resolved to do something that not only protects me, but also helps them.