DadZilla3 wrote:We might try cutting down on the 'safe' prescription drugs we're dosing kids with and maybe try some one-on-one and family counseling instead.
I don't know if prescription drugs were a factor in this latest tragedy but for example, both the Columbine shooters and the Batman theater shooter had been prescribed psychoactive drugs well before their mass killing sprees.
Drugs, prescription or otherwise, don't cure severe psychological problems. They only temporarily mask them.
I am reading frustration in your post, I may make it worse by pointing out a few things that I believe, but I hope not. The following may be incorrect, but here's how I see it.
First, there are no known "cures" for many of these illnesses, often the severity is not apparent until late teens/early adulthood. Note the surprise of many, not all, who know the attacker.
These kids are quietly and secretly way beyond responding to a little family counseling, quite possibly there are chemical and inherited causes for their illnesses. Combinations of chemical and behavioral therapies may be the best bet currently even though optimally they may only treat symptoms, as you point out Yet that may be enough to have saved countless lives to date.
Families fight for years with their school systems once they become aware that their child is "different", many are bullied, the humility of never fitting in and the pain of being ostracized manifests itself differently in individuals over the years. but for the rare handful of those like this kid, the final eruption is beyond merely tragic.
There are no more publicly funded "state mental hospitals", well possibly a few are left, they were dreadful places of horror. And it seems that funding to help people/families dealing with these mental problems is lower on the list of importance than studying cow burps, and I'm not being funny.
We may in fact be fortunate that the vast majority of families with (usually) male children fitting this profile are dosing them with these drugs. Schools are spending huge chunks of their budgets (much to the annoyance of most here) providing specialists and assitance for children that are mandated (but not funded) to be mainstreamed. Our old teachers bear no resmblance to today's.
These feeble efforts may be why this sickening type of event is a rarity when so many potential mass murderers live in every community. The cost to properly treat children and young adults at danger of going off is beyond the wherewithall of 98.2% of American families. And almost everyone would vote against tax payer funded help. mental patients are released at alarming rates daily, but it is not a priority of society, and I am not lecturing but I am saddened.
These instances are not at all like angry gang related violence that may be rooted in social and economic factors. These acts are done for the most part by isolated or partially isolated individuals. I'm not attacking you at all, but must ask...what would you have them do, other than discontinue the drugs?
