I May be Crazy, but.....

We live in a sad and crazy world! Literally!

How many disturbed people live untreated among us?  How many are capable of violence to either themselves, others or both?

How many of the mentally ill hide and try to cover up their illness out of  fear of judgement from...

you and I?

How many families help the cover up for the same reason?

I am glad that more and more folks are stepping up to the plate and openly admitting they have mental health problems.  It's good overall, that the media is educating the masses that a broken psyche is no different than a broken limb.  However...

I don't want to judge or cause a stir, but...

I really do wonder about some of the diagnosis's attached to certain people, especially so many children??  Are there really that many folks suffering from clinical depression, anxiety or stress disorders, bipolar, antisocial or personality syndromes, OCD, ADD. ADHD, etc??

I know that there are serious mental health disorders that are undeniable and severe.  I don't doubt the diagnosis or need for treatment in these cases.  Even a layman can often tell there is something dreadfully broken.  I also, realize that these individuals can require a lifetime of intervention, but...

here's the thing..

it might be only me...(don't throw rocks just yet)...but

by creating a society of acceptance for mental illness could we also, inadvertently be creating a vehicle for certain individuals to use a "mental illness" to justify poor behavior?  Could it become an defence for behaving irresponsibility, immaturely, thoughtlessly...

Could it be made easier to label our kids as having some kinda deficit rather than admit we dropped the parenting ball?

Before anyone does throw rocks at me, I do have a background of "crazy" in my very own dysfunctional family. On both my mother & father's side there is a truckload of ... well...

wing nuts

whack-a -doodles

bat-crap-crazies

nut cases!!

Some of which have "gone away" to the home or to "camp" and others that should be gone!!  But...

Who doesn't have these "particular" family flakes?   Maybe Aunt Mary truly is loopy and Uncle Joe  a bonafide whack job, but aren't most of us...well...normal "crazy"??  Haven't most of us experienced some sort of dysfunction in our life's?  Haven't most of us learned to cope with the craziness and grow up to be valuable, contributing and reasonably happy adults? 

Whether you agree with me or not, I believe, far too many (these days) allow their dysfunctional backgrounds to cripple them and don't even try to cope.  We've unintentionally made it easy to cop out. It is a byproduct of dragging mental illness out of the attic, but...

having said that... I do believe that mental health experts will learn to discern between those folks who really cannot function in this world, and those who are disguising their unsupported, immature, selfish behavior as mental illness.  Then they will give these folks a swift kick and tell them to...

GROW UP AND HANDLE IT!!

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Just sayin'...