If you’re at all on social media or watch the news (& my guess would be you are on at least one if you’re reading this ;)), you’re being inundated w info abt the health of our country/world.
Understandably so, your phone is being pelted w headlines abt numbers, policies, procedures, etc. As has been the case all along, I don’t get into the politics of it all here.
Some think the info’s warranted…some think there’s propaganda involved…but what I think there is universal acceptance of is – “it” literally has dominated our news cycle the last 2 yrs.
This is so much the case that – candidly – I didn’t know abt the story on the 2nd slide (one that happened more than 3 wks ago), till yesterday.
How many were aware that a 15 yr old in Oxford, Michigan, shot 4 students dead in his HS, & injured 7 others. An enormous school shooting, almost lost in a sea of other news.
But I chose to focus on this case, despite it being almost a month later, bc of what was revealed recently (again on the next slide). Hours before the shooting, the boys teacher found the following on his desk in class:
A note w a drawing of a handgun pointed at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
Now, this boy’s parents were brought in the school, shown the note & the parents did not act/take him out of school. Hours later the shooting happened.
I’m beyond baffled & angry. We know that MH complication lead to: 1) thoughts of harm to ourselves, 2) thoughts of harm to others.
It’s my belief after talking to MANY who’ve had suicidal ideations, that the brain BREAKS. Error msgs. We get thoughts we don’t want! Even in the case of harm to others, look at this boy’s note: “the thoughts won’t stop, help me!”
We NEED to get past this idea that ALL suicides & even homicides are these PLANNED events w motives. If a ligament can tear under enormous pressure, why can’t a brain under enormous stress/trauma?
We HAVE to adjust what we look for – especially in cases like these, where evidence was there for us to act on.
If we show a brain can break..& it’s not always premeditated, shame starts to disappear. We can save lives.