So, there is no such thing as a mental illness! Well, is there such a thing as physical illness? Paralysis is a form of illness. You were paralyzed when a tree fell on you while running and broke your spine. So we have now established that there is such a thing as physical illness. You have one! So we have also established that the physical body can break down and get sick.

Now let us ask whether the brain is part of the physical body. Well is the brain a part of the physical body? Yes, it is. The physical body can get sick, the brain is part of the physical body, therefore the brain can get sick! What happens when the brain gets sick? Well, the brain can get cancer, as in tumors. It can produce hormonal imbalances, as in diseases of the pituitary gland. It can result in illnesses such as Parkinson’t disease, a physical illness of the brain tissue called substantia nigra which is responsible for producing dopamine, a neurotransmitter. Neurotransmitters are molecules through which neurons communicate with each other and through which neurons communicate with other cells of the body, like muscle cells. Neurotransmitters are also involved in the production of feelings, emotions, thoughts. When neurotransmitters (either levels or types) go awry, we have a chemical imbalance that then results in symptoms of mental illness. Ostensibly, too much dopamine can cause aggression and hallucinations, too little serotonin can cause depression and muscle aches. There is GABA, nitrous oxide, epinephrine/adrenaline and norepinephrine/noradrenaline. And an imbalance in any of these neurotransmitters (and in others not yet known) can cause not only physical symptoms, but emotional, mental, and thinking disorders/illnesses.

So there it is, the human body can get illnesses, the human brain is part of the human body, therefore it too can get sick. Some of the illnesses that the human brain gets are mental illnesses, diseases of the emotions, thoughts, and feeling, as the brain is the seat of these things.

Perhaps, if you had appointed someone who believed in science and evolution as the chair of your state board of education, instead of the laughable Barbara Cargill, you might well have learned this.

Yes folks, this is real! This is not an Onion article! What to say about this? I am at my wit’s end. Mental illness is not real, according to Texas governor Gregg Abbot and he vetoed a Mental Health bill, “a bipartisan bill which would give more resources to medical professionals that help residents dealing with mental health problems. The bill in question was widely popular, supported by many large medical associations in the state and both political parties.” And to make this decision, he consulted Scientologists!

Even though I am an atheist, this makes me want to scream “Jesus, almighty Christ, god, what the hell is happening here?” How do people like this get to positions of power? How much damage do they do and how much damage like this can a civilized society absorb and still stay civilized???

And what about the people in Texas with mental illness who would have benefited from this bill? And what about treatment of people with mental illness, since apparently it doesn’t exist, how does one get treated for it?

The implications are vast and frightening, this amount of idiocy and stupidity is chillingly frightening!

http://www.greenvillegazette.com/texas-governor-vetoes-mental-health-bill-because-he-doesnt-believe-mental-illness-is-real/

Had a long conversation with a friend, some things became crystal clear to me as a result of simply talking! That is the power of talk therapy as well! The reason my life got derailed in so many ways between 2003 and 2009, seven long years, became abundantly clear, it was (1) Stopping Lithium and starting Lamictal, and (2) Talking to an unprincipled woman who was, unbeknownst to me,  a sexologist, but treating me as a psychologist for bipolar d/o. These two things almost led to my marriage ending, and I almost lost my son. This was one of the most difficult times in my life and believe me I have had some whoppers! My mood being on the verge of mania for years upon years did nothing whatsoever for the health of my marriage and our family life. My most beloved son suffered because of the home environment and took refuge in destructive things. It almost broke up our family, we almost lost each other and the very worst thing to me, I almost lost my son. Do you know what I went through and how it makes me feel now to think about it? Hell and absolutely hellish! But, somehow, through strength, love and with the parts of our brain that were healthy, we survived this near calamity. I was there for my son when he needed me, my husband managed to hang in there for me, and I was put back on Lithium at the hospital, after being hospitalized the second time in my life for full blown mania as a result of having been taken off Lithium and put on Lamictal. (Lamictal puts people with bipolar 1 in a hypomanic phase eventually leading to mania 😦 )

So, obviously my illness was to blame for all the near catastrophes in the past, but so was medical mismanagement and downright malpractice on the part of the sexologist.

Is there a why? Why did these things have to happen to me and my family? Well, I can ask why till the cows come home and it won’t really help me. What will help me is to know what happened, acknowledge that bad things happened, that catastrophic things almost happened, learn from them and move on. And don’t forget the PTSD medications, haha, just kidding. But seriously, I’ll never, never come off Lithium, NEVER!

And yes I am strong to have coped with all this “insanity”, to have helped my son through very difficult times, to have managed to keep my marriage intact. I think all three of us deserve a medal for bravery and valor in life. I think a LOT of people with mental illnesses deserve this medal. Perhaps we should forge one and start pinning them on people’s chests!

Living in strength, love and with a positive mindset, I send everyone love and hugs.

I RETURNED to my office in Hartford late one afternoon to find a future mass murderer sitting in my chair.

The visitor, Matthew Beck, was not yet a killer. He was a mentally ill accountant from the Connecticut Lottery telling tales of corruption at his office. He had pulled up a seat — mine — at the newspaper where I worked for an interview with one of my colleagues, who expressed relief afterward that the intense Mr. Beck did not have a gun.

Mr. Beck, however, did have guns. And a few months later, he brought one to work and fatally shot four top lottery officials before killing himself. The mass shooting, in March 1998, was the second worst in Connecticut until three years ago, when Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where my wife had once applied for a job.

I thought of both of these incidents in recent weeks as horrific shootings shattered communities in Charleston, S.C., and Chattanooga, Tenn. On Thursday, there was yet another shooting, this one in a Lafayette, La., movie theater by a gunman with a history of mental instability who left a trail of angry Internet postings. A familiar, achingly unsatisfying search was underway for answers to an old question: What causes someone to take innocent lives? The usual suspects were lined up: mental illness, twisted ideologies, substance abuse, a culture awash in guns.

This vexing issue was what my fellow Times journalist Michael Luo and I spent a year examining following the Sandy Hook massacre. After reviewing more than 1,000 court cases and forensic reports, conducting countless interviews and producing seven stories, we were certain of one thing: It was far too easy for firearms to fall into the wrong hands.

But the motivations behind the actions of those hands often remain maddeningly opaque. How did Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old high school dropout who drank and did drugs, come to immerse himself in white supremacism and end up accused of gunning down nine African-Americans at a Charleston church? In Chattanooga, why did Mohammod Abdulazeez, 24, a college graduate struggling with depression and drug abuse, gravitate to radical Islam and fatally shoot five servicemen?

Mark Potok, who has spent decades researching hate groups and their followers for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said many shooters turned out to be “people who are looking for something larger than their own small lives, to be seen as a hero standing up for a cause.” Suspects like Mr. Roof go on the Internet and discover groups that validate their feelings and offer a sense of belonging, he said.

“It was once viewed as very unlikely that a person could be radicalized solely through a computer screen, but something has changed,” Mr. Potok said. “Today, the Internet really is the language of young people like Dylann Roof.”

As for Mr. Abdulazeez, he appears to have researched Islamic martyrdom on the web, although it was not clear he ever directly communicated with anyone espousing terrorism. The specter of self-radicalized “lone wolf” killers in the age of the Internet has added a frightening dimension to the 21st century variant of the mass shooter.

The widespread availability and glorification of firearms also cannot be overlooked as an important ingredient in this toxic mix, said Brad Bushman, a psychology professor at Ohio State University who served on a White House task force on gun violence after the Sandy Hook shooting. Numerous studies have shown that the mere presence of a weapon can make people more aggressive.

“I think guns are great equalizers, especially for people with limited voice, people on the fringes of society who may be rejected by peers or are trying to make themselves feel more accepted,” Mr. Bushman said. “Guns make people feel more powerful.”

For all their differences in motives and targets, mass shooters fall along a continuum of violence that is unnerving in its steady forward march. An F.B.I study found that between 2007 and 2013, there were an average of 16.4 such shootings a year, compared with 6.4 from 2000 to 2006. It is hard not to feel a growing sense of foreboding and futility, that we cannot escape their recurrence. Each new case delivers not just a blow to our collective conscience, but a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God moment.

One result of the Connecticut Lottery killings was a state law enabling the police to more easily seize firearms from people deemed to be a threat. The court records of these cases form a catalog of near misses and hint at the pervasiveness of firearms among all social strata.

There was the 24-year-old man found sitting in his car outside an ex-girlfriend’s place, crying and holding a gun on his lap. After disarming the man and getting him to a hospital, police officers entered his home and discovered seven high-powered rifles, a gas mask, knives and a backpack filled with 1,000 rounds of ammunition and survival gear.

A 27-year-old insurance company employee with bipolar disorder was found walking around with a gun in his pocket and six more stashed in his house, after a concerned relative reported that he was behaving strangely. Then there was the paranoid schizophrenic, 55, who had 18 guns taken away after he threatened to kill his mother and a nurse. When I interviewed him at his trailer near some railroad tracks in 2013, he told me how important his firearms were to him, showed me his empty gun safe and said he intended to refill it.

Indeed, one is struck by the nexus of mental instability, substance abuse and easy access to firearms. A regulatory loophole and bureaucratic bungling allowed Mr. Roof to buy a handgun despite a drug arrest that should have prevented it. Mr. Lanza, a deeply disturbed loner fascinated by mass killings, lived with his mother, who legally owned a small arsenal. And Mr. Beck was able to keep a pistol permit, even though he had been hospitalized twice for depression.

But, of course, most people with mental health problems are not violent, let alone prone to mass murder. What makes someone seek solace in a spasm of bloodshed is perhaps unknowable. That sense of mystery was captured in a letter released publicly by Mr. Beck’s parents after his killing rampage. In it, Donald and Priscilla Beck lamented that despite “the love and help from friends and family and the treatment, counseling and medications from his doctors, he chose the wrong path.”

“We love you Matt,” they wrote. “But why?”

http://www.neuroscientistnews.com/research-news/scientists-identify-schizophrenias-rosetta-stone-gene