What is recovery? Recovery in mental illnesses can mean living a meaningful and productive life despite a disability. It can also refer to a reduction or complete remission of symptoms and a healing transformation of the self. For most people, it refers to the power of hope in healing disorders that were once thought to be hopeless. As Henry Ford once said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right."

Thursday, July 26, 2012

America's gun problem is not about mental illness

I'm getting aggravated listening to everyone talk about how we could solve all our country's gun problems if we just took guns out of the hands of people with mental illness. Statistically, people with mental illness do not commit more crimes than the average person, unless they also abuse substances. They are, however, more likely to be victims of crimes. Keeping guns away from people with mental illness would only work if we (a) redefined mental illness so that it actually meant propensity to shoot people, which is does not, and (b) obtained an all-knowing crystal ball that will tell us ahead of time who is going to develop mental illness, or for that matter, become a criminal.


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2 comments:

  1. Re "redefined mental illness so that it actually meant propensity to shoot people, which it does not" -- exactly! and lol! :)

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