Another Complicated Topic - Mental Illness and Gun Control - How dichotomous thinking is a disservice to us all...

On the train this morning, I read the article about the prevention of a school shooting in Decatur, Georgia. Similar to the feelings I’ve experienced after hearing about other mass shootings, I instantly felt anger and frustration considering the fact that anyone could think about harming young children…but then I also felt hope after finishing the article and discovering how the shooting was prevented. 
Antoinette Tuff
The article stated that Ms. Antoinette Tuff spoke with the young man, talked about her own life, and encouraged him that "life will still bring about turns, but we can learn from it." She simply made herself relatable and provided encouragement.  This story demonstrates that the individuals responsible for these events may be acting less as a result of severe psychopathology and more as a result of discouragement and lack of connection to others. We ask ourselves why someone would want to hurt innocent children – and I have no answers, but maybe their attempts are to have others feel the severe devastation and hurt that they are experiencing inside. I am not excusing such reckless behavior because I too went to bed in tears multiple nights following the Connecticut school shooting – just thinking about the faces of my niece and nephew (the ages of those children who were killed), wondering how the parents in Connecticut could ever live normal lives again, and thinking about what must have been going on in the minds of those young children who were terrorized in a place they were taught to feel safe.

My point is that I can hold awareness of both experiences, and recognize that my validation of the despair experienced by the shooter does not minimize my awareness of how these acts destroy multiple lives. My other point is that our brains are wired to experience less anxiety as a result of understanding information in dichotomous “absolutes.” For example, all individuals who commit these crimes are “insane,” different from us, and need to be institutionalized. Another view – guns are the problem – we need to outlaw the legal possession of all guns to prevent this from happening again. Alternatively, everyone needs a gun to protect themselves…

My belief is that we are going to continue to remain stuck in our thoughts, if we don’t exercise a little cognitive flexibility and learn how to speak in a way that our message can be received. My best friend from India (a country where guns are not legal for citizens) argues that the loss of one life by a gun is no less valuable that the losses that result from a mass shooting. She brings up a good point, but I also know that the NRA is never going to adhere to our administration taking away the 2nd amendment right. So, either we stay where we are suggesting a law that will never pass, or suggest a compromise – less automatic weapons that can help parents sleep at night without the fear of a mass shooting occurring at their local school.
I also grew up in a rural area where people like to hunt for sport or have a gun to shoot a rattlesnake that may be threatening the life of their child – I get it…but arguing that all people deserve the right to purchase a gun without a thorough background check sounds crazy to me…and suggesting that weapons capable of firing multiple rounds is necessary for your sport of hunting also sounds crazy to me…but again this is only my opinion put forth in this blog…

Now I want to turn back to the issue of mental health in connection with mass shootings. First, I want to demystify a little bit about my profession – as mental health professionals, we do not have crystal balls to predict future behavior….we also lack magical wands to instantly change behavior…We can persuade individuals to take medication and provide appropriate referrals to receive psychotropic medication prescriptions, but we also can’t guarantee that individuals will choose to take their medication. What I hope this article about Ms. Tuff points out is that the basic skills of relating to someone, validating their feelings, and providing encouragement can go a long way…Again, I don’t pretend to have the answers because this is a complicated topic, but I think that we can start with arming our schools with more school counselors to provide classroom guidance, individual counseling, and group counseling…these individuals have a lot more power to put kids on the right track initially than I do as a psychologist in an attempt to correct this behavior later in life.  

My point today is most aptly represented by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

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