Crisis of the Soul

Have You Lost Your Way?

Is that how we describe Mental Illness, or should we describe Serial Killers as those with A “Crisis of the Soul- or possibly soul-less?

I recently read a blog on Linked In, which disturbed me. To summarize very briefly this posting discussed how people with mental illness lacked faith and religion. I was disturbed and felt sorry that a post like this appeared on a notable professional web site. With the recent events in Nevada, I sometimes wonder as many do why a higher power, or god would allow a soul-less person to harm so many people in these pointless killings.

In terms of a Crisis of the Soul, I would like to say that there are such individuals all over the news. These people reap havoc on others’ lives, causing chaos, pain, and great harm with no conscience or remorse. Such individuals are such as serial killers, are considered sociopaths, just read your newspaper, or turn on CNN or Fox and you will hear about them daily, as in the killer at Sandy Hook, or just recently last week in Nevada.

Mental illness is not a sociopathic disease. It is a medical problem that plagues our nation. One out of ten people walks around with depression. There is a greater chance now that those with overwhelming stress in their lives will be more susceptible to a form of mental illness at some time if the stress is not addressed. Mental Illness has a genetic predisposition. There are biochemical changes of hormones and neuro-chemicals that occur in our brain and cause the changes we see behaviorally which relates to the symptoms of various mental illnesses.

The problem today is getting our society and our politics to agree to work on providing more care and more places to treat these individuals with these severe illnesses. Locking people up in jail, and mistaking mental illness as a crime has caused this perpetual problem and will not solve our dilemma. Many of these problems can be addressed through various treatments,and the first being diagnosis and medication. Let us open our eyes and begin the road towards acceptance and not rejection. We need to the false beliefs that have been passed down for generations, and stop shaming the mentally ill . Support and caring, and good treatment need to be offered to those who suffer from Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, Schizophrenia, and many more.

Lisa Sharf, MSN, ARNP, CS, P.A.