The following post was originally published on Chocolate Covered Lies. It was written by Mark Harris. 

By: Mark Harris

The U.S. lapse in judgment on mental health issues have come to the forefront relentlessly over the past week or so. Let me give a couple of examples:

  • The Shooting At Fort Hood: A shooting spree occurred at several locations on the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas On April 2, 2014. Four people were killed while sixteen additional people were injured. One of those four included the gunman (34-year-old Ivan Lopez, whom died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound). All of this occurred over Lopez trying to retrieve a “leave of absence” form so he could tend to “family matters”. [1] Oh,         and he had been treated for mental issues prior to this incident.
  • The School Stabbing of Murrysville, Pennsylvania:  A teenage went on a stabbing rampage at his high school in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, early on April 9th, 2014. Eventually, Alex Hribal (the student that did the stabbing) was tackled by an assistant principal before it became much worse.  Twenty students and a security officer at Franklin Regional Senior High School were either stabbed or slashed in the attack. [2]

These cases are both horrifying for a few reasons. For one, they dealt with multiple people being either killed or seriously injured. Another issue is the unexpected rampages that were played out. Both males went for trying to take out multiple people. Adding on the obvious loss of feeling secure in an already paranoid world just adds more fuel to the fire of distrust.

The Bigger Mental Health Circumstance

However, there is one mental health situation that actually struck an even bigger chord. Mind you, it was not as heinous and far reaching. Then again, that may be a part of the bigger issue: it is not physically affecting people in a harsh moment. Instead, it is a more insulated situation. It actually deals with a person having inner issues.

And those inner issues erupt into the suicidal situation. The latest victim is Karyn Washington.

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