Blaming Mental Illness for Mass Shootings is Irresponsible, Lazy, and Deadly

I've battled mental illness fiercely for more than half my life.Over three decades ago, I began to realize I was different from many people (or at least I thought I was). I knew that there was a despair that should come as a natural response when we experience trauma; when tragedy visits us or when we lose someone we love, when bad things happen.I also knew that I was feeling something far more than this normal and momentary sadness. I had an emotional cloud that lingered, one that did not require evidence or some identifiable cause to exist. Often, I could feel complete dread when all the objective data told me that I should be happy. I’d have those dark nights of the soul, where I became my own prosecuting attorney, brilliantly making the iron-clad case for why my hopelessness was justified.I soon began to feel the isolation that mental illness invariably brings, because unlike any other sickness, like a brain tumor or a physical disability or cancer, where sympathy is often people's response, depression brings a stigma of judgment, an attitude of callousness.In response, I began to do what so many people with mental illness do: I hid my hurt and pretended, and I suffered in silence.Many times, I was so exhausted that I didn't have a desire to keep living, and no one knew. I was that good at faking it. If I had succumbed to my illness, people would have been shocked; they would never have known how deep in the hole I was, and they would have looked back for outward signs and found little, if any.In the wake of yet another brutal mass shooting, Republican leaders and pundits have once again recklessly and lazily invoked mental illness. I doubt these people realize what they're doing, the way they are further pushing already suffering people into the shadow places of shame and isolation, exponentially enlarging their fears, giving strength to their personal demons. I doubt they understand the wounds they are inflicting, or at least I hope they don't.I, along with tens of millions of people in America, have struggled with some variety of mental illness for years, sometimes decades. We'd never consider injuring anyone (perhaps, except ourselves). We'd certainly never walk into a mall or a church or a school and gun down strangers. Violence would simply never occur to us because we’re good-hearted people who are hurting internally.To suggest a natural tether between depression and anxiety, and with the violent execution of human beings, is to further ostracize and isolate people whose greatest enemy is their own heads. It is to ratify every fear they have about their own self-worth. All this irresponsible talk does is force people in despair further into the shadow places of their minds, and some may not make it out.Using mentally ill people as a cheap scapegoat for senseless acts of violence or to wield it recklessly for political gain is ignorant and dangerous, and it can be deadly to someone who is already pressed up hard against despair.It's time we called out and condemned politicians and preachers when they expose already vulnerable people to further damage simply because they refuse to face their own culpability in creating a culture of irrational hatred, where military-grade weapons are everywhere and where daily mass shootings are normal.We need to treat mentally ill people with the same compassion and decency that we offer any person afflicted with a sickness they did not invite and could not prevent.If not, that will be on our collective hands.Note: If you have a mental illness or you love or live with someone who does, you’re not alone. Your sickness does not define you any more than cancer or heart disease defines someone afflicted by those things. Do not suffer in silence, and do not be ashamed of your injuries. Find people you can trust, people who understand, people who will help you get well. Be encouraged.The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe