To the Editor:
“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society” Jiddu Krishnamurti.
I love this quote as it not only defies the stigma we (as a society) have associated with the mentally ill but even suggests that it may be the “best” of us who are the sickest.
In the dog-eat-dog world in which we live, survival skills begin as babies. When a child takes your toy; you snatch it back. For some of us, as we grow, we learn manipulation, gossip, or other disguised, socially-acceptable tactics to snatch our toys back. But what about for those of us who are slow learners, who wear our hearts on our sleeves, or who develop socially unacceptable survival skills?
What resources exist to help those who see the world for what it truly is?
The answer is heartbreaking. Every year mental health funding is cut despite advances in mental health awareness, diagnoses, and treatment. In fact, it could be argued that we are making our problems worse.
Instead of promoting intervention, the paper raves of drug crackdowns, making people who are desperate to self-medicate more desperate. Pharmacies are robbed; innocent people are hurt.
The cycle of criminal charges begin, perpetuating untreated, mental illness and reducing the likelihood of recovery.
Insurance companies cut mental health benefits and for those who take on the pain of the world, life ends abruptly. Even the “best” of us cannot make sense of this tragedy.
How many more lives will it take before we as a society will own our sickness and focus our funding in the right direction?

– Emily Pereira,
Tryon