Adam Lanza was crazy. Nancy Lanza was crazy.

[Denninmi]

74. Yo, Newsflash for All of You, from a guy with an actual psychiatric diagnosis, Bipolar

From an actual M.D., not from Internet armchair speculation.

Call Lanza crazy. Declare him sane. Say he was a monster. Say whatever you want.

If you enjoy speculating about Lanza, or who killed Kennedy, or whether Angelina Jolie is secretly married to a space alien because you saw it on the cover of the World Weekly News tabloid at the checkout lane, if you enjoy it, go for it, it's a hobby.

I don't give a rat's ass about Lanza or his mental illness or lack thereof. How is any of that my fault, or my problem? What does it have to do with my day to day life? Nothing!

I find these mass shootings horrific and unacceptable. It seems to me we need a 2 pronged approach - FEWER guns, especially these auto/semi-auto types, AND a BETTER system of mental health care, one that preserves the rights and dignity of patients while safeguarding the rest of us, because I and those I love are just as much part of the rest of us of society who needs assurance they can live in peace, safety, and freedom as much as anyone without a mental health diagnosis. I personally have no desire to get gunned down some day by a sociopath with an ax to grind just because I was in the process of shopping at Macy's or whatever and in the wrong place-wrong time.

I shouldn't even HAVE to keep justifying myself, but I'll reiterate again - I, like 99 plus percent of all people with mental health issues, am completely harmless to others, within "normal" boundaries common to every human. Treated and medicated properly, which consists of taking 300 mgs of a mood stabilizer drug daily, seeing a psychiatrist for a half hour visit every 3 months, and going to therapy as needed, which more or less amounts to spilling your guts and talking it over with a trusted friend, albeit one with a psychology degree who charges $80 an hour, I am not even a danger to myself. I never really was - if I had truly wanted to off myself, I just would have done it and saved myself the grief that goes with psychiatric treatment.

A major part of that grief is stigmatization. That is bad enough as is. No one in my position needs it to be made worse through guilt by association, painting with a broad brush, and certainly not through the suggestion that we need a modern day Mental Health Nuremburg Law which creates an official state Enemies List of the mentally ill.

I have done nothing wrong, my entire rap sheet consists of one speeding ticket in 1994, and I am beyond offended by the suggestion of the NRA and its propagandists that I need to be put on some kind of registry, my name listed along with sex offenders, pedophiles, convicted felons. How would YOU like it if someone suggested your name belongs in that database for whatever reason?

To suggest that everyone with any kind of mental health diagnosis be scapegoated and blacklisted for the crimes of a few individuals is about as asinine as saying that The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 should be cast aside and all African Americans be registered in some database because a few Black Panthers killed some cops back in the day.

I'm bipolar. I'm not a second class citizen. I have full civil rights, the same as everyone. I enjoy having civil rights. I would like to keep them. And, I think my personal civil rights are just a little more basic and fundamental than some yahoo's property rights to own a private arsenal. Guns are, legally, only property. I'm a person.