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Friday 29 March 2013

Living a lie

Living a lie

More than 30,000 people die In the US from gunshot wounds.
in an effort to reduce gun crimes, legislation to revise existing mental health laws is under consideration  A New York bill requiring mental health practitioners to warn the authorities about potentially dangerous patients was signed into law on Jan. 15 2013.

Anyone who has been involved with people suffering paranoia is aware of the dreadful fear the person suffers. Often fear of being killed or harmed by other people they see as a threat. The person is at risk at this time, may be feeling suicidal, or taking risks due to their inability to see danger of traffic, or jumping from a height.

When the transient paranoid or psychotic episode has passed, fear remains; fear of being seen as a mentally ill person; fear caused by knowing their mind can run out of control; fear their employer will find out what caused an absence from their studies, work or profession.

It does seem wrong that due to the lax way almost anyone can buy a gun in the US, the people being targeted are only those who admit or are discovered to have suffered psychological changes. Those changes may be temporary due to adverse effects of medicines or anaesthetics.

I am not defending anyone’s right to carry a weapon as personally I do not think ordinary citizens should and believe even those who enjoy shooting should be required to keep their weapons in a secure depository.

Easy access to a gun has led to many tragic deaths by suicide when a person suffers a sudden onset to suicidal ideation. Often as a result of akathisia (extreme agitation) as may be caused by adverse reaction to SSRI antidepressants, an acne drug such as Ro-accutane, following anaesthetics and drugs used after surgery, or following a changed dose of an addictive medication.

In the US States that carry this legislation, the mere fact that  everyone’s confidential mental health records may now be shared will deter some people from seeking help...
The repercussions of being ‘found out’ are so terrifying that all the work done for years to remove stigma from mental illness will be washed away.

My own daughter Karen had a psychotic breakdown due to intolerance of sulphasalazine (sulfasalzine) a sulphonamide drug akin to Septrim the antibiotic, we worried about the effect of this episode on her future career.  She left her course at Goldsmith’s college as we felt the English/History degree studies my be too pressured for her during recovery from her traumatic breakdown. The university were given no explanation for her departure. We respected her wish to hide to facts.

There is no easy answer but I know the lengths people will go to to in order to cover up mental health problems encountered. I have health professional colleagues who opted out of a planned system to disclose NHS health records. They objected to shared medical histories as proposed in a central  National Programme for IT database. Now thankfully cancelled after massive inefficient waste of money on the part of the UK government.

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