Heart Wrenching

Most of us were at work on Friday when we received the news of the horrific events which occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. A 20 year old male walked into the school after killing his own mother and then preceded to kill six adults, 20 children between the ages of six and seven, and then himself. As we all put the pieces together, give our children hugs, and thank all the teachers in our lives, we are still left with the question, why? What makes somebody do that?What makes somebody take innocent lives like that? What makes somebody do something so utterly evil? Was he mentally ill? What was his childhood like? Did he give anybody any warning of the impending massacre?As the “designated therapist” of the family I have been bombarded with questions asking what would have driven somebody to do such a horrendous and heart breaking act. I’ll be honest, I can’t give one solid answer because there are so many I can give. There are so many reasons why the event may have happened and I’m also not sure if an answer of “why” would be sufficient for our broken hearts. What I do know is this must be stopped. As President Obama said at the vigil Sunday evening, “We will not tolerate this anymore.” Well, actions speak louder than words and something must change. Through social sites I saw a lot about gun control and very little about mental health. The mental health system in our country is not sufficient. We do not offer enough resources to those in need, and at times what we can offer isn’t enough.On Saturday, I stumbled upon a blog written by Liza Logan. Her blog, not only broke my heart but got me thinking. How many other parents are going through what Ms. Logan is going through? Nobody even talks to us about what happens when we’re scared of our own children.Maybe the first step is getting the word out. Mental health is needed, for everyone. Ms. Logan is absolutely right, it’s time to start talking about mental health. Liza Logan’s Blog