Tag / mental illness
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The Future of Our Mental Health System
BY VICTORIA SGARRO About ten months ago, a 20-year-old man walked into a Connecticut elementary school and fatally shot twenty children and six adults. The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School sparked a renewal of the never-ending national debate over gun rights and violence. As a traumatized country searched for answers, the conversation turned toward…
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The Stigma Against Mental Illness
BY MIRANDA KROEGER Happiness is a choice.” But what happens if, no matter how hard you try, your “choice” to be happy still doesn’t make you happy? Often, people struggling with depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, or other men- tal illnesses are made to feel that their con- dition stems from personal failing: if they…
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The Institutionalized Truth: The Mentally Ill Behind Bars
At age fifteen, Armando Cruz stole tools from his neighbor’s garage and was forced into a psychiatric unit while his court proceedings took place. Throughout this time, Armando began to hear voices and paranoia overtook him. At age seventeen, prompted by the voices inside his head, he attacked a police officer. After two years of…