No. that's not what I am saying. if you read what i wrote i did not say he was sane, but that only in hindsight can we see that he wasn't sane or all there for that matter.

That during the last week of his life before he went on his rampage, that his mother was saying that she felt she was loosing him... that he was getting further and further way from her. and from what they are uncovering, he had been PLANING this for a long time. how long, i don't know yet.. i'm stll reading all the reports that i can get my hands on.

What I am saying is that there are many ways for getting help, and I know because in the past I've received help (just look at the pictures i posted showing me during my coma, while relearing to walk ect) and mental health assistant when i was dealing with battered spouse issues thanks to what my ex-gf had done for nearly four years...

and I am currently watching my sister get help for the issues she has been going through RIGHT NOW. The local mental health clinic is doing a good job with working with her... but it's just part of what she needs help with. we're trying to find a doctor who will be secure enough to deal with the malpratice and faulty equipment that was used to repair the damage done to her hip.

It's not about higher taxes, it's about the management of resources on a local, state and national level since there is just so much waste of those resources, that it's not even funny. There are millions and billions of dollars that are being spent on programs that just does not make any kind of sense that could be used to create a means of providing care for those who slip through the cracks.

Hell, i've posted my idea for that kind of health care with the expansion of the Public Health Service... and a paramilitary medical service that would provide the education to those wishing to go into medical care but can't afford the tution fees for Nursing Schools, Medical Schools and Paramedical courses. but that's besides the point right now..

We are talking about what happened with Adam Lanza and what could have been done to stop this horror from happening.

What Adam Lanza has done is without any kind of rational description to capture just how horrible and demonic it was... there isn't an easy answer to explain it away. Nor prevent things like this from happening except to arm the teachers like they do in Israel, or provide for armed security to be posted in every school in the United States (me, i vote for both those options).

But it's coming to light that Lanza's family was doing everything they could to provide him with the kind of care that he needed, that the schools in the area also were working at helping him. and that they went out of their way to keep him from bein bullied as well as keeping him from harming himself thanks to his inability to feel pain. That they were working at getting through to him both mentally and phyiscally. that he was due to his condition seperate not just because of autism, but phsycailly as well.

That to many it appeared that he was 'getting around' his autism and could have led a good and productive life.

Those that knew him stated he was highly intellgent and that he was suppose to be looking into colleges that would work with him to get higher education. That his mother was actually planing on moving to be close to what ever college that accepted him so that she could give him the support he needed.

It was during the last week before this happened that she mentioned that she felt that she was loosing him... that the connection that they had was becoming distant.

He did something horrible... he started out killing his motehr (shot her in the head four times while she slept). he then destroyed his computers and other actions before he pushed his way into the school and started his rampage.

Do whe as a society need to demystify mental-health problems... God yes. it's just as we need to get the notion that big boys don't cry and destroy it.

but would that have helped stop this from happening? I don't think so. From what i've been reading today... there was only one thing that would have kept this from happening. but to do that... would be inhumane and violate civil liberties in a horrendous way...

I brought up 'Thought Crimes' for a reason... should someone be punished for imaging beating the hell out of a bully or horrible boss at work? should they be punished by the government for wishing ill on others?

that is a slippery slope that we really don't want to go down.

Here's the thing: in the US, there is a legal distinction between sanity and mental illness. It's how a clearly sick person can be considered sane and convicted. Usually it comes down to whether or not a person is able to judge lawful behavior from unlawful behavior (ie, "knows right from wrong") and is able to assist and contribute to his own defense. In essence, sanity and insanity are legal terms. Being mentally ill is a medical diagnosis. Most of the time, the legal term of sanity trumps the medical diagnosis. Getting off for reasons of mental defect or disease is nowhere as easy as it is believed in this country, since sanity and insanity are simple legal distinctions that can easily overrule complex medical diagnoses.

Hope everyone in and around Newtown is holding on as best you can. This sucks, it always will, and I'm skeptical about the healing power of time. No matter what ideas and questions I pose below, this is a worthless act perpetrated by two worthless people, the shooter and the mother.
But at this point I think 3 or 4 posts here shed a bit of light on one of the pieces we've completely ignored for too damn long at least in the US.

Moderators, I'm hoping this wont stray too close to the political prohibition here. If so, that isn't my intent.

...I think hearing from Paul and LBraden is the best thing for this thread. Fixing this problem is going to take action on several different angles, including the gun control side, but mental health has been consistently ignored in the past and that is unacceptable.
So here's a set of quick questions...I TRULY hope nothing here offends, but I consider myself ignorant on what is needed and what will work. When I had contact with the seriously mentally ill, it was a bit on the "too late" side since we were bringing him or her in on the rescue.

First, where do we start? Of course I have my own ideas like actually listening to Patients, and making sure there's some kind of funding to get something done. But I don't know if I'm on the right track.

Second, I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of drugs that big pharmaceutical companies are pushing are developed with an eye towards profit margins as opposed to helping the patient. A friend taking Serzone (I think) described a mindset where it was nearly impossible to determine if she was happy for real, or being held in a "happy state" by "chemical puppet strings". Would it be better to actually focus on other treatment options instead, and what can and should we make available? Not to mention that many of these meds are so expensive they are completely out of reach for many Americans.

And lastly, what pieces are we missing in the medical infrastructure? Medical conditions and traumatic injuries have a well established pipeline for caring for patients from start to finish, but Ive seen many people on mental health holds just set aside in a separate room and left alone. I'm thinking that's unacceptable, so what pieces do we need to put in place? Patients aren't going to need cardio monitors and first round crash drugs, but what do we need?

I know that there's lots of talk about a national database of people with dangerous mental illness, but that's not going to go very far unless we back it up with help for everyone who needs it. Going down that road is just trying to separate the mentally ill from everyone else, and would be selfish, ignorant, and worthless in the extreme. In the end, we're in the same boat, and if we can't help everyone instead of trying to throw them overboard, then we deserve to sink.