http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/world/asia/01china.html?hpw

Mental illness is still not being addressed world wide. In my own little corner of the world, I see mental illness being punished (for example, the students I work with and their parents) rather than helped.

Any thoughts on why, as a nation, a world, we still choose to ignore mental illness? It seems as though it is easier to clean up the "mess" rather than address the issue.

Am I way out of line?

You are not out of line Anno.

When we ignore what is going on worldwide then hope starts to be lost.

I think mental illness either isn't recognized or is feared as something nasty and catching. I spent many years working in state and private mental hospitals, and it's sad to say, but attitudes have changed little since the 60s when it comes to mental illness or addictions of any kind. People who suffer with either are considered outcasts, weak-willed, or are written off as eccentric. Part of this, I think, is that there isn't anything concrete to point to showing mental conditions exist as there is for physical illnesses. The brain and mind are still so poorly understood. A good example is depression, for instance. Often the depressed person is told to 'buck up' or 'snap out of it' by family and friends. I firmly believe that addictions and all other mental illnesses have a biochemical component that is just now being understood, however imperfectly.

This is one of the worst thing I have ever heard. Those poor babies, and yes, they are still babies, to have to suffer so. I wonder how many, if any, might heal from their wounds yet have the assault on them manifest itself in later life when they too are under stressful conditions. It seems to be ongoing! How sad...

chatty, PTSD. Yes, how sad, that one's mental illness will cause another's issues later in life.

This past year I have seen so many young children who have suffered the ravages of r.a.p.e, verbal and mental abuse and neglect. Yet we have few resources available for the way they act out to their abuse.

We have so far to go...

Some of these are ill because of abuse. If we knew how many,
people were driven to the end of their wits, I'll bet the percentage would be staggering. I think people are afraid of mental illness; I also think many in mental institutions, aren't as mentally ill, as the people who placed them there. The devil rules many lives and innocent folks' suffer.

As far as PTSD goes, it makes a person overreact when startled;
and it makes their nerves feel more tightly strung than a stringed instrument. Many people commit suicide who don't have PTSD; you can work with PTSD. Ask PL! Bet she agrees with me; both of us have it.