Can we mould society to avoid mental illness?

October 29, 2006

Kenneth Mantooth: Ms. Belluck,Like physical illnesses, I can’t but wonder that mental illnesses have many hosts. For example, an individual might contract a physical ailment like the common cold from the shaking of hands with someone that has the cold, or from walking around a corner and breathing-in the contaminated air of a cold carrier that just sneezed, or from grasping the handle of a public toilet to flush, or etc. In physical illnesses, as we know, there are an unlimited number of possibilities for exposure to contagion. Conventional wisdom tells us that our best defense against these variables of a physical ailment, like the common cold, is to protect our physical body. As much as possible, we have to “remove” ourselves from the host. When (not “if”, because we KNOW we most likely will be) we do get exposed to illness, the more we’ve prepared our bodies to be healthy and stronger, the

less probable we are to being over whelmed by the disease.Unlike physical illness host, mental illness host are less concrete. In other words, they can not be seen. They are craftier, more secretive. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that we Americas are in a down spiral motion with our moral value system. History is the best indicator to what happens to a nation when moral values go extinct from a community. History is evidence that the native people of that community go extinct with its lost value system. I wonder if our children are being exposed to too much sick social, sick psychological, and sick religious carriers. These sicknesses are host. Are we preparing our children’s emotional and mental aptitude with healthy sustenance to keep from being over whelmed by them? Physical wealth can be a part of this negative sustenance too. For example, exposure to too many in-home chemicals from what seems to be innocent items like toys comes from the

ability to purchase those items. Also, the desire and time to acquire more and more material wealth leaves less and less time for more important things, like each other. Admittedly, all professional child care givers including psychologist know that tons of our children are suffering from a lack of self identity, self esteem, self reliance, self assurance; they are lacking a sense of belonging, and they are suffering from a “host” of other mental illnesses. It has been said that “if we will listen to our children, they can teach us something”. Where is our value system leading us? posted on October 25th, 2006 at 10:20 am You can read the entire responses to an article in The NY Times at: http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=71 After all, they (the pro-vaccine lobbyists) say to themselves, you can't make an omelette withoutbreaking eggs. But the eggs being broken are small, helpless, and innocent babies, while the omelette is being enjoyed by the pediatricians and vaccine manufacturers. - Harris L. Coulter, PhD

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