I know nobody would have sent us to a nut-house. We have been rightfully ignored. I was just saying that it's hard to pick out the rotten apples from a group of teenagers who all
appear more or less nuts.
Sure, a trained psychiatrist could spot the difference if he/she were to observe us for a while but psychiatrist can't surveille every student and teachers (who can) can't be teachers and psychiatrists simultaneously.
what would happen is that they would be sent to the school shrink's office
We didn't even have a school psychiatrist back then! We had a special elected trusted teacher (elected by the teachers btw...) who you could go to if you felt you had problems. Problem is, people with problems like that don't go out and seek help. If they did they would probably get it. At any point in time since the 70s. People like that have to be adressed actively. Passively waiting for them to seek help doesn't work.
This trusted teacher is good to talk to if you want advice for comparably small things, like how to react in certain situations. You know, leaching onto the bigger life experience of an older person who isn't your mom. They are simply not trained for any more serious problems.
Also, your bullet points, all except one of them are totally irrelivant,
Those are all things that are talked about afterwards though! That's what the afternoon-tv schooled wanna-be psychiatrists pick on so that's what polititians who depend on their vote are going to pick on.
How often have you heard or read that the columbine shooters wore black coats and sunglasses, listened to heavy metal and played Doom? Right.
they have no clue what the real warning signs are
That's what I was trying to get at.
Our points are converging.
how's that for dropping the ball!?
That's pretty darn stark, man. I know there is a rather big threshold before people react in any way beyond labeling you an attention whore but I think you crossed the line by some margin there already.
No offense intended, Grobut, but if they didn't send
you to that shrink you had at your school, they probably sent nobody.
And yes, i know what i proppose would not stop 100% of school shootings, chances are that incompetence would rear its ugly head and it can still happen, but if it prevents even a meager 30% of them, then thats a damn sight better than doing nothing, woulden't you agree?
What exactly is it you are proposing that isn't already at least WIP, though?
We already have trusted teachers at almost every school who can help with little things or advise you to go to the school shrink. We are beginning to get school shrinks at almost every school and they can pass you on to a clinic if they can't handle you. The only weak-spot that is still open (besides incompetence) is on the level below the trusted teacher. Teachers (or friends or parents) have to spot and identify the problem and send people to that shrink.
Unfortunately, as we established above, regular people aren't trained to differenciate between the seemingly sick and the actual sick and there is almost nothing that can be done about it. The current media coverage is counter productive in this regard, as pointed out above as well.
Sensitivity is the key point here, but even that is a double edged sword! As an analogy, look at the PC crowd! Do you take them serious? I don't. I'm actually very anti PC in daily life. On the whole I think the movement is great but when it hit the common stupid people (the demographic is HAS to hit to be effective as most intellectuals don't throw the n-word around anyway) it exploded in a cloud of stupidity!
Now white people complain that a movie is racist if there is no black guy in it....
People
are getting more sensitive already, but once it reaches the point we need it to reach so normal people are able to identify psychological issues I fear that the stupid people are so overdoing this that every credibility is lost again.
It's already happening with ADD and dyslexia! It was a great step to identify those are illnesses and raise sensitivity among the people, but now every stupid kid that is too lazy to learn to write properly gets a certificate for dyslexia and every hyperactive kid who can't sit still gets a certificate for ADD.
What has to be done in my opinion is not to have everybody bother each-other and send each-other off to shrinks over the smallest issues.
What has to be done is to eliminate the taboo that is associated with psychiatry. No one is ashamed to go to the doctor if their stomac hurts, but if they are cutting themselves or seeing oompa loompas dance they won't go to a shrink because they don't want to be labeled "nuts". Neither by others nor by themselves.
People have to get through their skulls that a psychological sickness i no different from a physical sickness. Something doesn't feel right, you consolut a doctor. Period.
Unfortunately that's easier said than done, because even if you are as reasonable about that yourself there is still the social stigma to consider. Especially if you are a mobbing victim in the first place.
It won't be easy, but in my opinion this is what we, as a society, have to work on and as much as it hurts me to say it, I think this is a part of the PC crowd's job.
