A Mad Peace of Mind

“ But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice said.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” Said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” Said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here”
The dialog between Alice and the Cat still rings in my head to this day. As a child it was the first time I had read something that truly made me sympathies with someone else. I was eight years old and everyone told me that I was crazy.
Like many of today’s “Troubled youth” I had no way of communicating to those around me. We are all born with a sort of moral barometer as children, this allows us to know when something is unethical or wrong for us. What we are not born with is the ability to communicate these feelings to others in a sociably acceptable way. Unfortunately we live in a selfish and busy world were people are unaware, unable, or unwilling to help these children find a voice. As a result many children lash out at the very world that does not and will understand them. They are quickly labeled uncontrollable or troubled and an effort to subdue the child begins. One of the newest sociably acceptable ways we as Americans have found to force our children into submission is thru the use of pharmaceuticals. Aside from the emotional growth paralyzing effect these drugs have on a young mind they can also destroy a Childs self-esteem. Further more they can cause irreparable emotional damage that can follow them into their adult years. As an individual diagnosed with manic depression these lost souls hold a special place in my heart. I hear the questions from so many parents with troubled children “What do I do?” “Where should I send him/her?”, “Should I put them on Anti depressants?”. I wish I could somehow impart the personal knowledge I hold and help these people to understand what is happening. This is a fast food world and people want fast food answers, but this is not a fast food problem. This is the mental and emotional growth of a human child and you cannot rush that without some repercussions. Nearly 30 million or 1 in 5 Americans have been diagnosed with some form of depression and the number grows every year. It is painfully obvious to this blogger that these pharmaceuticals are not making things better. In fact I believe they are making the problem worse. We tell our children they have to take pills to be “normal”, but then we have the nerve to stand confused when they shoot their own classmates. We tell our children they are chemically unbalanced, but we just can’t understand how they could commit suicide. I hope that one day we as a people are able to stop placating the problem and focus on a real solution.
Until then...I am living proof that medicating ones self is not a necessity…no matter what they say. I believe that we “Troubled youth” can teach our selves the lessons we missed in childhood, if we give ourselves the patience and love that others could not. And I believe it is our duty to keep an open heart and out stretched hand for those fledgling souls still lost in the dark.