March 7, 2006
OPINIONSLetters
I was glad to see the topic of depression addressed in today’s issue of the Mesa Legend. Our society still places a stigma on mental illness, and it is very helpful when people, such as Tia, are willing to describe their experiences with this often disabling disorder.
However, this article also does a grave disservice. Marilyn Riley, adjunct faculty member at the MCC Counseling Center states that “When someone who is depressed commits suicide, it was because the people around that person missed signals that this person was despondent.” If only it were that easy. Rest assured that anyone who has had to deal with the suicide of a loved one knows the devastation of not being able to do anything. We know that it is very difficult to navigate a woefully inadequate mental health system, which, by the way, expects that the people most in need will ask for help. This, unfortunately, is not the case. By the time a person is suicidal, they have generally isolated themselves from a very disappointing world. Convincing a hospital or a court that a person is a danger to himself is often impossible, since the depressed person will rarely admit to having thoughts of death.
As human beings, we have a responsibility to reach out to one another, but to infer that we have the power to control another person’s thinking is irresponsible. The loss of someone you love to suicide is unbearably painful. Surely, a trained counselor should not place the burden of blame on the survivors.-Kathy Walker, MCC Student