Though most people with mental illness are not violent, I am very concerned with how those with histories of violence or threatening behavior are managed by society.

The pendulum has swung from a time when people were unjustly institutionalized for not fitting society’s norms to one where it is extremely difficult to intervene on behalf of an adult who does not consent to professional help. I won’t go into details for privacy’s sake, but I have personal experience with just how difficult it is to prevent someone from doing something regretable when authorities’ hands are tied due to lack of conscent.

I am not sure how to balance freedom with mental illness. It is a sticky wicket. The concept of people being forcibly medicated truly troubles me. But so does the loss of innocent life. I do not want to see us return to the days when non-conformity was a jail sentence. But I don’t think waiting till someone goes on a rampage and shooting them is an ideal solution.

As I say, I don’t have a solution. But we need to be having a civilized conversation about how our society should deal with this issue.