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Wednesday, April 10.2002 - Page 8 COMMENTARY he reality of depression Life lessons learned young On March 12,2002, the verdict ofmur- jority of the states. The government feare As I approach 21-years-old, I have be- on the other end does not know you are er was handed down to Andrea Yates, the the overuse and abuse of the insanity plea gun reflecting on all I have learned in life home. nother and housewife who drowned her five and threw out its validity in 30 states. thus far. I found my inventory of experi- Take other people's assessments of you hildren in their bathtub. In doing so, the This fear by the government has sen ence to be long and winding, which fits, I with a grain of salt. Unless, of course, you ury who decided her fate brought to my at- many mentally ill people to prison; instea suppose, since that is how life is supposed have no respect for that person: in which ention the status of America - and of the of to a place they can receive help. In mas' to go. Or so I've been told. case, just laugh when they are not looking. merican people. cases, if a person is sent by the court to re For better or for worse, get your bird- Or laugh when they are looking, and just While I look at this case, I certainly do ceive mental help, instead of prison, the cages ready: here is yet another convoluted tell them you remembered an old joke. If ot condone or accept her behavior, in fact I they spend an equal amount of time in th collection of21-years worth of learning stuff. you do not respect them, what does one lie espise it. But I cannot accept the total lack ward that they would be spending in prison Perhaps, as Ralph Ellison once said, "on the matter? f understanding that people have about the Nevertheless, once again, people don' With the lights out, it's less dangerous. 'alleged" illness that she has. bother to look at the "unseen" illness as Where love is concerned, there are no I say alleged, because never can one truly valid reason. happy endings, because someone either now the honest and complete state of mind When I heard my friends or people talk leaves or dies. I did the math, and there is he was in ... however, I can say what mind r ing about how her mental illness had noth not way around this. as in when I was going through a similar ing to do with the murders and it doesn' Everyone should have a hero, even if they imeinmy life. matter, it takes all my energy not to go 0 are fictional. Mine just might be Tyler While I didn't go to the extremes of kill- on them. They have NO idea how that ty Durden. ng that she did (nor could I ever), I too faced of illness impacts on every aspect of you To create good writing, you first must he similar precipice of suicide, on more than life ...how when I was depressed, it led m know what it is like to shout in an empty ne occasion and J feel for the pain that she down into a spiral of anger, insomnia, anxi as endured and will be enduring for thy rest ely, and deeperdepression ...how it consume room. The more you assume no one can hear probably can. you, the more people fherlife. everything I did ...and how it could appear a More girls should pierce their navels, I mean, she killed her five children and any time during the day or night. because girls with pierced navels are cool. atched them die in front of her, how can I am just trying to make people mor Who says you can't have everything? Of ou even claim that she was sane? Would a aware that depression is real, and that it af course you can, but, by the time you get it, ane person drown her five, beautifully in- fects people's lives to the extent that fe you will probably be too old to enjoy it. So, ocent children, watch them die, then phone people know. Moreover, I do believe tha best to make do with what you have. 1J? This misunderstanding, and the stigma Yates' mental illness was the main reaso Faith is highly underrated. aced by people with a mental illness, led for her killing her kids and destroying he A captive audience is a beautiful thing. e to tell practically no-one of my family's life. In more cases then people re lower frequencies I speak for you." Fat Just because there is a reason to do some- lness ...even as r struggle with it today, r find allze, depression and mental illness can de chance, though. (But, Ellison is a great thing does not mean you should do it, be- t hard to talk about with anyone other than stroy a person's life through suicide. I kno writer, unlike me, and you should check him cause, after all, there are a lot of reasons to e closest of my inner circle. that it almost destroyed my life, and ruine out. But read this first. Please.) do a lot stupid things. The jurors seemed to think of Yates' post- the lives of the people around me who care So much of life has nothing to do with As my mother and Albert Camus-will tell artum depression as nothing more than a I also know that depression is still in my life who you are as a person: in fact, most people you, in the end, you only really have your- ancy term, and could not even consider and that I will constantly be fighting it. do not care who you are as a person. Their self. The best revenge might be living well, t...since that is Texas' strict law on mental I just wish people could see beyond thei loss. but 1 would not count on it. Ilness. So there, I have found part of the own near-sightedness and realize that ther Everyone should find one thing they do More girls should play guitar, because roblem. is a problem - especially in our ow really well. Think that's obvious? It is, but girls that play guitar are cool. Since the trial of John Hinckley in 1981, government's view. some people spend their entire lives looking And perhaps most important: stop talk- hen he was found not guilty by insanity for that one thing. Start now. ioo when you run out of things to say. or attempted to kill President Reagan, the -Written by an anonymous WMC Just because the phone is ringing does -Mike Wiles is a junior English nsanity plea has been thrown out in a ma- student. not mean you have to answer it. The person major. 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