I was watching the news earlier this evening. I saw the part on it about the school shooting in Florida. Details the media gave out like he was expelled and his social media made him seem like a danger. It is statements like this made by those in the media that doesn’t  help those of us that would never do something like that. If it comes out that he had mental health issues or was on the spectrum there is bound to be assumptions made of all those on the spectrum or who has mental health problems. I’m going to say what I’m posting tonight to stop that kind of crap  in it’s tracks. Worldwide there isn’t enough understanding and support for the conditions stated above. In the USA it is somewhat worse because they have to pay for their medical care. We are fortune to have the NHS over here despite its failings due to lack of funding etc. These situations happen after a catalogue of system failures and the individuals being let down. I’m by no means condoning his behaviour. I’m just pointing out that there is always a history before someone with issues end up snapping. There was every time I got convicted of something. These individuals have been failed time and time again. They haven’t had anyone be able to understand them. That is why many youngsters get excluded from school etc. They need someone to make an effort to understand them, I speak from experience when I say they don’t understand themselves at a young age. I’m 30 years old and I’m only just starting to understand myself. I had no choice but to learn to understand myself because no one else wanted to do that. We need to lose the fear surrounding things we don’t understand in general. This is a reason why people aren’t getting the support they need before things happen like they did in Florida. The fact that they allow people to own guns as a right in America just adds a deadly weapon to the equation if these individuals that are failed do crack. If the FBI and his teachers were warned about him. You would think that the FBI would have been able to remove any weapons from him. There are times in my life where I wouldn’t have been trusted with weapons. But that could be said for others without mental health problems too. If the person is close to cracking then access to weapons isn’t safe.

I worry about the knock on affects of things that happen. Every single awful occurrence has caused new laws and guidelines. It is never those that have done these acts who get caught up in the new regulations that are put into force. It’s the ones that do things innocently that normally get caught up in them. Those of us  that don’t have malicious intent. And this has resulted in places not supporting individuals due to the risks associated with their disability or mental health problems. I’m a fan of how the system used to be (most of it was before I was born). I know that under the previous systems there were things that happened which could have been prevented if things were as they are in the newer systems. Under the old system, someone like myself wouldn’t have been kicked out of school or labelled a criminal. The old systems were based on common sense and logic. The new systems aren’t. It’s about prevent anything from happening. But at the same time it’s actually causing problems. There is far too much red tape which is preventing us from living life without some form of stress. I have high levels of anxiety as it, let alone these horrible systems that do not incorporate the needs of those of us on the spectrum or with mental health problems. In our current system, those of us with PDA will never be able to fit in or cope with these things.