We are all still reeling from the loss of 10 precious souls in Colorado. It comes at a time where I’ve had the term “coping” on my mind. I’ve long understood that our individual personalities and expression of the personality, from healthy to average to unhealthy, are formed as a means to cope with our infant and childhood experiences. There are 9 basic types and they can overlap or cross over to other types. It gets very complex.

I have a friend who is trying to quit smoking and she has been looking into addiction. She found a doctor who describes addiction as a coping mechanism to life’s stressors. So coping can not only form personalities but can also affect behaviors.

Then today, I heard a report that mental illness does not create mass shooters, neither does gun ownership. Otherwise there would be many many more of these Only 5% of mass shooters are mentally ill. So the way I interpret that information is that these shooters are emotionally ill, unable to cope with life stressors which can be financial, social, mental illness, physical and emotional/mental abuse, addiction or a large list of stressors. I researched psychosis and found it is an illness or symptom of inability to cope.

I looked up the worse feelings and behaviors of all  human personalities and this is the list:

Victimized, abused, repressed anger, restless, obsessing about destroying whatever reminds them of their shortcomings and failures, murder, hostility, self hatred, crimes of passion, suicide, prey to gross distortions, phobias, hallucination, oblivion, self punishing, extreme paranoia, masochistic tendencies, overdoses, destroy what does not conform to their will, immobilized, disoriented, depersonalized.   

These describe people that are unhealthy in expressing their personality due to inability to cope with life’s stressors whatever that may be. I think this more accurately describes mass shooters. They lose touch with reality and become psychotic. So, what can we do about it?  No easy answer to this question.

I do believe that we can support private organizations and public agencies that work toward healing and promoting healthy behaviors. I think of a local nonprofit called A Ray of Hope. A Ray of Hope uses Christian principles to assist those who are having difficulty coping. They help those who are addicted and those who are being abused. Ray of Hope gives them a home, work, food, and teaches the love of God. They are doing God’s work. Perhaps if we all found an organization like this that we could support, it may positively affect a future shooter. One small step but a start. We all need to teach and promote kindness toward others and assume that others are facing stressors that we don’t know about.

I’m not a professional counselor or doctor, I’m just musing on what average people can do.