You might be nuts!

In all seriousness, let's be clear that "nuts" is not a technical medical term. And mental disorders aren't funny...unless they're in the movies.

Still, are you at work right now? Maybe you're on vacation, or in an airport gate area waiting to board your plane.

Look around you. Are there three other people besides yourself?

If you do not have a diagnosable mental illness, according to the National Institutes for Health, one of the other three probably does.

That's right, the NIH says that one in four adult Americans has head problems.

I don't think mental illness is funny or anything, but I have to wonder how much of these are mental diseases that have always plagued Americans, but just weren't diagnosable before. Or are these mental illnesses that are fashionable to have, the way it's fashionable these days for celebrities to go to rehab seeking cures for everything from saying stupid things to lacking publicity?

No doubt there is abundant mental illness in the U.S. But one-in-four people? That's an awful lot, my layman's brain tells me.

Anyway, I'm sane as the Phantom of the Opera. I hope all you one-in-fours get the help you need, especially since I sit in a cubicle quad with three other lovely, perfectly together people, whom I'd be completely comfortable turning my back on while they happen to hold kitchen knives.

***Editor's Note: Yeah, I'm "editor" in this case. Don't skip the prior post. I'm curious to get your take(s) on the headlines.***

Virginia Tech

There is not much to say about this other than it's sad and bananas all at the same time.

Outside of the 9/11 terror attacks, the occasional domestic plane crash, and combat fatalities, you never hear of this many people being killed at once in/from this country.

There's no explaining it either. That's where the bananas part comes in. It's almost pointless to ask why. They say the shooter wrote dark things. OK. I think dark thoughts sometimes. So do some of you. What separates us from the poop-flinging primates is our ability and instinct to never, ever, ever, ever, ever act out in accordance with that occasional dark thought.

So why can't some people control that? Sure, there's legitimate mental illness. That explains some folks becoming killers. But for once, I wish a spree/serial/mass killer would not commit suicide in the end, 'cause I'd like to know what he was thinking.

A buddy and I were discussing this yesterday, and he speculated that this is an example - an extreme example, but an example nonetheless - of some younger folk not being properly groomed these days to deal with failure or loss.

I'm not sure I agree with my guy 100%, but I see where he's going with it.

When I was a kid I had the misfortune of my little league baseball teams being coached by my dad. I say "misfortune," 'cause when you're the son of the coach and the coach is a strict military man you catch more grief than your teammates for errors and what not. On the other hand, the discipline he put on us whipped us into shape. And year after year we won our championships. But there was the occasional loss. And while we were kids and it hurt like hell to lose, we pretty much took it in stride 'cause my dad and the other boys parents pretty much made it clear to us early on that there was no shame in coming in second if you had fun, tried your best, etc. I see kids today sometimes go nuts when they lose 'cause they're not familiar with the concept. I've seen little leagues where they won't even keep score for fear of giving the kids a complex by declaring one side winner and one side loser.

Same goes with dating. I got taught pretty early you don't always get the girl you want. So what? Find another one.

A loved one dies. You grieve. You miss them. You embrace their memory and keep living your life.

The list goes on. Weren't you taught to deal with the bad/sad/mad?

The Virginia Tech shooter is said to have had some serious mental issues. But I think my guy might be onto something.

In the mean time, R.I.P. to the innocent.