If you need help, said Gendry in Game Of Thrones, “bark like a dog.”

“That’s stupid,” responded Arya, “If I need help, I’ll shout “help!”

I sometimes see people in the world in two categories. Those who get help, and those who don’t, and those who change, and those who don’t.

A therapist who helped save me told me some things I will not forget. “Only strong people get help,” and the other thing, I learned: “there is help, and it helps.”

The mentally ill – I am one of them – are in the news these days. They seem to be suggesting that if anyone with mental illness were banned from purchasing weapons, our children would be safe in their schools. What a monstrous libel that is.

The NRA  and President Trump better think carefully about blaming the mentally for the gun violence that kills 30,000 people a year in America.

If they win that argument, then nearly one in five of all U.S. Adults will lose their Second Amendment rights. Roughly 19 per cent of all adult Americans experience some form of mental illness at some point in their lives. One in 24 (4.1 per cent) has a serious mental illness. One in 12 (8.5) per cent have a substance use disorder, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

According to federal statistics, about 42.5 million American adults suffer from some form of mental illness each year, from anxiety to depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. About 9.3 adults, or 4 percent of those Americans ages 18 and up experience “serious mental illness” – that is, their condition impedes day-to-day activities, such as going to work.

Is the NRA or the President really proposing to bar a fourth of the country from buying guns? I doubt that’s what the gun lobby is pushing for, but if they believe what they are saying, that would be the answer to the slaughter of our children in schools. The more likely explanation is that they don’t know what they are taking about, or don’t care about the truth.

Mental illness is not something to be ashamed of. It is a medical problem, just like heart disease or diabetes. And it is most often treatable. it is a grotesque libel to suggest that it is only the mentally who are responsible for killing children and many thousands of others every year. Every day.

In fact, study after study has found that mass shootings involving people with serious mental problems represent less than one percent of all yearly gun-related homicides. In contrast, death by suicide using firearms account for the majority of yearly gun-related deaths. The overall contribution of people with serious mental illness to violent crimes is about 3 percent. An even smaller  percentage of them are found to involve firearms at all.

I suffered from anxiety and depression for much of my life. I asked for help, got it, and have not experienced depression in years or any high level of anxiety. That means I suffer from mental illness, and so do many, if not most, of the people reading this. I have never, at any point in my illness or life, considered harming another human being, not with a gun, or anything else. And I am a gun owner.

I am sorry to see the mentally ill stigmatized in this way, most people have no idea what it means to be mentally ill, or how common and treatable it is. The mentally ill are among the last groups fo people likely to shoot or harm people. It is disgusting for so-called leaders and political people to demonize them in this way, this evil logic is not different than urging the NRA not to let people with diabetes have guns, or heart disease.

It is my interesting fortune to have all three – diabetes,  heart disease, and mental illness. This is not something I often speak about.

It is so important for people like me to stand up and say, this is okay, this is treatable, I am healthy.

How many people will seek help when ruthless and dishonest politicians and gun lobbyists keep telling us the mentally ill, not the guns,  are so dangerous that they must become the only segment of our culture to be blamed for guns deaths and  barred from purchasing a gun. Does the Second Amendment only apply to people who have never been anxious or depressed?

I am all for common sense gun control, but I also recognize a fraudulent diversion when I see one. When we’re not demonizing refugees and immigrants, lets’s target the mentally ill, our corporate scapegoat of the month, that seems to be what so many people want to year. But don’t kid yourself, that will put a dent in the horrific gun violence tearing apart so many lives.

Corporatism kills more Americans than terrorists by far, the NRA is not an organization of ordinary gun owners, they are a business lobby focused on profits. Congress does not refuse to act out of principle, but out of legalized bribery. When Americans come to see the truth in this, then there will be some changes to our gun laws.

For much of my life, I was one of those people who relentlessly ran from my life, and was miserable. I was too anxious to get help, I think. For much of my life, I didn’t think here was any help for me. I didn’t believe in it.

When I was hanging on by a thread, I did seek help, and I did get help, and it did help. I don’t tell other people what to do, but if you are reading this, and suffering from any kind of mental illness, I write to you from the other side of Hell. This just another space to cross, it isn’t the end of the world.

I like Arya’s philosophy. If you need help, don’t bark like a dog. Yell for help. It helps.