Thoughts on the Germanwings tragedy

When horrific tragedies like the recent Germanwings crash happen, people often ask mental health professionals what we can do about them.

My response? The answer is very similar to asking doctors if we can cure cancer.

You see, cancer treatment and mental health care have both improved tremendously in recent years, but a solution for many of the worst cases still eludes us. Whether it is metastatic cancer or the potential for violence, the answers often simply aren't there yet. So when the unthinkable happens, we instinctively grope for easy solutions that miss the mark:

-"We need better access to mental health care" (Many if not most recent mass killers had the best mental health care that money could buy - including the Germanwings co-pilot.)

-"We need better gun control"  (Nearly ever mass killer could still obtain guns legally, or used a family member's gun, or in this most recent case, was co-piloting an Airbus A320.)

-"We should do a better job of identifying these killers" (Even people with homicidal urges don't usually act on them - they don't like being dead or in prison any more than you do. But even if we could pick out the ones who might act, then what? Lock them all up just in case?)

By all accounts, this Germanwings pilot was skilled at acting normally, even on the day of the crash. Sadly, he would have needed to disclose a specific intention to harm himself or others before anyone could have done anything. Which, of course, he didn't. Like metastatic cancer, this is where we are still stuck.

So do we have an alternative to just waiting for the next tragedy to happen? Sort of. We can invest in research, and in particular, try to learn from the perpetrators who survive - some of whom have written or spoken eloquently about their struggles with their urges. (This would mean not executing them, by the way.) And while it may be small comfort to the families of the nearly 150 souls who lost their lives, we can go on with our lives knowing that situations like this are extremely rare.

We can also try to keep media reports from coloring our thinking toward the mentally ill. Every time a headline blares that this suicidal pilot suffered from depression or may have been a narcissist, it silently slanders the millions of people living with mental illnesses who would never harm anyone - which, statistically, is the vast majority of them.

I remain an optimist. We have learned more in the last century about treating mental health than in all of previous human history. Many previously intractable problems, such as severe personality disorders, are now highly treatable today. But bad things still happen that we don't yet have an answer for, and all we can do is carry on with our lives, hug our loved ones a little tighter, have faith - and keep learning.