Julie DelegalHuman beings are complex. Some of the most creative, curious, intelligent and sensitive individuals also bear the most risk for spiraling into deadly neuro-behavioral disorders.
It’s a cruel trick of nature, a curse of the genes.
And so it was with Sensitive Joe. “Sensitive Joe” was the college fraternity nickname given years ago to Myron May, the young attorney who shot three people at the Florida State University library. Two of the victims are healing; one remains in critical condition at this writing.
The standoff ended in the wee hours last Thursday when the police were forced to shoot May, killing him. Wielding a semi-automatic pistol, May had fired shots at the officers.
Talking about Myron May’s mental illness in no way diminishes the magnitude of FSU’s tragedy. It in no way underestimates the healing that will need to occur in Tallahassee. And it provides no guarantees that these tragedies won’t happen again.
But as human beings who believe we’re moving forward on the long arc of progress, we must all understand: Seeking treatment for neuro-behavioral disorders should carry with it no more stigma than addressing appendicitis.
Myron May ’s former girlfriend confirmed that he was veering toward full-blown mental illness. He believed the government was spying on him, video-recording him, targeting him for persecution. The elaborate details of the spying were unique to his own, tripped brain wiring. The same switch of the mind — however it was triggered, by whatever stresses — led him to suddenly leave his work in New Mexico and Texas and return to Florida.
There is no denying that clinical depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and autism are brain-wiring variations that wreak havoc on people living in the modern world. Untreated, they can also inflict harm on everyone nearby.
The same genes that work to disorder life in our highly complex society, though, may have actually helped our ancestors survive their shorter, more vicious existence. Mental illness has also been the dark passenger in human vessels of extraordinary talent.
Famous, brilliant people who changed the course of history — Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein — are now thought to belong to the “neuro-minority.”
Revolutionary artists like Ludwig Von Beethoven, Vincent Van Gogh and Robin Williams also possessed unique neurological networks that at times produced unparalleled beauty and dazzling feats. At other times, the same genetic constellation created dangerously black thoughts.
Without going so far as to romanticize mental illness, or in any way trivialize its effects on those who have it, consider the following: An individual’s splash of mania — in the right proportion — would have come in handy when our ancestral tribes ran out of food.
The ability to shift into high gear and run to neighboring lands to find and retrieve food would have been advantageous.
Likewise, a shaman’s spiritual vision — which we now call schizophrenic psychosis — played a role in energizing his kinsmen before the hunt.
Researchers believe that even clinical depression has a function: the people who are prone to it are highly analytical thinkers.
But as human culture has changed rapidly over time, our bodies haven’t quite caught up. And the brain has nowhere else to live but in our bodies. Can it help us to know that the horrible, harmful, deadly symptoms of mental disorders may have a flipside?
Once upon a time, the ability to preserve weight to survive hunger in times of scarcity was an enviable genetic feature. Now, in our current culture, much like the appendix or mental illnesses, the weight-preserving trait backfires. Obesity leads to heart disease and diabetes.
Yet we don’t hesitate to seek medical attention for those conditions.
Humanity, you’ve come a long way — far enough to understand how, at times, our own biology can ricochet against us. We need to understand mental illness as one more evolutionary echo that we can, and must, manage.
Julie Delegal, a University of Florida alumna, is a contributor for Folio Weekly, Jacksonville’s alternative weekly, and writes for the family business, Delegal Law Offices. She lives in Jacksonville. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
