Illness

I am grateful to Mark Komrad for his expert commentary related to persuading a troubled loved one or friend into professional mental health treatment and The Sun for publishing it ("Helping them to get help," Dec. 19). I would like to emphasize a point Dr. Komrad made twice: Mental illness should not be equated with crime. Mistakenly, some of the public identify mass killers, as in Newtown, Conn., with all people with any mental illness. Consequently, the social stigma of mental illness is an added burden people with these illnesses must bear.

It is wonderful to have freedoms, but sometimes they are inappropriate: Someone who is having mental problems needs to have boundaries set by family or society ("In wake of Newtown shootings, Obama says nation must better protect children," Dec. 17). I know whereof I speak because when I was a child a member of my family became mentally ill. Fortunately, another family member had the ability to take necessary measures to see that person was treated at an institution where care and help were available.

Though none of us yet knows much of Adam Lanza's backstory, it doesn't take a mental health professional to suspect that a man who killed his mother before killing so many children and adults was likely suffering from a severe mental disorder. Although mental illness very rarely results in violence, let alone such heinous behavior, the fact is that so many of those who could benefit from state-of-the-art treatment do not receive it, for a variety of reasons. For example, some fear the implications of facing a condition that might limit the power of will to control thoughts, feelings or behaviors.

A junior at Glen Burnie High School in Anne Arundel County died Tuesday after becoming ill the day before with symptoms associated with bacterial meningitis, school officials said Wednesday. A letter was sent home to students' parents Wednesday outlining the girl's death and providing facts about bacterial meningitis, which is less contagious than viral meningitis but still deadly, said Bob Mosier, a school system spokesman. The girl's illness has not been confirmed by doctors or a medical examiner to have been from meningitis, but the school system - in consultation with the county health department - decided to move proactively to alert the school community in case meningitis is confirmed, Mosier said.

Baltimore Ravens fans can't help but feel frustrated, angry and maybe even sick about what they saw on their TV screens Sunday during a 31-28 loss to the Washington Redskins. But let's be fair, you can't blame most of that on lousy coverage by CBS Sports this week. The production team missed part of one play, and the broadcast crew of Marv Albert and Rich Gannon kept calling Dennis Pitta “Dennis Peeta.” And right at the start of overtime, Albert said one of the most obvious and, yes, dumbest things I have heard an announcer say all year: “The word on Robert Griffin III is that he appeared to suffer a right knee injury.” This came after viewers had seen Griffin: injure his knee once live and three times in a bone-jarring replay, limp off the field with the help of trainers, come back on the field limping worse, throw a pass and almost fall over from the pain, go down on all fours on the field and come limping off the field again as a second string quarterback went into the game for the final minutes to throw a touchdown pass and run for two points to tie the score in regulation.

Six employees at an Essex haunted house were taken to a local hospital after they became sick from spilled formaldehyde Friday night, Baltimore County police said. The chemical was used in the display at Kim's Krypt Haunted Attraction on Eastern Boulevard, police said. Firefighters were called around 9:15 p.m. to clean up the spill. The haunted house was closed for the evening, police said. Nov. 3 is the attraction's last scheduled day for the season. jkanderson@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

This is for all those people who are seriously ill and thinking they may never do what they love again. I was like that in 2010, recovering from back-to-back breast cancer and heart surgeries and the aftermath. I thought tennis, which is my athletic passion, was probably not going to be part of my future - if there was one. During my illnesses, tennis was a number of things to me: distraction, as my recovery efforts happened to be perfectly timed for watching the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open; incentive, because I couldn't wait to get back onto the court; and dream - would I ever make it back?

Downplaying the severity of a torn labrum in his shoulder, Ravens free safety Ed Reed emphasized that the injury won't affect his tackling. One day after revealing the injury on 105.7 The Fan and acknowledging the injury has had a negative effect, Reed reversed himself Thursday in the locker room and attempted to contain the news he broke. "I ain't drop no bombshell, man," Reed said. "I ain't no pitcher. I don't play baseball. That's something that we knew about. It's not nothing to worry about it, it is what it is.. The last few weeks I've been dealing with it. I haven't been pressing, so it's all right.

The state panel that is considering whether Maryland's laws and policies on access to guns by people who are mentally ill will hear from the public through Sept. 21 on key issues. Among those issues are whether there should be more gun restrictions for people who are mentally ill and whether current laws that don't allow anyone who's been in a mental facility for 30 or more consecutive days to purchase a regulated gun should be changed. The task force must make suggestions to the governor by the end of the year.

Hot weather contributed to the death of a 13th Baltimore resident earlier this summer, state health officials confirmed Tuesday. The city man, who was between the ages of 45 and 64, brings to 42 the number of heat-related deaths in the state so far this summer, the deadliest since 2005, when heat was a factor in 47 deaths across the state. The fatality was included in a weekly update on heat-related health concerns the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released late Tuesday.