09/05/2026
Mental illness is real—even when its symptoms are difficult for us to understand.
The public conversation surrounding the Lindsay Clancy case has brought up something I believe is incredibly important as a mental health professional.
Acknowledging severe mental illness does not mean excusing behavior, minimizing tragedy, or suggesting that victims matter less.
Three children lost their lives. That is devastating.
At the same time, severe psychiatric illness—including psychosis—can profoundly affect perception, judgment, thinking, and a person's experience of reality.
Both of those truths can exist at the same time.
What concerns me is how quickly conversations about mental illness become conversations about blame:
Why didn't someone know? Why didn't the family stop it? Why didn't she just ask for help? Why should mental illness matter?
Sometimes people do ask for help. Sometimes repeatedly.
And that is why education, appropriate assessment, access to treatment, and taking psychiatric symptoms seriously matter so much.
We cannot encourage people to speak openly about their mental health and then stigmatize severe mental illness when its symptoms become frightening or uncomfortable for us to acknowledge.
Mental illness is not a moral failure.
Accountability and compassion can coexist.
Grief and an understanding of psychiatric illness can coexist. Recognizing mental illness does not require us to minimize the consequences of what occurred.
As a society—and especially within mental health care—I believe a more productive question is not simply:
“Who do we blame?”
But also:
“What can we learn, where can intervention improve, and how can we prevent another family from experiencing an unimaginable tragedy?”
We need to be able to talk about severe mental illness honestly—especially when the conversation is difficult.
