Mental disorder. These are two words that people in society fear and turn a blind eye to. Society, in fact, most of the time tends to ignore mental illness rather than try to understand it. This is exactly how society has treated Aaron Alexis and his mental illness. Aaron Alexis was a 34-year-old government contractor and former Navy reservist (Fox). He is known as the gunman who went on a shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard on September 16, 2013, leaving 12 men dead (Fox). Investigators later discovered that Alexis had psychological problems for which he had sought help before the outbreak. (Fox) The author of the article "An Avoidable Tragedy: Aaron Alexis and Mental Illness", Andrew Solomon, explains some issues that could have led to the prevention of the Alexis epidemic. From the beginning of the article, Solomon expresses his views on how such horrible disasters could be controlled and avoided if they were not due to the flaws of society. Starting from the title of the article, Solomon makes his readers understand that accidents like that of Aaron Alexis are avoidable by using the expression “Avoidable Tragedy” (Solomon). With this strong title, Solomon guides readers towards the idea of ​​stigma and how mental illness is directly linked to strong social stigma. Stigma, which means disgrace, has a powerful negative effect in society. The stigma that society places on mental illness “causes [people] to hide their mental health status from those around them” (Solomon). With this statement, Solomon is trying to convey the idea that society's corrupt thinking towards a negative and spiteful view of mental illness is driving people to hide their problematic mental health from everyone. This leads to point n...middle of the paper...the problem can easily be solved when people start educating themselves about this issue. What is even sadder is that we live in the 21st century, where knowledge is at our fingertips, yet we still fail to utilize our resources. Educating ourselves about mental illness and looking at patients with a different perspective can not only make patients' lives easier, but also solve the problems that Solomon brought forward in his article through the tragic story of Aaron Alexis. Of course, small steps will not solve the problem, but at least it will be a step towards hopefully improving the outlook of our society and system. Not only that, but as Solomon stated in his article, cases like Aaron Alexis' that are easy to spot may be avoidable. It's time to start spreading awareness about this unnoticed problem and start taking steps towards progress.