VA Tech Shooting: What The Mental Health Of A Gunman Looks Like
U.S. House of Representatives Republican Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia responded to today’s shooting by saying:
Such violence is never easy to explain, and cuts to our core – especially on a campus that has experienced such grief in the past.
True, it is not easy to explain. We have to believe that someone who is capable of committing such an atrocious crime has definite mental health problems. The 2007 VA Tech gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, had reportedly spent time at a mental health facility and in counseling two years prior to the shooting spree for stalking two female students and demonstrating erratic behavior and suicidal thoughts. The 23-year-old student also was said to keep blades in his room, and even though he was deemed “mentally ill” and potentially dangerous, he was released from therapy.
In the case of the Colmbine shootings, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were said to be radically different individuals, with different motives and different mental conditions. Klebold was hotheaded, depressive and suicidal. He blamed himself for his problems. Harris, although described by some as “nice”, was cold, calculating, and homicidal. “Klebold was hurting inside while Harris wanted to hurt people,” one investigating agent said. Harris was not merely a troubled kid, the psychiatrists have made it clear that he was a psychopath.
In another instance, a South Florida man who gunned down four relatives during a 2009 Thanksgiving massacre was said to be depressed and controlled by obsessive compulsive rituals. He reportedly took five-hour showers and sometimes wore two pairs of underpants because he was afraid he would somehow impregnate a woman otherwise.
And in the Arizona shooting last January, state health officials said if the gunman had sought mental health treatment years ago, doctors could have been able to work out his problems before he allegedly unleashed terror on the crowd outside a Safeway.
After that particular shooting, Dr. Laura Nelson told Fox News that she believed she could have helped him because, often times, schizophrenia patients may be predisposed to the illness but don’t show it until the symptoms are set off by a “trigger.” That trigger could be a traumatic event or substance abuse, including the use of marijuana (which the gunman apparently used quite a bit). Nelson also said mental illness alone typically does not make people violent, but substance abuse can contribute. She also noted that people who have “anti-social behavioral tendencies could be prone to violence.”
As we follow the latest shooting at Virgina Tech, it will come as no surprise if the gunman has some of the mental health problems of these other killers. We just wish it didn’t take the deaths of innocent people to discover the seriousness of their mental illness.
Photo: msnbc.com
Related posts:
- Sandusky’s Legacy: Adults With Permanent Mental Health Disorders
- 1 In 5 Americans Now On Mental Health Drugs. Are We Over-Medicating?
- Americans Suffer More Mental Health Disorders Than Other Countries, But Why?
- She May Be Innocent, But We Feel Sorry For The Mental Health Of Amanda Knox
- Stigma Around Mental Health More Depressing Than Ever
Post from: Blisstree
-
The Oracle : Virginia college application overload In Virginia, we are blessed with an abundance... Read Full Story » -
( 4UMF NEWS ) Virginia Tech Negligent In Campus Massacre: A jury found Virginia Tech negligent... Read Full Story » -
Survivors and relatives of victims of US shootings marked the fifth anniversary of the Virginia... Read Full Story » -
by writegirl You think Cho had some kind of autism? His peers never heard him spoke until that... Read Full Story » -
ALLEGED VA. TECH SHOOTER IDENTIFIED Alleged Va. Tech Shooter Identified Police have identified... Read Full Story »
