Sounds like some specific event may have been what set this off, then. He was already a mess, on psychotropic drugs, apparently prescription as well as otherwise. I've often wondered if the prescription drugs don't just suppress rather than prevent undesirable thoughts and behaviors. Perhaps they just build behind the drugged facade? Combine that with an apparent sense of unreality, an inability to distinguish fact from fantasy, that these psychotropic drugs create.
His roommate likely knows. He'd apparently been fantasizing or planning for months. Why that didn't set off alarms and provoke intervention of some sort is another question. Dismissed as just crazy talk, probably. Didn't believe he'd really do it.
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Drugs simply stuff the thoughts and feelings. That’s why AA works. First, get rid of the outside / unnatural influence. That forces the person to deal with the demons.
Not saying drugs aren’t helpful. The Founder of AA said the professionals “are good men we would never be honest with”.
I used to be on antidepressants, thankfully, I no longer am. The problem with the drugs is that they do not give you coping mechanisms, they just help make your mood and your feeling of needing to be active go down, and the drowsiness doesn’t make life all that more enjoyable either. I can understand how people with unresponsive epilepsy or unresponsive disorders may need them, but I would hope that they are prescribed as a last resort.