Many on FR have made the assumption that hearing voices is exclusively diagnostic of schizophrenia but it isn't. And absent a number of additional signs and symptoms, that diagnosis may likely be incorrect. Hearing voices is often reported by polydrug users (including cannabis users), by individuals undergoing extreme stress, sensory disruptions, and some who are best diagnosed as having bipolar disorder.
As a clinical psychologist, I like to follow my training: first review the record, then examine the patient. Neither can be done as yet. Perhaps more will be revealed in the autopsy and if evidence is made available. But it concerns me that this individual's higher levels of functioning do not fit well with those impromptu diagnoses offered.
Often, dangerousness (to self or others) is transient and temporary and most people stabilize in much less than 2 weeks. Those of us wishing to see society solve the problem by locking potential offenders away, might best recall the willingness and certainty of many psychiatrists to improperly and incorrectly diagnose Barry Goldwater in 1964. Or those 100+ who more recently claimed with equal certainty that that Donald Trump - who they never met, much less interviewed and examined - had a "dangerous mental illness", "a narcistic personality", and was too dangerous to be allowed to continue his presidency.
Just what do you think those professionals believe about those of us who supported either or both candidates? Rather than searching for the needle in the haystack and trying to guess which individual may become or prove to be actually dangerous, I think the evidence continues to mount that the greater danger is the gun free zone - and any time I enter one I am putting my at risk. The world has changed and it is not a safer place. Better to recognize the danger and be prepared to deal with it.
Thanks for your professional insight!
Actually we should all want them to get help. Probably half the homeless have mental problems and no where to get the help they desperately need. I don’t think people need to be locked up forever but if this man had received adequate help he and 18 other people might be alive today.
Every single mass shooting has the word “he/she was on our radar”. Hearing voices is one thing, hearing voices that tell you to shoot up an army base is quite another. I know you are a professional, but how can anyone know if a medication is right or a dosage is right in a few weeks.
As to the stigma or not seeking help, this isn’t the 1970s. Maybe we should educate people that mental illness is an illness, not a defect.
Excellent post. very comprehensive and accurate.
We had over 20 thousand murders by guns in 2022. And 672 “mass shootings” that year.
Mass shootings are not the problem. The media coverage is the problem. It offers sensationalism and an easy fix of outlawing all the guns, which doesn’t work anyways with criminials or desperate people. but it gives people the illusion we can control all random events.
Sometimes life has tragedies..and this was one of them.
I don't see how there can be a better statement to describe where we are, and what our responsibilities are.
I try to be very cautious as to my whereabouts and my access to protective devices.
Re: 159 - Informative post, thank you!
Re: 159 - Do you believe that the use of red or yellow flag laws are effective?