We see this happen all the time. People snap, kill innocent people, & then ax th!
Question: It is not an isolated incident. There seems to be a pattern. Depression, history of depression meds, withdrawal from normal life, find a group of gathered people, shoot as many as possible, then kill yourself. We see this in the news every week now. It's so common, I usually change the channel.
What is the root of this behavior? If psychologists could find the basis of this pattern and understand it, would this not be beneficial to mankind? Can any mental health pros shed some light here?
Answers: It is not an isolated incident. There seems to be a pattern. Depression, history of depression meds, withdrawal from normal life, find a group of gathered people, shoot as many as possible, then kill yourself. We see this in the news every week now. It's so common, I usually change the channel.
What is the root of this behavior? If psychologists could find the basis of this pattern and understand it, would this not be beneficial to mankind? Can any mental health pros shed some light here?
Firstly, it is generally not 'all of a sudden". People with a mental illness generally have well thought out plans for homocide/suicide, however they may be so determined that they will not express these feelings until they act on them which may make it seem like... all of a sudden.
Another point is that not all people who commit a crime (homocide or otherwise) have a mental illness. I work in a special care ward of a psychiatric hospital and it is surprising how many patients come in escorted by police after being arrested for something. When assessed by the team they are found to be (for want of better words) 'bad' not 'mad', yet often believe that if they can be made mad they will 'get off' their charges and consequences (I actually heard a patient gloat to other patients about this.. needless to say after his assessment he is no longer in our care but in police custody).
Many psychiatric hospitals have a forensics ward which is for 'the mad and bad', and many prisons have mental health facilities as there is often an overlap of mental illness and socially unacceptable behaviors.
For the situation you have mentioned about homocide then suicide, it is could be because they know killing someone is wrong but they believe it must be done (for whatever reason) thus want to complete the task, yet do not want to suffer the reprocussions of homocide.
The human mind is amazing and not fully understood, and as peoples thought patterns vary so much it is impossible to say what these people are thinking at the time.
Hope this helps
Some people are just crazy...plain and simple.
If you look at different shootings, the only thing they consistently have in common is that they're perpetrated by young males who have psychological problems. The problems range from depression, to anger management issues, to complete and utter psychosis.
The root of this behavior is that modern society is often not a happy place for young men. Young men are not allowed to hunt and kill things, and often are unable to find mates (the very things they are most biologically predisposed toward). This alone contributes to a great amount of dissatisfaction among the young male demographic.
Add to this frustration a mental illness or a feeling of alienation, and you have the recipe for a shooting.
I think it is a societal problem. We live in such an fulfilling society. We are encouraged to be so independent and any sign of neediness is considered a weakness. Humans weren't meant to live such solitary lives. Those who are for the most part mentally healthy deal with it, but those who aren't, snap.
Sometimes bullying plays a part too.
I think that it's becasue of such a lack of self esteem and sense of self that this is the only way to be known for something. This is a very pitiful cry for recognition that they aren't getting any where else in their lives. Even if they won't live to see it they know that on some level they will go down in history as the person who's done this awful thing. They have such a lack of self and who they could be that they have to do something to add a sense of purpose to their lives. You have to remember that it doesn't have to make sense to us just to them.