UHC CEO Gunned Down in Midtown Manhattan

[Anonymous]

Sorry on WBAL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has an MS in a tech field. Smart 1580 SAT kid, gifted, tons of friends, never misbehaved even as a toddler. Around age 27 he started saying his co-workers were laughing at his ideas during meetings (I didn't believe it). He took his passport on a day trip to DC. Why? In case he needed to flee to Canada on short notice (paranoia).

He also started doing a lot of book reading and posting philosophical stuff on SM that sounded similar to Luigi in that it was "deep", but to me, unintelligible. I'm a retired engineer, but had no idea what he was saying.

Then he went radio silent on me for almost a year. Out of the blue he called, very manic and excited that he had the secret to world peace, blah blah.

I finally called my ex and he hopped on a plane. By the time he got there, our son was in a full on psychotic episode where he thought he was in a different dimension.

Thank goodness his roommate knew to call police trained in mental issues. He told the police his dad was really an imposter.

They took him to the psych hospital in Staunton. Wonderful place where he stayed for a month.

His roommates told us our son and a friend had been smoking a lot of pot. The psychiatrist dx him with some combo name of schizophrenia/bipolar and said the exact dx didn't matter, same meds.

She believed there is a link between pot and Schiz onset. Either they turn to pot to handle Sz symptoms, or possible pot usage can bring out Sz, which was lurking below the surface.

I was so grateful he didn't do something to get arrested during his psychotic episode, which had probably been brewing for a year.

Of course he went off the psych meds within 6 months. While he hasn't had a repeat episode in 6 years, I think he isn't smoking pot regularly. However, he is now very under-employed, working part-time as an admin. He lives with his dad, so no pressure to pay bills.

I'm grateful he's "stable". But boy, this story sounded a little too familiar to me. This type of thing was my biggest fear. I can't imagine how Luigi's parents and friends feel.

My DD is genetically predisposed to schizophrenia (runs in her dad's family) and everything I've read says there's a link. Really freaks me out as it's legal where I live and EVERYONE uses it.

[Anonymous]

PP, thank you for posting your experience and your son. It was helpful to learn. That sounds incredibly difficult and hope you all stay well.

[Anonymous]

schizophrenia --if he wasn't psychotic towards the UHC CEO it would have been someone else

[Anonymous]

I read that big ny times Best Minds book about the Yale hedge fund guy who later flipped out and killed his wife.

Good luck to Luigi and team figuring this out.

Unf the lawyers want to “win” less time but most people want him safe from all and getting the truth out, and mental help. At least so he’s not tormented all the time in prison in his head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has an MS in a tech field. Smart 1580 SAT kid, gifted, tons of friends, never misbehaved even as a toddler. Around age 27 he started saying his co-workers were laughing at his ideas during meetings (I didn't believe it). He took his passport on a day trip to DC. Why? In case he needed to flee to Canada on short notice (paranoia).

He also started doing a lot of book reading and posting philosophical stuff on SM that sounded similar to Luigi in that it was "deep", but to me, unintelligible. I'm a retired engineer, but had no idea what he was saying.

Then he went radio silent on me for almost a year. Out of the blue he called, very manic and excited that he had the secret to world peace, blah blah.

I finally called my ex and he hopped on a plane. By the time he got there, our son was in a full on psychotic episode where he thought he was in a different dimension.

Thank goodness his roommate knew to call police trained in mental issues. He told the police his dad was really an imposter.

They took him to the psych hospital in Staunton. Wonderful place where he stayed for a month.

His roommates told us our son and a friend had been smoking a lot of pot. The psychiatrist dx him with some combo name of schizophrenia/bipolar and said the exact dx didn't matter, same meds.

She believed there is a link between pot and Schiz onset. Either they turn to pot to handle Sz symptoms, or possible pot usage can bring out Sz, which was lurking below the surface.

I was so grateful he didn't do something to get arrested during his psychotic episode, which had probably been brewing for a year.

Of course he went off the psych meds within 6 months. While he hasn't had a repeat episode in 6 years, I think he isn't smoking pot regularly. However, he is now very under-employed, working part-time as an admin. He lives with his dad, so no pressure to pay bills.

I'm grateful he's "stable". But boy, this story sounded a little too familiar to me. This type of thing was my biggest fear. I can't imagine how Luigi's parents and friends feel.

This sounds horrible. I’m sorry. Your son is safe, has help and you sound like a good Mom.

[Anonymous]

I'm PP with the son who had the psychotic breakdown.

Some more interesting info. We have a 2nd son who was dx in 6th grade with ADD & ODD. He was the poster child for ODD. Very, very challenging child but with a great Psychiatrist and Counselor, we made it through.

DS2 also got a tech BS, is now married with 2 kids and is probably "pleased" that he is now the stable kid, after growing up in DS1's shadow.

Anyway, I told DS2's psychiatrist that my sister was probably undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. When I was 19, she was 18 and married a 35 yo high society cocaine dealer from a well-to-do family. After their marriage fizzled a year later, she called me and said the FBI was trying to arrest her DH and might be following me too. I was naive and believed it and started looking over my shoulder (LOL).

This sister told my dad the waitress bugged his watch and they needed to go outside to talk. Then she told relatives my dad was sending funds to Al-Qaeda in offshore accounts (he wasn't). She asked another sibling to swap cars because people were following her.

IE, I think my sister (DS1&2's aunt) was probably paranoid schizophrenic (undiagnosed).

Now on my ex's side, I told DS2's psychiatrist that my ex's adult brother was taking lithium and was unable to work or support himself (probably Bipolar?)

So while I was concerned this family history was affecting DS2, I now think it related to DS1 even more.

BTW, DS2's psychiatrist and counselor both banned my ex from their offices because my ex was paranoid and they were concerned for their safety. But not sure I want to make something of that at this point.

Ex and I now need to cooperate to support DS1. But if there is a genetic link, I think there is plenty of observed evidence that both of our family's history supports that position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then why not legalize medically assisted suicide?

That’s a separate issue. People can deny expensive and futile treatment, while still receiving comfort care (pain meds, fluids, oxygen). That is what hospice is.

Actually, hospice tries to tell families that it is totally normal to stop giving nutrition and hydration to people. I don't call that "comfortable." There is a whole rationalization that is used to hasten death.

The hospice industry is another big business can of worms: https://www.propublica.org/article/hospice-healthcare-aseracare-medicare

Off topic but PLEASE don’t include scientific misinformation while discussing capitalism and big business.

I’ve seen too many people die a more uncomfortable death than needed because of this misunderstanding.

When someone is actively dying, it is in their best interest NOT to have hydration. Their vasculature cannot hold fluid in and it spreads to places it shouldn’t be (ie- lungs). Same goes for nutrition; bowels slow down. Bodies know how to die.

-hospital Oncology RN who has no interest in anything but patients’ comfort

Lots of people have food and water removed before they are "actively dying" and then they begin "actively dying."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is a jail house hottie

Him being attractive and well educated is doing him a lot of favors in the court of public opinion.

And young
And tall
And well read (but mostly newer books out, not classics).

Don’t forget rich. None of his peers have came out and can come up with a negative thing to say about him either and from the outside seems perfectly nice. He would be a perfect boyfriend to the Gen Z girls if he wasn’t a killer.

His peers are saying nice things about him because he was a nice, smart young man.

Something happened after that.

Drug usage and it might sound far fetched but maybe a cult or extremist group. If you look at the timeline he was basically unemployed in San Francisco for a year and stopped talking to family in July. That time period seems to be the most critical here and it doesn’t look like he has any friends from that time coming out to talk about him. It has to be something about that last year.

Or more likely just schizophrenia. It develops in young men around that age.

Schizophrenia brought on by ayahuasca. He wouldn’t be the first.

[Anonymous]

This guy really is not showing many aspects of schizophrenia, and anyone who knows anything about it would agree.

To carry this off required a high level of cognitive functioning, planning, organization, general executive functioning. None of that is present if someone has schizophrenia. No clear signs of psychosis, really nothing here that points to schizophrenia.

He's simply a young man who became radicalized, had physical health issues, and took it to the extreme. There are thousands, maybe million millions, of men who are like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This guy really is not showing many aspects of schizophrenia, and anyone who knows anything about it would agree.

To carry this off required a high level of cognitive functioning, planning, organization, general executive functioning. None of that is present if someone has schizophrenia. No clear signs of psychosis, really nothing here that points to schizophrenia.

He's simply a young man who became radicalized, had physical health issues, and took it to the extreme. There are thousands, maybe million millions, of men who are like this.

My relative with schizophrenia has a lot of cognitive functioning and executive function for the weird things he hyper focuses on, which are luckily non-violent. Idk if your characterization is correct for all presentations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then why not legalize medically assisted suicide?

That’s a separate issue. People can deny expensive and futile treatment, while still receiving comfort care (pain meds, fluids, oxygen). That is what hospice is.

Actually, hospice tries to tell families that it is totally normal to stop giving nutrition and hydration to people. I don't call that "comfortable." There is a whole rationalization that is used to hasten death.

The hospice industry is another big business can of worms: https://www.propublica.org/article/hospice-healthcare-aseracare-medicare

Off topic but PLEASE don’t include scientific misinformation while discussing capitalism and big business.

I’ve seen too many people die a more uncomfortable death than needed because of this misunderstanding.

When someone is actively dying, it is in their best interest NOT to have hydration. Their vasculature cannot hold fluid in and it spreads to places it shouldn’t be (ie- lungs). Same goes for nutrition; bowels slow down. Bodies know how to die.

-hospital Oncology RN who has no interest in anything but patients’ comfort

Lots of people have food and water removed before they are "actively dying" and then they begin "actively dying."

Yes, Diane Rehm has talked about how her husband died on her show. I believe she wrote about it in her book, also.

[Anonymous]

This sounds horrible. I’m sorry. Your son is safe, has help and you sound like a good Mom.

***********

PP from above. Thank you. This means a lot to me. It has been an unexpected challenging path.

I think while initially his dad was supporting our son by letting him move in, as his dad ages into his mid 70's (and our son doesn't go off the rails), his dad will benefit more by having an adult in the house that can help Dad stay at home and remain independent longer than if Dad lived alone.

I'm >10 yrs younger than my ex, but am just starting to see how it wouldn't be the worst thing to have a single adult child available to assist you into "older" age.

(Yikes! How did this happen so quickly? Wasn't I 35 just yesterday?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has an MS in a tech field. Smart 1580 SAT kid, gifted, tons of friends, never misbehaved even as a toddler. Around age 27 he started saying his co-workers were laughing at his ideas during meetings (I didn't believe it). He took his passport on a day trip to DC. Why? In case he needed to flee to Canada on short notice (paranoia).
...
They took him to the psych hospital in Staunton. Wonderful place where he stayed for a month.

His roommates told us our son and a friend had been smoking a lot of pot. The psychiatrist dx him with some combo name of schizophrenia/bipolar and said the exact dx didn't matter, same meds.

She believed there is a link between pot and Schiz onset. Either they turn to pot to handle Sz symptoms, or possible pot usage can bring out Sz, which was lurking below the surface.

I was so grateful he didn't do something to get arrested during his psychotic episode, which had probably been brewing for a year.

Of course he went off the psych meds within 6 months. While he hasn't had a repeat episode in 6 years, I think he isn't smoking pot regularly. However, he is now very under-employed, working part-time as an admin. He lives with his dad, so no pressure to pay bills.

I'm grateful he's "stable". But boy, this story sounded a little too familiar to me. This type of thing was my biggest fear. I can't imagine how Luigi's parents and friends feel.

I posted upthread about having a schizophrenic sibling. This is exactly what we think triggered her schizophrenia. I found several psychiatrist podcasts that talk about this. What's notable is that marijuana seemed to be the worst drug for triggering schizophrenia. I voted against legalization of marijuana for this reason. It is too easy to get access now. Her psychotic break was 7 years ago and we've given up on the idea that she may get back to her old self. She's gone. It's sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This guy really is not showing many aspects of schizophrenia, and anyone who knows anything about it would agree.

To carry this off required a high level of cognitive functioning, planning, organization, general executive functioning. None of that is present if someone has schizophrenia. No clear signs of psychosis, really nothing here that points to schizophrenia.

He's simply a young man who became radicalized, had physical health issues, and took it to the extreme. There are thousands, maybe million millions, of men who are like this.

My relative with schizophrenia has a lot of cognitive functioning and executive function for the weird things he hyper focuses on, which are luckily non-violent. Idk if your characterization is correct for all presentations.

Agree with this. My sister hallucinates every day but she can figure out how to get herself around to different cities and she just renewed her passport without any assistance. It's crazy how functional they can appear to people who don't know them.