Does anyone have a mentally ill relative who is capable of a mass shooting?
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Anonymous
| I have a bipolar brother who suffers from severe depression and mania. His life is an emotional roller coaster. When he is on his meds, he is functional. Most people may not know he has a mental disorder. Then he'll go off his meds when he is feeling better and he spirals out of control. I don't know if Stephen Paddock had a mental illness but whenever there is a mass shooting tragedy, I think of my brother. I have nightmares about him hurting others sometimes. He has therapists and sees doctors regularly. I just worry about him and it makes me sad. |
Anonymous
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OP,
Mass shootings are still a very rare event. I wouldn't worry that your brother would do this unless he's made threats are collects guns. the sandy hook, Littleton Colorado, gabby Gifford, Virginia tech and at least one of the columbine shooters were obsessed with guns long before the shootings. |
Anonymous
| I did. An uncle. He died of an alcohol overdose about two years ago. He was a brilliant man who lost everything due to mental illness and alcoholism. |
Anonymous
| No. |
Anonymous
| We have a neighbor who is mentally ill and angry and I have no idea what the is capable of. He is unpredictable and somewhat delusional and also seems to think we are out to get him. He mostly comes out of the house at night. |
Anonymous
| Those with mental illness commit crimes at away lower rates than the general population. No I don't worry about this. If I had loner pro-gun family members I would worry. |
Anonymous
| Who knows. |
Anonymous
"Mentally ill" is what happens when the criminal is White and Christian. When the criminal is Muslim and non-White it means that they are terrorists. |
Anonymous
Thank you. My brother has never been violent and has no guns. The only person he has ever hurt is himself. he has broken his hand and toe while he was in a rage. he punched a window and kicked a wall. |
Anonymous
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More suicidal family members than homicidal.
Fewer of those family members all the time. 
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Anonymous
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You don't know if the shooter was mentally ill or not. I saw his brother being interviewed about it and his brother was in a complete and total state of shock. I saw an interview with one of the shooter's former neighbors and she said that he was friendly and personable. Didn't talk politics, didn't seem to be angry about anything. The neighbor was also shocked that he would do something like this.
The reaction seems to be that this was a fairly normal, every day guy who must have just snapped which is scary as hell. |
Anonymous
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I believe my younger brother, Larlo, could have done something like that. We had a f*cked up childhood - dad was horrifically abusive, raged every 3-5 days, alcoholic, would trash the house, humiliated us whenever he could, etc. My brothers (not just my younger one, the older ones as well) got into drugs/alcohol at an early age. In hindsight, Larlo also had ADHD and learning disabilities. He was also the most sensitive emotionally.
Our father killed himself when Larlo was 18 and Larlo swiftly went out of control. This was in the 80s when these mass shootings were nearly unheard of. Now, though, with all that's going on, I could see Larlo getting all f*cked up, getting really angry, taking a gun out and shooting people. I don't know what mental disorders he would have been diagnosed with. Instead of shooting up other people, he ended up shooting himself and died. That was 30 years ago. It's going to sound really shitty but even though it still hurts to think about him, it's a relief not to have to worry about him anymore or to worry about him hurting anyone. |
Anonymous
| Isn't it possible to get a type of long-lasting medication patch or shot like you might use for birth control so that people with mental illness have to at least go to a doctor to have it removed before deciding to go off meds? I'm not suggesting forcing it but just that the added step of having to see a doctor and discuss why it's a bad idea to go off the meds might help keep them on more! |
Anonymous
The only thing this kind of rhetoric accomplishes is to stigmatize mental illness so that people who need help are less likely to seek it. People with mental illness are not the problem re: mass shootings. The insane accessability of extremely lethal guns is the problem. There's no reason to think the Vegas shooter had any mental illness. The only reason people are talking about that is because our culture's only two explanations for mass shootings are Muslim terrorist or white mentally ill loner. Even if you accept that our gun laws will never change, the factors that most correlate with serious violence are not mental illness, but: a history of childhood abuse, binge drinking, and male gender. (See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318286/) Should we require all men to take that drug that doesn't allow alcohol to metabolize? That would probably save more lives than your "patch for the mentally ill" idea. |
Anonymous
I'm sorry, but I'm mentally ill and I don't think you can commit mass murder without being mentally ill. I have a distant cousin who is a preteen and it wouldn't surprise me to learn he's done something like this years from now. His parents keep guns in the house. |