I’ve realized lately that I’m much better than I used to be at understanding how others experience the world and respond to it in different ways than I do. Sometimes it’s great but sometimes it kinda sucks.
Archive for the ‘Mental Health’ Category
Catharting. Carharting.
Monday, November 30th, 2009Poor Poor Poe Poe
Saturday, May 26th, 2007I realized today that I haven’t listened to Poe in something like 3 years. That was a severe oversight. I really like Poe and am happily listening to Hello right now.
It occurred to me before that she must have a history of abusive boyfriends — or at least one really bad one. But now, 3 years later, I can realize it in that counselor-y1 way.
A lot of things sound different than they did 3 years ago, in fact.
- I find myself wanting to hand the lyrics from Trigger Happy Jack (”You can’t talk to a psycho like a normal human being”) to some of my clients [↩]
Itterasshai
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007A client of mine died. He was murdered last Friday night. I don’t really know any details at this point.
So I’m writing this while Electra goes to get some mini-burgers, which I’ve never tried, from The Barley Mill Pub. We only own one DVD and have no television service. I’ve read everything my RSS reader has for me. You know the scene.
When my supervisors broke the news, I’m not sure what happened. I was already kind of in my own world and worried about something else. I was in movie-observer mode. But that isn’t really true. Movies suck me in and get me. I cry at movies. This felt like I was somewhere else. I’ve felt that way since.
Apparently they found out about it because the homicide detective called the agency today to talk to whoever his counselor was.
I learned he’d been murdered and I was all “I gotta call that detective! I’ll give him my intel and he’ll break this case!” But the homicide office at Portland Police closes at 4:00pm. Another useful piece of learning.
I keep auditing my feelings and coming up short. All I know is that I’m really detached and that I refuse to tell anyone any personal info about the guy. When you die, your rights to confidentiality pretty much go out the window. But my mind won’t accept that. I won’t even tell anyone his first name.
I know that when I look to see what I’m thinking I envision myself meeting at his appointed time tomorrow and chatting about all that murder weirdness. Wasn’t that just crazy? Life sure can throw some strange curve balls, can’t it? Wacky!
I am also drunk. And I plan to get a wee bit drunker. Lucky for me, it only takes a few beers.
Good night, Internet! I’ll see ya later!
Mental Illness doesn’t show up in an autopsy. No shit.
Monday, April 23rd, 2007From a report on the autopsy of Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman who committed the murders at Va. Tech:
Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho was as mysterious in death as he was in life, leaving behind few clues for medical examiners.
…
Psychologists and criminologists have suggested in recent days that Cho suffered from a mental illness, but Massello said such disorders are usually neurological or chemical in nature and unlikely to be identified during an autopsy, even if Cho’s brain had been intact.
Um. Duh?
Among all the scrambling to find someone at fault, the scramblers seem to have largely settled on gun enthusiasts and the mental health industry. I feel a desire to make some things clear:
- Putting a suicidal person on a hold and taking them to the hospital is not the same as arresting them and taking them to jail. When Cho was released it was because he was no longer highly likely to go kill himself. In other words, “he no longer appeared to be a threat to himself.”
- No one in the mental health system has a crystal ball, not even psychiatrists and psychologists. They always say “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.”1 Cho did not have a list of past behaviors including “shooting rampage.” Therefore, ipso facto, no one leapt to the conclusion that he would commit such an atrocity.
- Mental health workers can’t put someone away for “suspicion of being screwed up.” To be truly put away in the United States, one has to commit a crime.2 I can’t imagine a judge taking too kindly to prosecutors claiming that a kid should be locked up for the long haul because “This here psychiatrist said he should.”
Of course his “mental illness” won’t show up in the autopsy. There’s no Anxiety Virus. Depression is not the result of damage to your “happy neurons.”3
Looking for some concrete, easy-to-identify sign of what was wrong with this kid and trying to figure out who screwed up won’t work. It won’t bring back the dead. It won’t heal anyone’s injuries. And it won’t do anything to stop this from happening again.
It’s absolutely horrendous what this kid did. And it’s worth spending the time and energy to see what lessons we can learn from it. But unfortunately we’ll likely never know the “why” of it, no matter how advanced and enlightened our society may be.
- And it’s a poor one at that [↩]
- There aren’t really even places where people suffering full-blown psychosis are “put away” anymore. In Oregon, a mental health commitment will only get you into the state hospital for up to 180 days. [↩]
- There are, of course, neurochemical components to mood disorders. But the debate over chemistry vs. circumstance is often circular and typically results in chicken-and-egg impasses. [↩]