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IMO, this is partly because he is the one telling the story and can frame it any way he likes, and partly because he may not have the insight into his marriage or his emotions to know exactly what made him so angry at her. Reading between the lines of what he’s then and now, and how he’s acted...

Of course, I can’t diagnose, but I really don’t think CW has an autism spectrum disorder. I can’t pull them up right now but I think there is some research on qualitative differences in lack of empathy in ASD and antisocial. And as you pointed out, people with ASD are rarely violent. I’d agree...

This is spot on. His childhood likely contributed to what he did but in no way excuses it. Many of us grew up with a manipulative parent and have not murdered anyone. But it does give insight into how this could have happened with SW. Therapy could have helped, could’ve even prevented this, but...

I think he probably lacks insight. IMO, he's never had to deal with his emotions on his own. By his own admission, he was the baby of the family, and his relationship with his mother probably helped develop coping skills that are not functional or "normal". He probably doesn't realize this is...

This is true--we know what the predictors are for serial killers, but for family annihilators like this, we still don't know enough. The fact that he'd had no serious relationships before SW, and his relationship with his mother in retrospect are indicators, but there's no way she could've known...

I've been out of touch for a while but @PommyMommy alerted me to the updates on this case. I don't know how much of the discussion about SW I believe--how do you straddle someone for 20 minutes and have a conversation? IMO, parts are true. I think he had been thinking about killing SW at least...

I’ve been absent from WS for a while, but saw this news and had to come back! I’m so glad she was found alive and (I hate to say it) extremely shocked that they did.

Definitely interesting that they were able to determine her running pace was too fast. But the document seemed to be missing a bunch of pages that talked about the Fitbit? Did I miss something? We definitely debated the phone and Fitbit ad nauseum!

Probably, yes. I get the feeling that his mom probably took care of a lot of things for him that she shouldn’t have and as a result, he never learned how to be a functioning adult on his own. I suspect he’s never really had to take responsibility for his own actions before, either. This probably...

DBT is primarily used for borderline personality disorder, and largely focuses on emotion regulation. Most PDs have no known effective treatment. I don’t know if Cindy has a disorder, but she might benefit from some kind of cognitive-behavioral therapy. CBT mostly focuses on changing thoughts to...

It's natural to want to categorize things--our brains do it automatically. So when things don't fit neatly into one category, it's hard to accept!

Yeah, I think family annihilators are different because it always seems to come from nowhere. They are so often described as mild-mannered, caring, loving, nice, etc. but when you look closer, there’s something there. I’m not sure we’ve identified what that something is yet. It is fascinating...

No. I don't think his lack of empathy is indicative of autism. There is a lot of research on empathy in autism and I think that it's different than a lack of empathy in antisocial personality disorder. People on the autism spectrum have difficulty interpreting social cues, understanding what...

I think that's what we all wonder with family annihilators. It always seems to come from nowhere. I think it's a combination of a lot of things--I expect that while he was submissive to women (SW and his mother), he resented them (again, SW and his mother). He's probably never had to take...

This is really great, gitana! I really think it's more helpful than diagnostic criteria for a PD or other disorder, because while all of these would help identify CW, I don't think he fits any specific disorder.

Thanks, liltexans! Hope you're feeling better! I'm hopelessly behind on this thread, but let me make two statements about personality disorders: 1) they don't appear out of nowhere. In other mental illnesses like depression or even psychotic disorders, you don't necessarily have symptoms for...

My 4% number was for adults in the US from the National comorbidity study, which is a very large, nationally representative study. Interested to know what the source is for 1/3 of people with depression are diagnosed with bipolar, as I’ve been in the field for a long time but have never heard...

Yes, some people internalize anger and it manifests as depression and anxiety, and some people externalize, which manifests as you’d expect anger to—aggression, outbursts, etc.

Very hard to say. It’s possible that he repressed it and meeting NK and the issues with his parents brought it to the surface. It’s also possible that nothing caused it, or that he always felt rage and just didn’t express it.

RSBM. You’re correct that depressive episodes are quite common, but bipolar requires at least one manic or hypomanic episode which is much less common (~4% among adults). And despite how common mental illness actually is, there is still a huge amount of stigma surrounding it. Women especially...