The purpose of my post was not to admonish but to ask you to think about making a diagnosis on a 'patient' you do not know and instead to focus on the facts we have only.
I am focusing on the facts that we have. And I did not definitively diagnose or state motive. I also provided links , that are evidenced based to enrich the conversation and processing of facts that we DO have . He is not my "Patient" and It is not possible to assess a dead person. It is possible to conceptualize and process released information and information provided by collateral contacts that were close to him. It is also appropriate to repeat that LE and their employed mental health professionals state they believe he had severe undiagnosed mental illness. A statement that is part of the facts released in this case in the past week.
Redirect from diagnosing him to finding his reasons or even possible reasons for his act.
Again, I am not diagnosing. And looking at the behavior that we do know about, the gambling, the reports from collaterals, and the statements of LE are part of "redirecting" and surmising reasons for his committing this act. Police have said that they have not found any one defining event in his life that would explain his motive. I believe that is true with all attackers/terrorists and I believe it with this one. It is never one single thing. It is generally a culmination.
Thats the only question, really and one to which we may never find an answer.
This is true. But dismissing mental illness as a possible factor is not helpful nor does doing so look at his personality and behavior holistically and realistically .
He took less than 50 Diazepam , possibly low potency, in 18 months.. thats not an addiction and that qty will not lead to either side effects or withdrawal or the more extreme psychopathology that can RARELY be associated with a mild anxiolytic.
I read that. Though, I am not sure that we can definitively state that this report of his intake is true. And bento / anxiolytic abuse is hardly rare. it is actually rampant. How many times have you heard, "just take a xanex". How many psych er's are filled with people who run out of the prescription and are in danger of dangerous withdrawal. This happens often due to it being a class 2 controlled substance with new regulations Istop) and prescribers have been over prescribing for a long time. I am not of the crowd that blames psychotropic medications. But people keep pointing at his prescriptions. He could have been prescribed by his Doc that he had on "retainer" (which is suspect in and of itself) and he could have been buying it off the street. We don't truly know at this point.
We simply cannot trust reports of any of the alleged statements of those around him..it is likely they are misquoted and altered to suit whatever media is trying to sell papers.
Collateral contacts are often the most informative in mental health. They may clumsily explain what they are seeing, but mental health professionals will hear way more than a lay person. I do not agree AT ALL that the statements of those close to him, his GF and his bizarre brother, his neighbors and others are to be dismissed. That would be a major mistake.
He may well be a psychopath, a paranoid schizophrenic or a manic depressive.
The current term for Psychopath equals Antisocial Personality Disorder. A cluster B personality disorder. Schizophrenia would cause obvious disorganized acutely psychotic behavior or negative symptoms that would not allow for that amount of precision and planning. And the current term for manic depressive is Bipolar Disorder. All very very different mental illnesses call for different protocols in treatment. (One is a personality disorder, one is schizophrenia spectrum , and the other is a mood disorder) A person can have paranoid delusions without having paranoid schizophrenia. As I have never met him, I am not diagnosing him. I have posted many articles and literature exploring Cluster B Personality Disorders and pathological gambling though...
IMO.
But what RECENT drugs were prescribed for him, apart from the Valium?
Was he indulging in cocaine, for example? Thats a drug that will bestow a God complex very quickly.
The possibility of his physical deterioration may be pathological or not. Its relevance in my post was whether or not it spurned him to commit an act of absolute outrageousness when he did.
I don't know what he was using. What he did was beyond outrageous. I do see impulse problems and compulsions. I do know the it lacked any and all empathy, humanity, or compassion. I do know that it was premeditated and methodically planned. I do know that he was homicidal and suicidal. I do know that he had a very serious gambling habit and an apparent lack of need or desire to interact socially with others. Whether this was inherent in his personality or part of his nearly constant gambling is unknown to me. .
The numbers? I am merely playing with theories as to the whys of it. Speculating. hoping maybe somebody will volunteer to help find relevance in the date or bring numerological skills to play..
Theres hundreds of anti gov groups within USA.. many are cult like.. was he a member of any or did he embrace any known ideologies at all?
Authorities at this point say no. Maybe in the end, it will be that he belonged to a fringe extremist group, or had fringey extremist views. For now, that is not in play.
I do appreciate your response, you write well.
