I respectfully disagree - no one in her family or who spoke to her in the days leading up to it said anything about what her status was with her meds. When you miss a dose or stop taking them suddenly or even tapering the dosage it is very easy to spiral quickly into mania. It could have also been triggered by something she took at the client's house, or even by alcohol - no matter how professional you are at your job, you never know just how your brain chemistry will react.
With no disrespect intended to Ms. G and her family, several sources in the news articles I've read have said she had used prescription drugs, marijuana, and cocaine recreationally. That doesn't make her a unintelligent, unprofessional person. I know intelligent, professional people who do recreational drugs. No matter how in control of a situation you think you are, you add a chemical imbalance in the brain plus a drug - again, we don't know if she was or was not on taking anything for bipolar - PLUS anything else that affects your brain chemistry and anything could happen really. A friend of a friend tried cocaine for the first time and jumped off the roof of his house. I am the only person I know who can't just chill out and relax when smoking weed - I have the opposite reaction of everyone I know, I get insanely hyper and paranoid and anxious, which is why I'll never smoke it again. And you never know what the hell else weed or coke is going to be laced with.
All I'm saying is, to me her actions that night indicate that her bipolar disorder and/or a drug reaction cannot be ruled out as being a factor that night.
In the beginning of the coverage of this case in the media, it was mentioned that Shannan was bi-polar and had been known to dabble in drugs. (I just paraphrased that of course). I'd have to root back through the articles to get the exact phrasing but in my mind it seemed to be repeated in the same standard unsubstantiated, un-explained, almost clicheed way. I always took it with a grain of salt. No-one ever elaborated upon it, that I can recall, or furnished examples of her having similar episodes or behaving in an unusual or bizarre manner. Subsequent interviews with family members gave me the distinct impression that she was actually on a fairly even keel and her freak-out that night would be totally out of character. I'm not saying she wasn't bi-polar or didn't dabble in drugs; I'm saying - what does that mean? It's pretty vague,in actuality, but the implication is that those things are significant when they aren't necessarily.
I feel like drugs & bi-polar disorder are two things that fit in with and allow for an easy stereotyping, which is convenient for lazy or haphazard journalism. It's pretty late right now so I don't know if that made sense of not - what I mean is, I feel like those are the sort of details that fit in with a stereotype and so it's easy to throw them in without any real explanation or exploration of what the reality may have been (I'm talking about early media reports in particular.) "Oh, she's a prostitute who uses drugs and is bi-polar." It's easier then to be dismissive about the incident - which is in fact what sort of happened, for quite a while.
That's why this bothers me. You already have people who think it's not worthwhile spending resources to find "just a prostitute", who, in their mind, put herself in a bad situation (just check the comments section after any on-line article.) It's easy to dismiss someone like Shannan, and I think her case from the beginning was mishandled and not taken very seriously anyhow. Are people who have bi-polar disorder not to be believed then, if they run down a street screaming that someone is going to kill them? Sure, you might look at the possibility of drugs and the effect that might have had on her that night, but since no-one knows, that is pure speculation. The FACT is that she was frantically calling 911 for 23 minutes, trying to get away and saying that she was in danger. That we know for sure. And a bunch of dead prostitutes were found a hop, skip and a jump away. I'm not saying the possibility of drug use and her bi-polar disorder having a part in how she acted shouldn't be considered; I'm saying it bothers me that it's so quick and easy to jump to that conclusion instead of just believing her. (And this isn't specifically directed at you - i talking about people in general)
As someone else wrote recently, if other factors weren't involved - the bodies hadn't turned up, and the doctor hadn't made those inexplicable phonecalls and then inexplicably denied doing so, etc. - maybe one might be more inclined to consider the possibility of her being delusional that night. Under the circumstances, I reject that.
As for brain chemistry, I don't profess to be an expert, but I just don't think there's any evidence to support the idea that Shannon's bi-polar disorder would be the reaon for her flip-out . Just reading that she had it, with no details, doesn't tell me anything, and while yes I agree that brain chemistry can be tenuous, I think there is a tendency to look at this in the most facile way.
By the way, my saying that I understood her to be intelligent, savvy and professional didn't have anything to do with potential drug use or whatnot - I'm not sure why you glommed onto those words - I wasn't saying being intelligent and professional precluded using drugs! I was trying to say that I had the impression she approached her work pretty responsibly (for her own safety.) She didn't do it for fun, after all - it was a job. She might indulge a bit but I doubt she just threw caution to the wind and went hog-wild. I'm sure she knew what she was doing. Again, this impression comes mostly from what her family said about her. I doubt she'd let herself get to the point where she'd be out of control. Not to say it couldn't happen (the best laid plans...) but I'm looking at likelihoods here.
(I hope this makes sense because I'm cross-eyed right now and no way am I going to go back and read it over....!)
