i just wanted to make this point... where mental illness begins and premeditation begins could be debated into infinity... but doesn't it seem more likely that someone is truly CHEMICALLY insane if:
1) there were no previous incidences of child abuse
2) a parent seems in every way like a loving, caring one (as also witnessed daily by the spouse they live with)
3) there is no money to be won (like an insurance scam)
4) there is no drug habit
5) there were previous treatments & hospitalizations for SERIOUS mental illness, along with prescribed medications for psychosis
and also, this seems to be a pattern with this issue:
5) if the parents are deeply involved in a religion that seems to either deny mental illness, believes that it's caused by "the devil", or thinks it can cure it with prayer or even deeper religious involvement......?
(although to rusty yates' credit, he DID seek professional help for his wife many times.)
obviously this woman didn't just up and decide one day, out of the blue, "hey, i hate my kids-- i think i'll kill them!" ALL accounts.... her husband, family, friends, neighbors, & i'm sure even the kids themselves would have said... yes, she definitely adores her children, they are her world. the fact that she did and STILL killed them, THAT to me is more evidence of her mental sickness than anything else. (unless she's a really good actress & just faking the whole thing, which she doesn't seem to be.)
i think it's possible to be conscious enough to call 911, to call your husband, to show grief & remorse... even though you've just had a "psychotic break". however it's still hard to wrap my brain around it all... and there's a lot about postpartum depression that i- and most of us- don't really understand. i always had a theory that it's just a deep evolutionary thing that's hard-wired into our genes... when a parent is stressed beyond their ability to handle reality, every once in a while someone snaps, and they kill their offspring. maybe it's something from when we were very primitive people. this is of course NOT saying that it's RIGHT or the "proper" thing to do,, so please don't attack me, before you think about what i'm saying. it's probably something we should have evolved away from a LONG time ago, but haven't yet (much like rape). and of COURSE most of us have stress beyond belief but don't go around killing our kids or other people. i just think it may be a built-in genetic thing, that if you are not able to mentally handle raising your offspring, that perhaps the human subconscious is wired to do away with them, to control the number of hungry or orphaned members of our society who are competing for resources. or--- to not pass on those genes (the gene of a person who can't handle stress). perhaps this is why so many men who are having a hard time providing for their families, just lose it and kill themselves, their wives & kids.
so sad, but i'm just trying to understand what might trigger it.
but anyway~ we're definitely talking about a sickness here.
then again, you could say that a perfectly lucid, non-hallucinating, abusive, irresponsible parent who killed their kids for insurance money is sick too-- in a different way... i guess nowadays they call that "sociopathic disorder".
but for andrea yates, with all the talk of demons and delusions/hallucinations-- there was definitely something chemical going on there.
and it's too bad, she even tried to warn her husband several times that she was afraid she'd hurt her own kids (a classic sign of postpartum depression-- and in a way, a form of suicide-- genetic suicide??)
but the poor guy, i think, in his naivete, honestly hoped she was getting better and they could go back to creating this big happy family they both wanted-- well, i think she wanted it too, up to a point. maybe they were one of those anti-birth control couples who say "we'll take as many kids as god wants to give us"....? another mistake, in their situation.
but they did seem like a happy family that was content in little things, and those kids seemed so sweet and innocent and they seemed to all love each other. if only.... they could have hired a nanny to help, and to make sure the kids were safe.
or something,, something...................?
